The Discursive Construction of the Scots Language -- Editorial page -- Title page -- LCC data -- Epigraph -- Acknowledgements -- Table of contents -- List of figures -- List of tables -- List of abbreviations -- Transcription conventions -- 1. Introduction -- 1.1 Overview -- 1.2 Why research the Scots language -- 1.3 Research design -- 1.4 Terminology -- 2. The Scots language in context -- 2.1 What is Scots? -- 2.2 The historical development of Scots -- 2.2.1 Origins - 1707 -- 2.2.2 1707 - Present -- 2.2.3 Timeline of the main events in the development of Scots -- 2.3 Scholarly research on Scots -- 2.3.1 Linguistic approaches -- 2.3.2 The problem of writing and register -- 2.3.3 Moving towards language policy research -- 2.3.4 Critical and discursive approaches to Scots -- 3. Studying language policy from a discursive perspective -- 3.1 Theoretical and methodological influences -- 3.2 Different levels of theory -- 3.3 Critical discourse analysis (CDA) -- 3.3.1 Principal theoretical assumptions of CDA -- 3.3.2 The discourse-historical approach -- 3.3.3 'Doing' CDA -- 3.4 Pierre Bourdieu's 'symbolic capital' and the 'linguistic market' -- 3.4.1 The nature of the linguistic market -- 3.4.2 The linguistic habitus -- 3.5 Bakhtin's notions of 'heteroglossia' and 'dialogicality' -- 3.6 Critical approaches to language policy (CALP) -- 3.7 From theoretical concepts to objects of investigation -- 3.7.1 Context -- 3.7.2 Fields -- 3.7.3 Genre -- 3.7.4 Discourse -- 3.7.5 Text -- 3.7.6 Strategy -- 3.7.7 Linguistic theories -- 3.7.8 Intertextuality, interdiscursivity, recontextualisation -- 3.7.9 Operationalising concepts and questions -- 3.8 Selection of written texts -- 3.9 Focus groups -- 3.9.1 Why focus groups? -- 3.9.2 How focus groups? -- 3.9.2.1 Variety and 'representativeness' -- 3.9.2.2 Locations -- 3.9.2.3 Participants.

3.9.2.4 Moderation, questions and prompts -- 3.9.2.5 Recording and transcription -- 3.9.2.6 Topic identification -- 3.9.2.7 Analysis -- 3.10 Summary: from eclectic theories to cohesive framework -- 4. 'Top-down' discourse on Scots at the start of the Twenty-first Century -- 4.1 Four salient texts -- 4.2 Fields: the socio-political context -- 4.3 Genres: what kinds of texts? -- 4.3.1 National curricula -- 4.3.1.1 Are the 5-14 Guidelines a hegemonic text? -- 4.3.2 Educational website -- 4.3.3 Record of parliamentary debate -- 4.3.4 Languages Strategy -- 4.4 Contents: what do the texts say? -- 4.4.1 The 5-14 guidelines -- 4.4.2 Census debate -- 4.4.3 Special focus website -- 4.4.4 Languages Strategy -- 4.5 Discursive strategies and their linguistic realisations -- 4.5.1 Scots as (a) dialect, (a) language, (an) accent -- 4.5.2 Scots as the language children bring to school -- 4.5.3 Scots as part of Scottish culture and heritage -- 4.5.4 Revisiting the macro-strategies -- 4.6 Summary: intertextual and interdiscursive links -- 5. Voices 'from below': Strategic ambivalence -- 5.1 Analysis of focus groups -- 5.2 Design and composition of the focus groups -- 5.2.1 Lancaster focus group -- 5.2.2 Fife focus group -- 5.2.3 Moderator's script and prompts -- 5.3 Languages and language varieties -- 5.3.1 Responses in the Lancaster focus group -- 5.3.2 Responses in the Fife focus group -- 5.4 The challenges of written and spoken Scots in the Lancaster focus group -- 5.4.1 'We just didn't realise how we spoke English so badly' -- 5.4.2 'You just wouldn't talk like that' -- 5.4.3 ' it's really sad that you feel under so much pressure to speak English' -- 5.4.4 Emerging constructions of Scots in the Lancaster focus group -- 5.5 Genre, field and the prompts in the Fife focus group -- 5.5.1 The educational field and the Grammar Broonie.

5.5.2 The political field and the parliamentary motion -- 5.6 Discourse topics -- 5.6.1 'You got the belt' - Real violence against Scots -- 5.6.2 'We were bilingual, in that sense': participants' (self-) constructions of(/as) Scots speakers -- 5.6.3 Hesitancy and (e)valuation: constructions of Scots -- 5.7 Conclusion: ambivalent attitudes -- 6. The political present and future of the Scots language -- 6.1 What happens next? -- 6.2 The growing political profile of Scots: Parliamentary groups and roles -- 6.3 The audit -- 6.4 The survey -- 6.5 The Ministerial Working Group report -- 6.6 The Aye Can campaign -- 6.7 The Curriculum for Excellence -- 6.8 A policy-sea change -- 7. Manufacturing and maintaining constructions of Scots -- 7.1 Summary of findings -- 7.1.1 Scots in top-down texts -- 7.1.2 Scots in bottom-up texts -- 7.2 Challenges and opportunities for Scots -- 7.3 The final word -- References -- Appendix A: Moderator's scripts -- i. Lancaster focus group moderator's script -- ii. Fife focus group moderator's script -- Appendix B: Prompt texts and translations -- i. Lancaster prompt texts -- ii. Fife prompt texts -- Name index -- Subject index.