A SPEECH ACT ANALYSIS OF THE PRIME MINISTER OF PAKISTAN IMRAN KHAN’S SPEECH AT UNGA WITH RESPECT TO ISLAMOPHOBIA

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to highlight the speech acts with respect to Islamophobia discussed by Prime Minister Imran Khan in his speech which he delivered to the United Nations General Assembly on 27, September 2019. This paper analyzed the types of speech acts that were used by Imran Khan, the overlapping of speech acts, and direct and indirect speech acts. To analyze the speech acts from all these aspects, both qualitative and quantitative analysis was carried out. The framework employed for this analysis was the Speech Act theory which was introduced by Austin and Searle. The findings revealed that his speech includes maximum representative and expressive acts while the use of direct speech was also evident. The paper concludes that the speech act analysis highlights the factual, informative, and supportive nature of the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Keywords: Imran Khan, speech at UGNA, Speech acts of Imran Khan, Illocutionary Acts, Speech Act Analysis, Direct Speech Acts, Indirect Speech Acts, etc.