The role of language in European nationalist ideologies

Abstract

The role of language in national & cultural identity is investigated in a pilot study of nationalist ideologies based on pragmatic analysis of implicit assumptions in news reports & editorials from selected German, British, French, Belgian, & Dutch newspapers. In this database, language is treated as one of a cluster of features marking the national identity of various foreign polities (rarely the home country of the newspaper). It is argued that a homogeneous society is tacitly assumed as an ideal in discourse on ethnic conflict; definitions of homogeneity are shown to vary from country to country, German sources stressing ethnicity & French sources, territoriality. A primitive view of politics & society, in which the reality of nations is unquestioned, is implicit in the use of cultural & linguistic unity as proof of nationhood. 8 References. J. Hitchcock