Modality, Persuasion and Manipulation in Imran Khan’s Autobiography Pakistan-A Personal History: A Critical Discourse Analysis

Abstract

This socio-political paradigm-based research attempts to analyze the ideological meanings of language and its purpose-oriented usage in Imran Khan’s autobiography Pakistan: A Personal History. For this purpose, the article examines how political leader and former cricketer Imran Khan sees Pakistan and convinces the common populace through the use of specific discourse in his autobiography. The study, while focusing on critical discourse analysis, further highlights the possibility of how writers can persuade their readers through the use of linguistic devices and how their choice of words influences the readers’ minds. Since language fabricates ideologies and CDA’s agenda is to exhibit these ideologies to create social reform, the analysis is done through CDA (Critical Discourse Analysis), and the feature of modality is discussed under Fowler’s modal. Modality, as a linguistic device, possesses several forms such as modal verbs, modal auxiliaries, modal adverbs, and modal adjectives. The researcher applies Fowler’s categories of modality to analyze modal auxiliaries in the autobiography of Khan. The study is significant since it reveals how the author attempts to persuade the readers’ minds. The findings of the study reveal a contrast in the ideological stance of both the intended and perceptive meanings of the text.