ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of how Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) may be effectively utilized in conjunction with corpus approaches. This approach is theoretically grounded in Critical Discourse Analysis but employs corpus linguistics as a methodological tool. It provides background on the development of this mixed-methods approach, before presenting an illustrative study which uses corpus-assisted CDA to analyze discourse around a piece of United States language policy. It then provides an illustrative study, demonstrating how corpus-assisted CDA may be used to explore underlying ideologies of speakers in a language policy context and to identify the discursive strategies speakers employ to promote political, social, and policy outcomes. The chapter describes a case study in which corpus-assisted CDA was used to investigate United States congressional discourse around the English Language Unity Act (ELUA), a piece of federal legislation which would make English the official language of the United States.
