English in the linguistic landscape of Suzhou

English Today ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Songqing Li
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Intergroup Relations ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Ethnolinguistic Vitality ◽  
The Public ◽  
Road Signs ◽  
Ethnolinguistic Group

The concept of linguistic landscape (LL) covers all of the linguistic objects that mark the public space, i.e. any written sign one observes from road signs to advertising billboards, to the names of shops, streets or schools (Landry & Bourhis, 1997). Because it both shapes and is shaped by social and cultural associations (Ben-Rafael, 2009; Jaworski & Thurlow, 2010: 6–23), the LL has proved an important area for investigating the dynamics of major aspects of social life (e.g. Backhaus, 2006; Huebner, 2006; Curtin, 2009; Lado, 2011; Papen, 2012). One strand of this research is particularly concerned with the role of LL in relation to ethnolinguistic vitality that ‘makes a group likely to behave as a distinctive and active collective entity in intergroup relations’ (Giles, Bourhis & Taylor, 1977: 308). The higher the vitality an ethnolinguistic group enjoys, the more it will be able to use language so as to survive and thrive as a collective entity.

scholarly journals Linguistic Landscapes

Linguistics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jhonni Rochelle Charisse Carr
Keyword(s):  
Language Attitudes ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Global English ◽  
Ethnolinguistic Vitality ◽  
Road Signs ◽  
Common Definition ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
The One

Linguistic landscape studies is the investigation of displayed language in a particular space, generally through the analysis of advertisements, billboards, and other signs. A common definition used in the field is the one posited in the canonical 1997 article “Linguistic Landscape and Ethnolinguistic Vitality: An Empirical Study” (Journal of Language and Social Psychology 16(1): 23–49) by Rodrigue Landry and Richard Y. Bourhis: “The language of public road signs, advertising billboards, street names, place names, commercial shop signs, and public signs on government buildings combines to form the linguistic landscape of a given territory, region, or urban agglomeration” (p. 25). (See Landry and Bourhis 1997, cited under Origins of the Field.) The study of the linguistic landscape (LL) is a fairly new area of investigation, with the establishment of its first international conference in 2008 and first international journal in 2015. An especially interdisciplinary field, it incorporates work from camps such as anthropology, linguistics, political science, education, geography, and urban planning. While the majority of research focuses on particular geographical places, the area of study has expanded to include the linguistic landscape of the Internet. This article highlights diverse works from male and female scholars, researchers of color, and scholarship on minority languages by scholars from all over the globe. Key texts include research presented in various forms including books, articles, conferences, conference presentations, and dissertations. The first half of the article is organized by contribution type. It begins with Key Works and then turns to Edited Collections. It then moves on to journals that commonly feature linguistic landscape work or special issues and then some of the latest dissertations that have been published. Finally, the article turns to conferences dedicated to the subject and important conference papers that have been discussed recently among scholars in the field. The second half of the article is organized topically in the following order: Origins of the Field, Innovative Methodologies, Applications and Approaches in the Field (including subsections Multilingualism, Global English, Minority Languages, Anthropology, Language Policy and Planning, and Education). In the subsection Anthropology, three central themes are considered: Language Attitudes and Ideologies, Identity, and Ethnography. Finally, the article reviews important works from a newer subcamp: The Linguistic Landscape of the Internet.

Inscribing indigeneity: Ethnolinguistic authority in the linguistic landscape of Amazonian Ecuador

Multilingua ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-168
Author(s):  
Michael Wroblewski
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Language Revitalization ◽  
State Power ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Ethnolinguistic Vitality ◽  
Spanish Hospital ◽  
Amazonian Ecuador ◽  
Anthropological Approach

AbstractThis article takes a linguistic anthropological approach to analyzing multilingualism in the linguistic landscape of the Amazonian city of Tena, Ecuador, a key locus of indigenous Kichwa language revitalization, identity formation, and politics. Following recent scholarly reconsiderations of multilingual linguistic landscapes as sites of ideological contestation and performative display, I seek to expand on the foundational concept of ethnolinguistic vitality. Building on an analysis of shifting materiality and semiotics of bilingual Kichwa-Spanish hospital signs, I argue for the use of longitudinal and deep ethnographic study of public sign-making in progress to identify oppositional struggles over ethnolinguistic authority, or control of authorship in displays of ethnolinguistic presence. In Tena, Kichwa-language signage represents a new venue for the decolonization of politics, the performance of indigeneity, and the centralization of state power, which are expressed through competing visions by agents with distinct ideological orientations toward language. I submit ethnolinguistic authority as a critical concern for the ethnographic study of public inscriptions of minority languages, which reflect contrasting ideologies of language, notions of group identity, and claims to representational sovereignty.

