Categorización de los hidrantes

Figure 5 below is a semantic map of selected keywords relating to Europe and the EU.

These relationships are slightly different than for Germany. First of all, Europe is a continent and not a state. The EU can be seen as an attempt to institutionalize the idea of Europe, but the denotative scope of the word “Europe” still as of now extends beyond the limits of the term “EU”. Southern Europe which is also mentioned in the corpus is a part of Europe in the geographic sense, but also has cultural connotations.

The Commission is the executive organ of the EU, and Brussels is both the capital of EU as well as the Commission headquarters. Brussels is a same kind of metonymic index for the EU and the Commission as Berlin is for Germany. In the corpus, synonymous expressions used for the Commission are EU-Behörde (EU agency) and Brüsseler Behörde (Brussels agency).

The Monetary Union is a part of EU, both in the geographic and legal sense. The near synonym Eurozone has more geographical connotations. Euro states are also member states of the EU but not necessarily vice versa.

Figure 6. Semantic map of Europe and EU related keywords

Table 9. Europe and EU related keywords

Table 10. Member states

The above tables show the frequencies of words related to the EU and Europe. The EU and its executive organ, the EU Commission (also the referent of the words EU-Behörde, “EU agency,” and Brüsseler EU-Behörde, “the Brussels agency”) are predominantly occupying the Agent role, which means that they have an active role in the corpus. The Locative is also a common role for the EU, which can signify that something resides or takes place either within the organization or the area of the EU.

Semantic Roles (n / %)

For the EU, the Possessor role is the third most common role, and for the EU Commission the Carrier is the second most common role. The Possessor role of the EU is typically realized through constructs such as “Crisis of the EU”, “The core of the EU”

or “the essence of the EU”. In the case of the Commission, the Carrier role is realized through expressions like “the Commission is too weak to…” or “is the Commission […] really ready…” The Commission also has the Experiencer as the third most frequent semantic role, which means that in some instances it is represented as a cognitive entity that thinks, feels and perceives (e.g. “The longing of Commission after a greener and more social Europe”⁶). For the president of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso, the Sayer role is most predominant, which means that he is portrayed as giving statements rather than acting directly.

It is worth noting that the words EU or EU Commission rarely enter the Counteragent position in the corpus: the only exception is the expression “erosion of trust in the EU”.

The Counteragent role is hidden in some of the collocations of the adjective Brüsseler, such as sich Brüsseler Einmischungen in die Haushaltspolitik verbitten (refuse interventions from Brussels in budgetary policy) or sich gegen Brüsseler Vorschläge wehren (oppose proposal from Brussels). All this indicates that the EU is seen less as an interaction partner and more as something that either acts, is acted upon or things happen to, which are indicated by the Patient and Affected Object roles. This is in contrast to Deutschland, out of whose occurrences the Counteragent role accounts for 10 %. It is also noteworthy that in contrast to Berlin, Brüssel is less something that acts (Agent) than a location where something is or takes place (Locative).

What of Europe? It is most typically portrayed as a location where actions and processes take place (Locative). The second most popular role is however the Beneficiary, which means that Europe is often also represented as being the recipient of benefit or harm. This role manifests in expressions such as „In the name of Europe“⁷,

6 Wer den Euro rettet. FAZ February 25th 2010

7 Im Namen Europas. FAZ May 7th 2010

“Whoever wants to bring Europe forward“⁸, “a sacrifice for Europe”⁹, “there would be no benefit to Europe”¹⁰. The tertiary role Possessor is often manifested in expressions such as “the future of Europe) (n = 3) or “the realities of Europe” (n = 2).

Note that Southern Europe (Südeuropa) is also mentioned separately. This is due to the fact that most of the crisis countries were from Southern Europe, and they can thus be referred to collectively, such as in the phrase “South Europe has lived well out of low interest rates.”¹¹

Out of this list, by far the most frequent word is Währungsunion (Monetary Union). Its preferred semantic roles are Possessor, Patient, Affected Object and Identifier. The frequency of the Possessor and Identifier roles means that it is often discussed in relation to its attributes (e.g. “principles of the Monetary Union”, “implications of the Monetary Union”, “character of the Monetary Union” or the quite common “fathers of the Monetary Union) or as identifying something else, the most common example being

“member state of the Monetary Union”. The Patient and Affected Object roles again imply that the Monetary Union is frequently the target or object of actions and happenings, the most common being “protecting the Monetary Union” or “failure of the Monetary Union”.

The euro is also a frequently occurring word in the corpus. The Patient role is by far the most common. The euro appears as a subject with verbs that denote failure or loss of value (scheitern = 5, sinken = 1), as something that is in danger (bedrohen = 1, gefährden = 1) and therefore needs to be rescued or defended (retten = 4, verteidigen = 1) or stabilized (stabilisieren = 2). Very often the trust in the euro is at stake (n = 6).

The Carrier and Identified roles again point towards the fact that the euro’s attributes are frequently under discussion or it is compared to something, e.g. “the destiny of the euro”, “the future of the euro”, “the euro is a political/supranational project”, “the euro

8 Die politische Währungsunion. FAZ July 1st 2010

9 Wer den Euro rettet. FAZ February 25th 2010

10 Wer den Euro rettet. FAZ February 25th 2010

11 Im Schuldensumpf. FAZ June 2nd 2010

is not the same as the D-Mark”. Some of the adjective attributes associated with the euro are “weak”, “strong” and “healthy”.

The member states are referred to either as such or as EU states / countries or – as EMU members – as euro states / countries, and also with the more inclusive terms “European states / countries”. They are on the whole found both in the active Agent role as well as in the passive Patient role. This is because they are often portrayed as having responsibility (e.g. “Far too long have the European states been practicing reality-denying policies”) being the target of measures and influences (e.g. “The EU states’

room for action would be reduced through a stricter Stability Pact”). The word euro states is however also found in a more active role, and for the word member states the Experiencer role dominates, most often with the verbs of volition, acceptance and expectation.