Voices from the Fringes. A Discourse Analysis of Nicola Sturgeon’s Speech on Scotland’s Place in the World

Abstract

This chapter aims to present a discourse analysis of the First Minister’s speech. Language is not merely supposed to be a means of communicating information, but also a tool for compelling conclusions, establishing or denying claims: “Discourse analysis sees texts as sites in which social meanings are formed and reproduced, social identities are shaped and social facts are established”, while discourse alone “is a systematic ordering of language which involves rules, terminology and conventions. They shape specific ways of speaking and understanding. It is a group of statements which provide a language as a way for representing a particular kind of knowledge about a topic. […] Critical discourse analysis is concerned with the social and political context of discourse, based on the view that language is not only conditioned by these contexts, but itself helps constitute them.”

British identity can very well be defined by analysing the way Scotland promotes its international image. In her speech, Nicola Sturgeon addresses topics like immigration, climate change, Brexit and Scottish independence, offering a full and complex picture of her nation’s state of affairs, as to give Scots a voice through her own.