Strategic Role of Pronominal Choices in Political Discourse: A Critical Analysis of Benazir Bhutto’s Daughter of the East

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Dr. Muhammad Akbar Khan, Safa Mir, Muhammad Ramzan

Abstract

Political discourse is often replete with various linguistic choices or devices which play different
roles mainly that of the sustenance and rationalization of one’s role and stance. These linguistic
choices also help the authors or speakers, strategically, to intricate and obscure things and
matters in their own favour. In this paper, an exploration of the role of pronominal choices is
made in the backdrop of their nature as strategic tool in political discourse to unearth the hidden
agenda of the author. A critical reading of Ms. Benazir Bhutto’s political autobiography named
“Daughter of the East (2008)” is undertaken under the umbrella of critical discourse analysis
generally and the ideas of Simpson and Mayor (2010) specifically. The special concern remained
on the usage of personal pronounsonly by the author in the aforementioned discourse. After a
critical analysis, as outlined by the prominent figures in critical discourse analysis, it has been
found that pronominal choices play prominent role as strategic tool for the justification of the
author’s (a civilian politician) role by showing and highlighting its positive side and obfuscating
and mystifying the negative one in the context of dictatorially governed country. This
phenomenon can also be discerned in other discourses too where the standpoint of the author is
to show his/her positive picture and rationalize the policies and stances adopted in controversial
and polemic issues.

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