A Bridge over Troubled Water? A Corpus-Assisted Critical Discourse Analysis of Brexit Negotiations between the UK Department for Exiting the European Union and the European Commission

The focus of this chapter is the thorny issue of Brexit negotiations. The study compares the discourse of the UK Department for Exiting the EU and of the European Commission to investigate the construction of separate British and EU identities. Combining Corpus Studies and CDA, the study analyses the inclusive/exclusive use of 'our' and the lexicon referring to the withdrawal. It highlights the UK’s opportunistic attempt to maintain friendly relationships, while stressing the national exceptionalism and forecasting a new prosperous global Britain, and the EU’s wish for a mediated separation, combined with a firm defence of the Union’s interests and autonomy after the ‘betrayal.’