Intergroup conflict: The discursive battle over Quebec independence

An investigation of the 1995 Quebec referendum on political independence wa s undertaken to discover the manner in which sovereignists (proponents of Q uebec independence) and federalists (proponents of a united Canada) discurs ively constructed both their preferred version of the conflict over Quebec independence and group identity. A discourse analysis revealed several ling uistic features, such as lexical style and metaphor that contributed to the se constructions. Sovereignists, on the one hand presented a unified positi on of sovereignty and portrayed the Canadian state as an imperialistic regi me aggressing against Quebec and its people. Federalists, on the other hand , typically drew on negative expressions to denote independence, such as se paration and breakup, and constructed sovereignists as dishonest. Results a re discussed in terms of the constructive aspects of the message and the in terrelatedness of the sovereignist and federalist narratives.