6 - A Multifaceted and Formulaic Identity

Summary

In Chapter 2, it was suggested that there is no one Scottish identity but rather that it is a shifting, dynamic and multifaceted phenomenon and that national identity is likely to be mediated by local and class identities. This chapter investigates whether this hypothesis is supported by the data by looking for evidence of regional/local (Edinburgh/Glasgow) and class (tabloid/broadsheet) identities in the newspaper corpus. Chapter 2 also underlined the significance of the symbolic as well as the communicative function of language and argued that language could function as a cultural totem or signifier. For totems to be effective, they must be visible and recognisable as such. Thus they depend on the familiar: shared knowledge and cultural mores, the formulaic and the stereotypical. Discussion in Chapter 2 suggested that historicity and heritage were important facets in national identities, and stressed the vertical (historical) as well as horizontal (contemporaneous) axis. The present chapter investigates the extent to which this vertical axis can be identified in the newspapers' use of formulaic features. Formulaic language and Scottish stereotypes offer familiar and reliable ways of invoking a sense of Scottishness and so this chapter also deals with the quotations, allusions, proverbs and sayings, idioms and other fixed expressions and recurring collocations that were noted in the newspaper texts. It considers the potential sources for these and asks what their significance is in the newspapers' construction and maintenance of a Scottish identity.