POLITICIZING POWER, POLITICS AND IDEOLOGY: A POLITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS (PDA) OF PAKISTANI POLITICAL PARTIES’ SLOGANS

Abstract

In the study of political discourses, the relationship between language and ideology (ies) construction has always remained an area of interest. In this context, the persuasive use of political slogans by political parties upholds a substantial significance in the construction of ideologies and power relations in the socio-political setting of democratic states. The current research aims to unravel the diplomatic and political use of slogans by popular Pakistani Political Parties to persuade and influence their voters to vote for them. By employing Van Dijik’s model of PDA (Political Discourse Analysis), the researchers analyzed the political slogans used by four major Pakistani Political Parties from rhetorical perspective. The syntactic and lexical construction of these slogans carries implied meanings that have an influential effect on the mindset of the masses. The findings reveal that the marked structural choices made by these political slogans are not arbitrary but loaded with underlying embedded ideologies that have strong impact on the way people think and behave in society. Moreover, ideological biases are linguistically connected in the political slogans as they tend to construct reality in a way congruent with their ideological and political objectives.