Defining Eastern Europe

This book offers a linguistic-semantic analysis of the expression Eastern Europe in international English-language media discourse and academic discourse. Interdisciplinary in nature, it provides insights beyond semantics and lexicology, commenting on the politics, history, economy and culture of the region. Its thorough analysis of Eastern Europe as a linguistic entity, surrounded and affected by other linguistic entities, allows for a systematic description of the terms linguistic behaviour in specialist written discourse. The author measures the quantity and quality of Eastern Europe in specialist discourse, painting a holistic picture of how it appears in English-language quality texts published in the last twenty-five years. This book will appeal to students and scholars of cognitive linguistics, semantics, lexicology and lexicography, and to specialists working on history, political theory and international relations as they relate to Eastern Europe.