“To the People of Scotland, thank you, but I’ll pass on”: Sturgeon's Discourse in Times of Crisis.

This paper delves into the discourse of Nicola Sturgeon, former First Minister of Scotland and leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), focusing on speeches delivered between 2016 and 2023. The primary goal is to comprehend Sturgeon's stance on Europe and its role within her broader discourse on Scottish independence. Additionally, a semantic areas analysis will elucidate how she conveys and affirms her leadership to the audience. Employing a methodological approach that integrates quantitative and qualitative analysis, this study utilizes corpus linguistics tools, specifically WordSmith Tools 8.0 for lexical and quantitative analysis, and LIWC 2015 for semantic analysis.