Il multilinguismo di Singapore nel mondo globale. Coesione e politica linguistica nella costruzione di un'identità complessa

This thesis deals with the subject of language identity, language policy and the relationships between language and politics. The objective is to better understand how important linguistic cohesion is for the construction of a national identity or ¿ on the other hand ¿ how multilingualism could be an asset in the globalised and rapidly-changing world. I am focusing on the case study of multilingualism in Singapore: a young multicultural country, with its four official languages (English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil) and its creole English (Singlish). Singapore has challenged the globalisation in a really effective way, with a planned education and language policy; I am also reporting vivid criticisms and the lively reactions towards them, and the debate on the grounds of national identity in its relationship with language.