Framing authority in language policy debates

Publication date: March 2020Source: Language & Communication, Volume 71Author(s): Patrick DrackleyAbstractThis paper explores the ways in which authority is discursively claimed and negotiated. Working within the social context of debates over orthographic reform in France, I examine how participants in a televised debate address this notion through orientation to competing chronotopes; participants in the debate engage in processes of scale-making as they argue which time-space(s) are most relevant and how those time-spaces should be understood. Thus, this paper argues that authority is not simply synonymous with social and/or political power but should be understood through the processes by which it is claimed, leading to an understanding of authority as a dynamic construct that is continually negotiated.
Source: Language and Communication - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Source Type: research