Construal Operations: An Analysis of the Political Discourse regarding COVID-19

Women are underrepresented in high positions in many fields. Taking the example of politics, this unequal social representation may have an impact on the discourses of the relevant sexes in choosing a specific discourse type as an effect of power. The COVID-19 pandemic required political leaders to communicate to their nations directly through official speeches to make them conversant about the day-to-day varying situation. The speeches of the leaders during the catastrophe may reveal their manifested gender. The aim of the research is to explore how they position or are positioned as leaders in the conventions of the political discourse differently. The research takes on Fairclough’s (2015) notion of power behind discourse to explore the dynamic relationship of power, discourse and gender. As far as methodological framework is concerned, cognitive linguistic-critical discourse analysis is employed to analyze the qualitative data which includes political speeches of different leaders. The data analysis reveals that male leaders do not change their conventional discourse pattern. It is the females who keep on changing linguistic techniques to communicate effectively keeping in view the demand of the situation. The implication of the study is that the reader will be assisted in examining how language that deviates from known and customary patterns can build new ways of reality. The study's considerable focus is on the discursive construction of gender representation in political discourse which will help understand that language is a rich resource to develop and shape their unique identities