ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to contrast the use of policy language by stakeholders concerning intellectual property in the university environment. While the idea of knowledge ownership has implications far beyond the university, the stakeholders examined in this chapter will be limited to faculty within a university environment, and external sources including government and corporate interests. The underlying assumption is that these two main groups represent different discourse communities, which shape language use and meaning to their own purposes and goals. It should also be recognised that while treated as a single discourse in this chapter, universities include many discourse groups such as staff, administration, faculty, and students. In addition the discourse of faculty can also be broken down into discipline, Faculty, or department. Also, individuals themselves in any environment are seldom if ever members of a single discourse community but function in several simultaneously.
