“The ‘Indians’ of New Holland and the Naming Process in English in the Age of Captain Cook”

The paper dwells on the European representation of the Australian Aborigines. Through a sociolinguistic analysis of texts produced in the age of Captain Cook, it focuses on how the naming of individuals and of communities works as a marker of the ideological discourse underlying the process of conquest and appropriation. The paper focuses on how the naming process in English enforced British cultural values and traditions on the new colony, favouring the gradual dissolution of the aboriginal cultural and linguistic milieu.