Linguistic Landscape and Ethnolinguistic Vitality

1997 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigue Landry ◽  
Richard Y. Bourhis
Keyword(s):  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Ethnolinguistic Vitality

scholarly journals The Objective and Subjective Ethnolinguistic Vitality of West Frisian: Promotion and Perception of a Minority Language in the Netherlands

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Helga Kuipers-Zandberg ◽  
Ruth Kircher
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Language Planning ◽  
Institutional Support ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Subjective Vitality ◽  
Low Literacy ◽  
Ethnolinguistic Vitality ◽  
The North

SummaryThe study presented here is the first contemporary investigation of the subjective compared to the objective ethnolinguistic vitality of West Frisian. West Frisian is a minority language spoken in the province of Fryslân, in the north of the Netherlands. The objective ethnolinguistic vitality of the language was established on the basis of policy documents and statistical data. To investigate the subjective ethnolinguistic vitality of the language, rich qualitative data were gathered by means of a questionnaire, which – due to low literacy rates – was administered to West Frisian speakers (N=15) in person. The primarily open-ended items in the questionnaire targeted different aspects of the three main socio-structural factors that constitute the ethnolinguistic vitality of a language: that is, status, demography, and institutional support. Content analysis was performed on the questionnaire data, using rounds of deductive and inductive coding and analysis. The results suggest that West Frisian has a certain amount of vitality, which constitutes a good basis for language planning to ensure its continued maintenance. Moreover, the findings indicate that overall, the subjective vitality tallies with the objective vitality in terms of status, demography, and institutional support. However, two aspects raised concern among the participants: firstly, as part of the status of West Frisian, there was concern about the language's presence in the linguistic landscape (where subjective vitality matched objective vitality, but participants explicitly expressed the desire for a more persistent and pervasive presence of the language in public spaces); and secondly, as part of the institutional support for West Frisian, there was concern about the role of the language in the education system (where subjective vitality did not match objective vitality). The article discusses what implications the findings of this exploratory study – should they hold true – would have for language planning in the province of Fryslân.

scholarly journals “Hindi Bayani/Not a Hero”: The Linguistic Landscape of Protest in Manila

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 14-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Monje
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Qualitative Analysis ◽  
Linguistic Diversity ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Ethnolinguistic Vitality

This article examines the linguistic landscape of Manila during a protest march in November 2016 in response to the burial of deposed president Ferdinand Marcos at the <em>Libingan ng mga Bayani</em> (Heroes’ Cemetery). This article is situated among linguistic landscape of protest research (Kasanga, 2014; Seals, 2011; Shiri, 2015) where data is composed of mobile posters, placards, banners, and other ‘unfixed’ signs, including texts on bodies, t-shirts, umbrellas, and rocks. Following Sebba (2010), this article argues that both ‘fixed’ linguistic landscape and ‘mobile’ public texts are indices of the linguistic composition of cities, linguistic diversity, and ethnolinguistic vitality (Landry &amp; Bourhis, 1997). Through a qualitative analysis of selected pictures produced during the protest march and uploaded onto social media, the multilingual nature of Manila is rendered salient and visible, albeit temporarily, and strategies of dissent are reflective of the language of the millennials who populated the protests.

The linguistic landscape of multilingual picturebooks

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-301
Author(s):  
Nicola Daly
Keyword(s):  
Language Maintenance ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Potential Effect ◽  
Minority Language ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Ethnolinguistic Vitality ◽  
Language Groups ◽  
The World

Abstract We often talk about ‘entering another world’ when we read a book. In this article it is argued that the way in which languages are presented in a picturebook can be seen as a linguistic landscape within the wider linguistic landscape of the world we are in. Previous studies of the linguistic landscape of bilingual picturebooks have shown that minority languages are afforded less space. In this article the linguistic landscape of 24 multilingual picturebooks from the Internationale Jugendbibliothek (Munich, Germany) are analysed. Findings show that languages given dominance in terms of order, size, and information mostly reflect the sociolinguistic setting in which these books are published, replicating power structures and potentially having negative implications for the ethnolinguistic vitality of minority language groups and their language maintenance or revitalisation. The potential effect on readers’ developing language attitudes is also explored.

scholarly journals PAISAGEM LINGUÍSTICA EM CONTEXTO FRONTEIRIÇO: ESTUDO DE CASO EM TABATINGA (BRA) E LETICIA (COL)

Trama ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (37) ◽  
pp. 149-160
Author(s):  
Luana Ferreira RODRIGUES
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
Minority Languages ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Ethnolinguistic Vitality ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ethnic And Racial Studies ◽  
Working Paper ◽  
Em 12 ◽  
And Migration

