National identity: Conceptual models, discourses and political change
‘Britishness’ in a social cognitive linguistics
Peter Harder | Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies, University of Copenhagen
Cognitive Linguistics has demonstrated the applicability of a conceptual approach to the understanding of political issues, cf. Lakoff (2008) and many others. From a different perspective, critical discourse analysis has approached political concepts with a focus on issues involving potentially divisive features such as race, class, gender and ethnic identity. Although discourses are not identical to conceptual models, conceptual models are typically manifested in discourse, and discourses are typically reflections of conceptualizations, a theme explored e.g. in Hart and Lukes (2007). As argued in Harder (2010), however, both the analytic stance of critical discourse analysis (based on the hermeneutics of suspicion), and the cognitivist stance of Lakoff (2008) are too narrow: The understanding of political language requires a wider framework of social cognitive linguistics. Essential features of such a framework are a basis in collaborative intersubjectivity and the inclusion of causal factors in the social domain that impinge on conceptualization. This enables politically salient conceptualizations to be understood in the light of different types of input to conceptualization, rather than solely in terms of conceptual models or discourses. This is especially important in cases that involve conflictive political issues such as national and ethnic identity. The article reports on a historical project with a linguistic dimension in my department (PI Stuart Ward, cf. Ward 2004), which aims to throw light on the interplay between conceptual, geopolitical and social factors in shaping the ongoing change in the role and nature of ‘Britishness’. A key question for this article is: What are relations between conceptual models and macro-social, causal factors in shaping the intersubjective status of Britishness?
References (57)
Anderson, Benedict
(
2006) [1983]
Imagined communities. Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism, Revised Edition. London: Verso.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ashton, S.R, Dridge, C., & Ward, S
(Eds.) (
2010)
Australia and the United Kingdom 1960-1975. Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and trade.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Baudet, T
(
2012)
The significance of borders. Boston and Leiden: Brill.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Belich, J
(
2009)
Replenishing the Earth: The settler revolution and the rise of the anglo-world, 1783-1939. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Berlin, B., & Kay, P
(
1969)
Basic Color Terms: their Universality and Evolution. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Blaxill, L
(
2013)
Quantifying the language of British politics, 1880–1910.
Historical Research, 86(232), 313–341.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Brubaker, R., & Cooper, F
(
2000)
Beyond “identity”.
Theory and Society, 291, 1–47.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Champion, C.P
2010 The strange demise of British Canada. The Liberals and Canadian Nationalism, 1964-1968. Montreal etc: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Clark, H.H
(
1996)
Using language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Colley, L
(
1992)
Britishness and otherness: An argument.
Journal of British Studies,
October.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Condor, S
(
1996)
Unimagined community? Some social psychological issues concerning English National Identity. In
G.M. Breakwell &
E. Lyons (Eds.),
Changing European identities: Social psychological analyses of social change (pp. 41–67). Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Croft, W.A
(
2000)
Explaining language change. An evolutionary approach. London: Longman.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Curran, J., & Ward, S
(
2010)
The unknown nation: Remaking Australia in the wake of empire. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Damasio, A
(
1994)
Descartes’ error. New York: Putnam’s Sons.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Diamond, J
(
2012)
The world until yesterday. What can we learn from traditional societies? London: Allan Lane
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Durkheim, É
(
1897)
Le suicide, étude de sociologie, 8th edition 1974 Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. Also Retrievable at
[URL]![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Eagleton, T
(
2013)
Across the pond. An Englishman’s view of America. New York: W.W.Norton.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Eriksen, J-M., & Stjernfelt, F
2012 The democratic contradictions of multiculturalism. New York: Telos.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Foucault, Michel
(
1969)
L’archéologie du savoir. [1989: English translation by A.M. Sheridan Smith]. The Archaeology of Knowledge. London: Routledge.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Foucault, M
(
1975)
Surveiller et punir. Naissance de la prison. Paris: Gallimard.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Geeraerts, D
(
2003)
Cultural models of linguistic standardization. In
R. Dirven,
R. Frank &
M. Pütz (Eds.),
Cognitive models in language and thought. Ideology, metaphors and meanings (pp. 25–68). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gramsci, A
(
1971)
Selections from the prison notebooks of Antonio Gramsci, edited and translated by
Quintin Hoare and
Geoffrey Nowell Smith. London : Lawrence and Wishart.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Harder, P
(
2003)
The status of linguistic facts. Rethinking the relation between cognition, social institution and utterance from a functional point of view.
