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Article published In:
Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 16:2 (2017) ► pp.149–175

Blood, Soil, and Tears

Conceptual Metaphor-based Critical Discourse Analysis of the Legal Debate on US Citizenship

ORCID logo | University of California, Los Angeles
| University of California, Los Angeles
| University of California, Los Angeles

The Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution grants citizenship to every child born on US soil. While most Americans think this 150 year old formulation is permanent, it is actually open to change. We explore the legal debate over the current formulation of US citizenship. Using the research design of the exemplar case study, we undertake a conceptual metaphor-based critical discourse analysis of three contending contemporary legal stances regarding US citizenship. In the light of four current court cases, some legal theorists argue that the formulation is both undemocratic and inadequate, and should be amended to address 21st century national concerns. Others argue to retain the current formulation in spite of these concerns. Our study reveals that the rival stances are argued in terms of irreconcilable conceptual metaphors, and each legal stance in itself is deficient to address these current concerns.

Keywords: citizenship, conceptual metaphor, critical discourse analysis, legal discourse
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction and background
  • 2.Conceptual Metaphor Theory
  • 3.Metaphor in Legal Thinking
  • 4.Our Critical Discourse Analytic Method
  • 5.Case study: the Consensualist view of US Citizenship
    • 5a.Implications of the Consent principle
    • 5b.Adjudication of current legal issues with Consent principle
  • 6.Case Study: the Status-Quo view of US Citizenship
    • 6a.Adjudication of current legal issues with us as sovereign leading analogy
  • 7.Case Study: the view from US Citizenship History
    • 7a.Adjudication of current legal issues given the history of US citizenship
  • 8.Discussion and Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • US Supreme Court cases cited
  • Statutes cited
  • References


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Published online: 21 March 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.15038.san
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