Use of Slang Language in Imran Khan's Political Speeches

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to find out the slang expressions that are used in the path of political speeches of former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan, who has been the Prime Minister from August 18, 2018 to April 10, 2022. The study was based on the qualitative method where the researchers aim to discover and detect Imran Khan's informal impressions taken from his political speeches. There are two types of language expression; one is standard language expression and other is non-standard language expression and non-standard language is also known as slang language expression. To fulfill the objectives of the present study, the research collected data from Imran Khan's political speeches. The data was examined through the theory of Allan and Burridge (2006), which divides slang expressions into 5 types. They are fresh and creative, 2) flippant, 3) imitative, 4) acronyms, and 5) clipping. The results showed that there were many slang words that are totally inappropriate in public, but were still used by him. Among them, the most used words are fresh and flippant types.