Language in the U.S. and the Law: A Corpus Analysis of the Language of Language Policy

Abstract

The aim of this thesis is to study the textual positioning and portrayal of English and other languages in U.S. language policy and to see what implications that positioning and portrayal has for understanding possible impacts and interpretations of U.S. language policies. In order to do this, I use corpus linguistic techniques to study the ways that the terms English and other languages collocate with other words in the way that the policies themselves are written. I further this analysis with a reading of the policies that looks for themes across multiple texts. This kind of textual positioning is analyzed in detail to show how the portrayals of English and other languages might differ and what that could mean for our understanding of the implications, intentions, or possible interpretations of the policies.