CONCEPTS “BRITISH” AND “SCOTTISH” WITHIN INDIVIDUAL COGNITIVE FIELD OF ALLAN LITTLE

Abstract

The raise of self-consciousness and strivings for self-determination of different ethno-cultural groups have led to the increased interest of the ethnicity and ethnic conflicts studies. The article aims at representing the confrontation of the concepts “being British” and “being Scottish” that are formed within an individual cognitive field, that in its turn is a fragment of a bigger world view of the people of the United Kingdom namely the Scottish. Scotland has overcome through different historic transformations and was strongly influenced by the process of the Anglicization after the 1707 and now after the devolution Scotland is restoring its ethnic peculiarities namely cultural and linguistic. These and other events contributes to the existence of dual identity and the opposition between ethnic identification. The confrontation between the representations of being British and being Scottish leads to a controversial issue on what base should the identity be constructed taking into account complex relations between England and Scotland during the centuries.