Author： Del Percio Alfonso
Publisher： John Benjamins Publishing Company
E-ISSN： 1878-9722|7|1|82-103
ISSN： 1878-9714
Source： Pragmatics and Society, Vol.7, Iss.1, 2016-01, pp. : 82-103
Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.
Abstract
This paper discusses how Switzerland is branded by the Swiss state under late capitalism. Drawing on discursive data collected in the framework of a research project investigating the international promotion of Switzerland, I particularly focus on how multilingualism and cultural diversity are constructed by the Swiss government as a capital belonging to Switzerland and its history and on how and why this imagined historical capital is reframed in promotional terms. In doing so, I question the function of the historicity of Swiss multilingualism and cultural diversity in nation branding practices and analyze the logics causing specific tokens of multilingualism and cultural diversity to emerge as desirable promotional features. Finally, I research how the promotional investment in Swiss multilingualism and cultural diversity affects the status and value of its historical capital and how this has consequences for what can be said (or not) about Switzerland and its history.
Related content
Iconisation, attribution and branding in orthography
By Sebba Mark
Written Language & Literacy, Vol. 18, Iss. 2, 2015-01 ,pp. :
Access to resources
Recommend
English World-Wide. A Journal of Varieties of English, Vol. 18, Iss. 1, 1997-01 ,pp. :
By Teo Chin Soon Peter Ruiguo Cui
Journal of Language and Politics, Vol. 14, Iss. 5, 2015-01 ,pp. :