ABSTRACT
This chapter employs a critical discourse analysis approach in examining the similarities and differences between elite instantiations of national identity and those that manifest in the discourse and opinions of the wider public. Discourse analysis is a broad field that constitutes various theoretical and methodological approaches that make use of linguistic, anthropological, sociological, psychological and philosophical analyses. Through macro-discursive strategies and micro-level linguistic analysis, they demonstrate how language plays a critical role in the formation and expression of national identity. Specifically, they explain how the language used by Lee persuades Singaporeans to adopt a certain imagining of nationhood under trying circumstances, particularly in the period after the global economic crisis of 2008 and in the context of the increasing disgruntlement among locals towards the influx of foreigners in the country. The chapter explores the discursive constructions of national identity by the Malay community.
