Talking about Brexit - voices from before and after the referendum

The edited volume ‘Discourses of Brexit’ consists of 13 studies dealing with the language used in connection with Brexit. That is, it contains studies that assesses politicians’, the media’s but also ordinary citizens’ language use from before the 2016 referendum on the UK’s EU membership to after the UK’s invocation of article 50 in 2017. Drawing on a variety of data and using various methods of linguistic and textual analysis allows a holistic understanding of various views on Brexit, the European Union and related matters. One of the key findings reflected across party lines is that the UK is discussed as separate from the EU, with the Union described as rather deficient. What is more, policy makers’ and news media’s linguistic framing of Brexit, the EU and the UK’s relationship with the Union are echoed by Leave voters, which suggests a likely influence on the referendum outcome.