The Use of Personal Pronouns in Imran Khan’s Political Speeches: A Corpus-Based Study

Abstract

One of the most powerful ways for leaders to affect public opinion, build political identities, and connect with audiences is through political speeches. In the rhetoric of such discourse, personal pronouns are among the linguistic instruments that have a decisive impact on formulations and correspond to rhetorical purposes. A Corpus-based Analysis of the Usage of Personal Pronouns in the Speeches of Imran Khan, the Ex-Prime Minister of Pakistan. There are three main aims underpinning the research of this study: to find out the most used personal pronouns including I, we, they in the selected corpus of the speeches by Imran Khan, to analyse the lexical clusters of regarding their use, and the analysis of their referents and role in the construction of political narratives. Using quantitative methods, this study explicates how pronouns facilitate collective identity, define opposition, and emphasize individual leadership within the context of another country. The discovery reveals how personal pronouns influence political rhetoric, showing how language gets weaponized in political discourse to manipulate specific audiences and shift their ideologies. This research also informs the fields of political linguistics and discourse analysis, offering a lens to study the intersectionality of language, power and ideology in political leader rhetoric.