Mind and Language, 18(1), 52–76
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Harder, P
(
2010)
Meaning in mind and society. A functional contribution to the social turn in cognitive linguistics. [
Cognitive Linguistics Research 41]. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
House, J., & Thompson, A
2013 Decolonisation, space and power: Immigration, welfare and housing in Britain and France, (1945-1974), chapter 10. In
A. Thompson (ED.),
Writing Imperial Histories (pp. 357–398). Manchester University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Keaton, T.D
(
1999)
Muslim girls and the ’Other France’: An examination of identity construction.
Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture, 5(1), 47–64.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Keller, R
(
1990)
Sprachwandel. Von der unsichtbaren Hand in der Sprache. Tübingen: Franck.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lakoff, G
(
1987)
Women, fire and dangerous things. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lakoff, G
(
1993).
The contemporary theory of metaphor. In
A. Ortony (Ed.),
Metaphor and thought (pp. 202–251). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lakoff, G
(
1996)
Moral politics. What conservatives know that liberals don’t. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lakoff, G
(
2004)
Don’t think of an elephant! Know your values and frame the debate. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lakoff, G
(
2006)
Whose Freedom? The Battle over America’s Most Important Idea. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lakoff, G
(
2008)
The Political Mind. Why You Can’t Understand 21st-Century American Politics with an 18th-Century Brain. London: Viking.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
L’Hôte, É
(
2012)
Breaking up Britain? Métaphores et discours sur la dévolution au Royaume-Uni. In
J. Perrez &
M. Reuchamps (Eds.),
Les relations communautaires en Belgique: Approches politiques et linguistiques (pp. 161–189). Louvain-la-Neuve: L’Harmattan/Academia.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lowry, D
(
2010)
Rhodesia 1890-1980. The lost dominion. In
D. Lowry &
R. Bickers (Eds.),
Settlers and expatriates, (pp. 112–149). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Maalej, Z.A
(
2013)
Review of Christopher Hart (ed.)
Critical discourse studies in context and cognition. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Cognitive Linguistics, 24(2), 385–392.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Mitterauer, M., & Sieder, R
(
1982)
The European family: Patriarchy to partnership from the middle ages to the present. Oxford: Blackwell.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nielsen, J. Ø
(
2012)
‘The Implosion of empire’ and Scottish nationalism. Master’s thesis, University of Copenhagen.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nielsen, J. Ø
(
2013)
The emergence of the concept of ‘decolonization’ in British parliamentary debate. MS., University of Copenhagen.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Nielsen, J. Ø., & Ward, S
Forthcoming.
‘Cramped and restricted at home’. Scottish separatism at empire’s end. MS., University of Copenhagen.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
Paxman, J
(
1999)
The English. A portrait of a people. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Perrez, J., & Reuchamps, M
(
2013)
A serious LAT relationship or a crazy machine? Metaphors in citizens’ perception of Belgian federalism. MS., University of Liege (ULg, Belgium) and Université catholique de Louvain (UCL, Belgium).
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Reynolds, D
(
1995)
Rich relations. The American occupation of Britain 1942-45. London: HarperCollins Publishers.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Richerson, P.J., & Boyd, R
(
2005)
Not by genes alone. How culture transformed human evolution. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ricoeur, P
(
1970)
Freud and philosophy: An essay on interpretation. New Haven: Yale University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Rosch, E
(
1975)
Cognitive representation of semantic categories.
Journal of Experimental Psychology, 1041, 573–605.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Seeley, J.R
(
1883)
The expansion of England, 1971 Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sperber, D., & Wilson, D
(
1986/1995)
Relevance: communication and cognition. Oxford: Blackwell.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tomasello, M
(
1999)
The cultural origins of human cognition. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Tomasello, M
(
2008)
Origins of human communication. Cambridge, MA: MIT press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ward, S
(Ed.) (
2001)
British culture and the end of empire. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ward, S
(
2004)
The end of empire and the fate of Britishness. In
H. Brocklehurst &
R. Phillips (Eds.),
History, nationhood and the question of Britain (pp. 242–258). London: Palgrave/Macmillan.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ward, S
(
2008)
Imperial identities abroad. In
S. Stockwell (Ed.),
The British empire. Themes and perspectives (pp. 219–243). Oxford: Blackwell.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Whelan, J
(
2007)
Essentialist beliefs about national identity: The role of national symbolism. Ph.D. thesis, University of Melbourne.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wodak, R., de Cilia, R., Reisigl, M., & Liebhart, K
(
2009)
The discursive construction of national identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (1)
Cited by 1 other publications
Stanojević, Mateusz-Milan & Ljiljana Šarić
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 1 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.