Metaphor and Ideology: Analyzing Speeches of Pakistani Political Leaders

Abstract

Metaphor as a linguistic device is widely used in language allowing complex and abstract ideas to be generated and comprehended easily. Metaphors are persuasive in nature as they form conceptual frameworks thus creating new ideas that help in building and altering perception of the audience. It is for this reason that metaphors are an inherent feature of political discourse generated by politicians all across the globe. Study of metaphor in political context reveals patterns of thoughts, ideas and beliefs of the politicians, thus serving as a linguistic device that helps build, change and propagate ideologies. This research aims to study how linguistic metaphors are structured in cognition and discourse in the Pakistani political context in both Urdu and English l to reveal ideology that is linked to social practices. To analyze the metaphorical expressions in the political discourse in the Pakistani context, this research qualitatively analyzes political speeches of seven politicians that include Imran Khan, Benazir Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif, Asif Zardari, Pervez Musharraf, Altaf Hussain and Fazlur Rahman. The analysis comprises three steps including; identification where data is identified and presented according to the source domains they draw information from to map on target domains; interpretation where semantic and pragmatic aspects are discussed; explanation where conceptual metaphors are generated to provide the cognitive aspect of metaphors. The study also present similarities and differences between the conceptual metaphors activated by different politicians and provides comparison between Urdu and English data of individual politicians in terms of conceptual similarity. The underlying framework provides an insight into the ideology of the speaker that helps link language with political practices. The data is further explored to generate political myths for all the selected politicians to reveal deeper insights into their cognitive process. The different types of metaphors used show how political concepts in the Pakistani context are built and how language is structured to persuade audience. It also helps in revealing the manner in which politicians build their personal identities by presenting their moral, religious and ethical motivations; political identities by providing comparisons with their contemporaries; and party stance by building arguments to legitimize policies.