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Article published In:
Anglo-German Discourse Crossings and Contrasts
Edited by Sylvia Jaworska and Torsten Leuschner
[Pragmatics and Society 9:1] 2018
► pp. 52–74

Conflicts in comparison

Scottish and German discursive perspectives on the Scottish independence referendum

| University of Heidelberg
In a globalised world, national discourses are also perceived and commented on in other countries and languages. This paper focuses on newspaper coverage of the 2014 Scottish independence referendum in both Scotland and Germany, comparing two print media corpora in two languages. The linguistic depiction of the arguments and conflicts in Scottish newspapers is compared to the discussion of Scottish independence in German newspapers. In order to find conflictive ‘hotspots’ in both corpora, adversative and concessive connectors of both languages are taken as a starting point for a comparative conflict-oriented discourse analysis in seven steps. Differences and similarities of the most important conflicting concepts as well as the role of stereotypes and language difference are then compared and discussed.
Keywords: linguistic discourse analysis, comparative discourse analysis, concessive/adversative connectives, agonality, qualitative and quantitative methods, conflict analysis, discourse grammar, media discourse
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
  • 3.The corpora
  • 4.The method
  • 5.Analysis 1: The Scottish debate
  • 6.Analysis 2: The German depiction
  • 7.National stereotypes
  • 8.Comparison and conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
  • The following articles from the corpora were quoted directly
Published online: 26 March 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ps.16023.mat
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