Multidimensionality of “Europäische Identität” Notion in German Mass Media

Abstract

This paper uses communicative-pragmatic analysis and a corpus-based method to investigate multidimensional axiological interpretation of Europäische Identität notion as a unifying political concept. The study focuses on European identity discourse as presented in German mass media. The study shows strategic relevance of the concept and its unifying potential both within the EU framework, and in wider European domain. The analysis reveals that primary and secondary collocators actualized with the notion convey both the topicality and inconsistency of the concept. Moreover, the results show that identity and personal / collective self-determination discourse is characterized by polemic nature and various evaluations that predominantly feature the tactics of doubt and mistrust to the unifying potential of European identity concept.