Neste artigo apresento um estudo de caso sobre a paisagem linguística na fronteira entre as cidades de Tabatinga (Brasil) e Leticia (Colômbia), com base nos conceitos de paisagem linguística (Bloomaert, 2012; Shohamy, 2010; Cenoz y Gorter, 2006), superdiversidade (Bloomaert y Rampton, 2012; Vertovec, 2007) e metrolinguismo (Otsuji; Pennycook, 2010). Este estudo de caso utiliza como dados de análise imagens de placas e letreiros de estabelecimentos comerciais, localizados próximo ao marco de fronteira entre Brasil e Colômbia, fotografadas durante trabalho de campo nas cidades mencionadas e tem como objetivo pensar a paisagem linguística como um dos instrumentos que podem auxiliar no diagnóstico sociolinguístico dos repertórios comunicativos dos falantes de uma determinada comunidade e o status das línguas nesses territórios fronteiriços. Além disso, proponho pensar a paisagem como um importante recurso para a promoção do multilinguismo e das línguas autóctones invisibilizadas pela hegemonia das línguas oficiais dos países onde se desenvolve o presente estudo. Essa invisibilização é perceptível, conforme aponto no estudo, não apenas na paisagem linguística dessas cidades, mas também no sistema escolar municipal e estadual ao não se observar a presença dessas línguas nos currículos das escolas regulares, revelando a ausência de uma representação identitária e linguística de grupos étnicos que vivem nesse espaço.REFERÊNCIASBEN-RAFAEL, E.; SHOHAMY, E.; AMARA, M. H.; TRUMPER-HECHT, N. Linguistic Landscape as Symbolic Construction of the Public Space: The Case of Israel. In: GORTER, D. Linguistic Landscape: New Approach to Multilingualism. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd., 2006. p. 7-30.BERGER, I. R. Gestão do .multi/plurilinguismo em escolas brasileiras na fronteira Brasil – Paraguai: um olhar a partir do Observatório da Educação na Fronteira. 2015. Tese (Doutorado em Linguística) - Centro de Comunicação e Expressão, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, 2015. Disponível em: https://repositorio.ufsc.br/handle/123456789/133000 Acesso em: 14 jun. 2018.BERGER, I. R.; LECHETA, M. A paisagem linguística de um campus universitário fronteiriço: língua e poder em perspectiva. Entrepalavras, Fortaleza, v. 9, n. 2, p. 01-19, 2019.BLOMMAERT, J. Chronicles of complexity Ethnography, superdiversity, and linguistic landscapes. Tilburg: Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies, 2012.BLOMMAERT, J.; RAMPTON, B. Language and Superdiversity. MMG Working Paper Print. Göttingen, 2012.BOURDIEU, P. O poder simbólico. Rio de Janeiro: Bertrand Brasil, 1989.CENOZ, J.; GORTER, D. El estudio del paisage lingüístico. Amsterdam: Journal Hizkunea, 2008. P.1-10. Disponível em: https://hdl.handle.net/11245/1.293687 Acesso em: 04 abr. 2019.CENOZ, J; GORTER, D. Linguistic Landscape and Minority Languages. International Journal of Multilingualism, Vol. 3, No. 1, 2006. Disponível em: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.573.7767rep=rep1type=pdf Acesso em 15 jul. 2019.CRUL, M. Super-diversity vs. assimilation: how complex diversity in majority–minority cities challenges the assumptions of assimilation. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 42:1, p. 54-68, 2016. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2015.1061425 Acesso em 14 ago. 2019.LANDRY, R.; BOURHIS, R. Y. Linguistic Landscape and Ethnolinguistic Vitality: An Empirical Study. Journal of Language and Social Psycology, Mar., v. 16, n. 1, p. 23-49, 1997. Disponível em: https://doi.org/ 10.1177/0261927X970161002 Acesso em 14 ago. 2019.LOMBARDI, R. S.; SALGADO, A. C. P.; SOARES, M. S. Paisagem linguística e repertórios em tempos de diversidade: uma situação em perspectiva. Calidoscópio, v. 14, n. 2, p. 209-218, maio/ago., 2016. Disponível em: http://revistas.unisinos.br/index.php/calidoscopio/article/viewFile/cld.2016.142.03/5558 Acesso em 08 ago. 2019OTSUJI. E.; PENNYCOOK, A. Metrolingualism: fixity, fluidity and language in flux. International Journal in Multilingualism, 7:3, p. 240-254, 2009. Disponível em: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14790710903414331 Acesso em 25 jul. 2019.SCHILLER, N. G., ; CAGLAR, A. Locating Migrant Pathways of Economic Emplacement: Thinking Beyond the Ethnic Lens.” Ethnicities 13 (4): 494–514 , 2013. Disponível em: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258136583_Locating_Migrant_Pathways_of_Economic_Emplacement_Thinking_Beyond_the_Ethnic_Lens Acesso em 12 ago. 2019.SHOHAMY, E. Language Policy: hidden agendas and new approaches. Nova  York: Routledge, 2006. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203387962 Acesso em 23 ago. 2019.SPOLSKY, B. Prolegomena to a Sociolinguistic Theory of Public Signage. In: GORTER, D.; SHOHAMY, E. Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the scenary. Nova York: Routledge, 2009. p.25-39.STEIMAN, R. A geografia das cidades de fronteira: um estudo de caso de Tabatinga (Brasil) e Letícia (Colômbia). 2002. Dissertação de Mestrado em Geografia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 2002. Disponível em: http://objdig.ufrj.br/16/teses/581220.pdf Acesso em 05 mar. 2018.VERTOVEC, S. Super-diversity and its implications. Ethnic and Racial Studies, v. 30, n. 6, p. 1024-1054, 2007. Disponível em: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713685087. Acesso em: 06 jun. 2019.YIN, R. K. Estudo de caso: planejamento e métodos. 2. ed. Porto Alegre: Bookman, 2001.Recebido em 29-11-2019 | Aceito em 10-02-2020

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