Framing authority in language policy debates

• Published in: Language & communication Vol. 71; pp. 83 - 94
• Main Author: Drackley, Patrick
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 01.03.2020; Pergamon Press Inc
• Subjects: Authority; Chronotope; Debates; Discourse analysis; French language policy; Language planning; Language policy; Negotiation; Orthography; Orthography reform; French language policy; Discourse analysis; Chronotope; Authority; Language planning
• ISSN: 0271-5309; 1873-3395
• DOI: 10.1016/j.langcom.2019.12.005

This 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. •Authority over language is not explained solely through political power.•Authority can be claimed and negotiated rather than assumed to be.•Positioning in language policy debates is explained through chronotopes.•Chronotopes of nostalgia and progress explain subjects' positioning.