Discursive construction of national identity in the German language New Year’s address

Abstract

In modern studies, the identification and analysis of linguistic methods of constructing national identity in various types of discourses, as well as the representation of value constants in linguistic culture, is of particular relevance. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to identify national value dominants and their linguistic representation in the New Year addresses of Austrian, German and Swiss politicians. The material of the study was examples from New Year’s addresses of politicians from the countries of the German-speaking space (Austria, Germany, Switzerland). More than 2000 lexical units representing value dominants in each of the German-speaking linguacultural were analyzed by the method of continuous sampling. Analysis of the specifics of the components of New Year’s address as one of the genres of political discourse made it possible to identify linguacultural dominants that characterize the citizens of a particular state, their views and mores. The authors of the article include nominations, the opposition “we – they“, historical narrative, territorial and cultural associations, and the functional capabilities of the socio-political sphere. Identification and analysis of linguistic representation of value dominants in the New Year messages of the Federal Chancellor of Germany and Federal Presidents of Austria and Switzerland in the periods 2009-2010, 2014-2015 and 2018-2019. Allowed to establish that the main value constants in the speeches of the German Chancellor are Germany, social sector, Europe. Important value constants for Austrian culture are Europe, Austria, social sector and economy. The absolute value dominant in the New Year messages of the Federal Presidents of Switzerland is the Switzerland constant, which is the foundation of the Swiss national identity. Other important dominants are Switzerland and the world, democracy, globalization, youth, social area. The authors conclude that the process of constructing the identity of an entire nation is conditioned by social, political and economic processes in the state.

Keywords

• discourse
• construction
• constant
• values
• german-speaking space
• linguistic culture