THE POLYSSEMY AROUND PAYS/COUNTRY: BETWEEN SCALE, STATES AND NATIONS - DOI 10.5216/bgg.v33i2.25554

Abstract

This article explores the different meanings of the word country, having discourse analysis as a theoretical basis. The sources of analysis included a literature review and manifestations associated with this term from answers about nation and national state, in interviews with 14 teachers from public and private schools in Belo Horizonte.
The word country, applied both to refer to the nation and to national state, spares more precise definitions, and because of that gets a plasticity aspect, whose usefulness becomes convenient, generating consensus. Therein lies its potential to produce meanings that provides humans with a sense of belonging to the socio-historical
world. Simultaneously, the word country allows individuals to (re)construct their identities linked to spaces – places of birth, states / provinces, regions and national states.