0165–2516/11/0212–0069 Int’l. J. Soc. Lang. 212 (2011), pp. 69–89 © Walter de Gruyter DOI 10.1515/IJSL.2011.047 Beliefs about language status and corpus in focus group discussions on the Ukrainian language policy VOLODYMYR KULYK Abstract This paper examines the relationship between popular beliefs about language status and corpus, as manifested in focus group discussions on language policy in Ukraine. The main inding pertains to the unequal attention to and evalua- tion of the quality of the two languages predominantly used in Ukrainian soci- ety. While the increased presence of Ukrainian in some language practices where Russian dominated in the Soviet and early post-Soviet years is often scrutinized and criticized, largely because of its supposedly low quality, the continued use of Russian usually remains unnoticed. This remarkable asym- metry is characteristic even of many Ukrainian-speakers who support the prevalence of their language but have internalized some implicit beliefs regarding its inferiority vis-à-vis Russian. This relationship appears to be an important mechanism of reproducing the dominant position of Russian as attempts at elevating the status of Ukrainian are hindered by the widespread perception of its corpus inadequacy for those roles it has not played hitherto. Keywords: language beliefs; language policy; status; corpus; translation; Ukraine. 1. Introduction The use of certain languages or varieties in certain situations is guided by the speakers’ beliefs regarding these varieties and situations, beliefs which make them consciously or subconsciously choose a variety that they consider the most appropriate in a given situation. Such beliefs also inform decisions of the state authorities or other authoritative social actors on the language regimes of certain domains and practices, that is, on languages (it is usually varieties called languages that such decisions prescribe) to be used by people interacting therein. The match between the beliefs of those who prescribe certain languages