Building a theoretical model for the linguistic study of European identity in German Parliamentary debates

European identity has become a very important issue within the last year, but even before the “exceptional” situation due to the current pandemic, e.g. in the latest European elections (cf. the emergence of – at least at the beginning – Euro-critical actors, such as the Italian Lega Nord and Movimento 5 Stelle or the German Alternative für Deutschland), it was clear that this was a very controversial concept. Most of the studies already carried out about the European identity consider it mainly from a sociological or politological point of view. The main objective of my PhD project would be to investigate it from a linguistic perspective, that is looking at the linguistic strategies through which the European identity is favoured or opposed. As to the corpus, I would like to take into consideration German plenary parliamentary debates (Bundestagsdebatten) that took place between 1989 and 2019, particularly the ones close to (ordinary) European parliamentary elections. Various linguistic theories could prove fruitful for such an analysis: the purpose of my talk is therefore to explore some of the available methodological approaches and to try and define a new one, that could be used in my project. My hypothesis is that a politolinguistic approach (cf. Niehr 2014), which takes lexis, metaphors and argumentation into account, should represent the basis of the analysis. Considering Diehr’s (2019) theoretical reflections about the construction of German national identity in the migration discourse, the politolinguistic approach should then be complemented through the DIMEAN model (cf. Spitzmüller/Warnke 2011), that is a multilayer-model, which includes the analysis of the intratextual and the transtextual level of discourse as well as the actors involved. To complete the picture, a reference to “frames” (and therefore to the cognitive linguistic approach) will be necessary. The presentation of the final (provisional) model will be finally applied to some sample texts, in order to verify its applicability. The hope is that the so-developed methodology could be used as a starting point also for other linguistic investigations dealing with collective identities. Cited references: Diehr, Anne (2019): „Wir sind geschafft“. Zur sprachlichen Konstruktion kollektiver Identität(en) im Rahmen der Flüchtlingsthematik. In: Schiewe, Jürgen / Niehr, Thomas / Moraldo, Sandro M. (Hgg.): Sprach(kritik)kompetenz als Mittel demokratischer Willensbildung. Bremen, S. 133-150. Niehr, Thomas (2014), Einführung in die linguistische Diskursanalyse. Darmstadt. Spitzmüller, Jürgen / Warnke, Ingo H. (2011): Diskurslinguistik. Eine Einführung in Theorien und Methoden der transtextuellen Sprachanalyse. Berlin / Boston.