Britain’s Striving for Greatness: Its Reflection in Language and Politics
Britain’s Striving for Greatness: Its Reflection in Language and Politics

Summary/Abstract: This paper is an interdisciplinary study of British political discourse. It attempts to examine how British greatness emerged and developed over the centuries. Changes in the official use of British terminology are highlighted as a reflection of dwindling historical greatness: the British Empire > The British Commonwealth (1931); The British Commonwealth > The Commonwealth (1949); Great Britain > Britain (UK for short). The idea of British greatness flourished during the Brexit period (2016–2020). Special attention is paid to stylistic changes in Brexit discourses, reflecting political events and developments. My analysis discloses the role of frequent creative use of phraseological units, e. g., a leap in the dark, to eat one’s cake and have it, to kick the can down the road etc. It offers insight into sustained creative use of metaphor as a reflection of painful and tortuous processes. I rely on findings of cognitive linguistics on thought and language [Gibbs 1999: 16–23]. This paper aims to explore the notion of British greatness, its origin and development over centuries, and the role it has played in Brexit-related events and processes. The study focuses on the interplay of history, politics and language, illustrating how figurative expressions are ingrained in a nation’s cultural fabric and linguistic landscape.

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