A corpus-assisted study of British newspaper discourse on the European Union and a potential membership referendum

Glaas, Sharon Lesley (2016). A corpus-assisted study of British newspaper discourse on the European Union and a potential membership referendum. University of Birmingham. M.A.

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Abstract

This thesis reports a Corpus-Assisted study of British newspaper discourse on the European Union in light of the forthcoming membership referendum, focussing on the discursive construal of British and European identity, representation of social actors and evaluation of the EU, in a corpus of articles from a variety of national newspapers. The thesis offers a theoretical and methodological review of scholarship in the fields of Discourse Analysis and Corpus Linguistics arguing that a combination of quantitative and qualitative techniques is productive. Further, consideration of what is absent from a corpus is shown to enhance interpretation. The thesis argues that notions of national identity represent a significant barrier to • development of a supra-national EU identity and that this is perpetuated through the construal of the EU as 'other' in quasi-national terms with characteristics drawn from French and German stereotypes. Additionally, backgrounding of EU institutions and practices, combined with almost total absence of reference to EU citizens and a focus on the discourse of conflict, conspires to ensure negative evaluation of the EU even in publications supportive of membership. Further, it is argued that dichotomised notions of Eurosceptics and Europhiles do not sufficiently convey the complexity of sentiment apparent in the discourse.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Masters by Research > M.A.)

Award Type:

Masters by Research > M.A.

Supervisor(s):