Open AccessTHE DISCURSIVE FORMULATION OF BREXIT: DECISION, OPPORTUNITY AND NEEDFUL AGREEMENT
Author(s) -
Sadiq Almaged
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
discourse and interaction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.153
H-Index - 4
eISSN - 1805-952X
pISSN - 1802-9930
DOI - 10.5817/di2021-1-5
Subject(s) - brexit , referendum , prime minister , representation (politics) , ideology , european union , political science , politics , linguistics , prime (order theory) , political economy , critical discourse analysis , rhetoric , law , sociology , economics , international trade , philosophy , mathematics , combinatorics
This study sets out to examine the British Prime Minister Theresa May’s speeches delivered through her premiership. It aims to unveil the ideological discursive formation of Brexit after the referendum, and to investigate the way May squares the rhetoric to persuade the general public and the British/European political Elites to deliver the Brexit deal, though she campaigned pro-European Britain. I conduct a corpus-assisted discourse study approach, using discourse analysis methods and corpus linguistics tools for a case study of a purpose-built corpus of the Prime Minister speeches (2016-2019). The analysis revealed that the Brexit representation eschewed any identifi cation with ‘Europe’ and boosted Eurosceptic sentiments by (1) rationalizing the decision to leave the European Union; (2) proposing a better future after Brexit; (3) appealing to the British people’s emotion to support the Brexit deal.