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`Press 1 for English': textual and ideological networks in a newspaper debate on US language policy

DEPAUL UNIVERSITY, USA, ctardy{at}depaul.edu

This article examines 180 texts that together form a newspaper-mediated debate of language policy in reaction to US Senate legislation declaring English the national language of the United States. Drawing on theories of genre networks and intertextuality, the article examines the ways in which dominant texts and ideologies within this corpus of texts are taken up, dropped, and perpetuated through linked genres over a 37-day period. The analysis begins by describing the social backdrop in which the debate occurred, the Senate legislation, and the Senate discussion. Next, the article details the newspaper framing of the Senate legislation and the subsequent uptake of an assimilationist ideology, through a range of discursive strategies employed by both newspaper writers and readers.

Key Words: genre • ideology • immigration • intertextuality • language policy • racism • uptake

Discourse & Society, Vol. 20, No. 2, 265-286 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0957926508099006


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