A bilingual corpus-assisted discourse study of the construction of nationhood and belonging in Quebec

The French language has traditionally been understood as a key symbol of Quebec identity; however, with rapidly changing demographics, new ways of identifying with Quebec have begun to emerge. Drawing on a bilingual corpus of English and French briefs submitted to the Bouchard Taylor Commission on religious and cultural accommodation, this corpus-assisted discourse study (CADS) investigates the extent to which language plays a continuing role as both a symbol and medium in the construction of nationhood and belonging in Quebec popular discourse. Language was found to remain both a central concern and a demarcating line within and between English, French, and minority language speakers’ discourses. This study breaks new ground by adapting the CADS methodology to a bilingual corpus. We discuss the advantages of using CADS in two languages and point to remaining challenges such as keyness and corpus comparability.