1887
  1. Home
  2. e-Journals
  3. Pragmatics
  4. Volume 25, Issue 4
  5. Article
Volume 25, Issue 4
  • ISSN 1018-2101
  • E-ISSN: 2406-4238
PDF

Abstract

This article examines the complex intersection of language ideologies shaping alphabetic choices in Ukrainian outdoor advertising and shop signs, focusing on alphabet mixing through the insertion of Latin letters into Cyrillic texts and the juxtaposition of parallel or alternating texts using both of these writing systems. Drawing upon ethnographic data from work with graphic designers and consumers as well as analysis of language use in signs, I argue that while alphabet mixing is often characterized as “faddish” or “youth-oriented” these practices also reflect Soviet-era ideological stances towards both Latin typefaces, seen as “plastic” letters associated with Western capitalism, and Cyrillic typefaces, seen as “rigid” forms subject to strong central control by the Soviet state. The increasing availability of personal computers with word-processing and graphic design software in Ukraine has both increased access by individuals to print technology, and promoted a new typographic aesthetic through the dissemination of Cyrillic fonts based on Latin, not Soviet or pre-Soviet Cyrillic, models.

© 2015 International Pragmatics Association
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1075/prag.25.4.02dic
2015-12-01
2024-12-04

  • From This Site

    /content/journals/10.1075/prag.25.4.02dic
    dcterms_title,dcterms_subject,pub_keyword
    -contentType:Journal -contentType:Contributor -contentType:Concept -contentType:Institution
    10
    5
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Ahmad, Rizwan
    (2011) Urdu in Devanagari: Shifting orthographic practices and Muslim identity in Delhi. Language in Society40: 259-284. doi: 10.1017/S0047404511000182
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404511000182 [Google Scholar]
  2. Androutsopoulos, Jannis
    (2000) Non-standard spellings in media texts: The case of German fanzines. Journal of Sociolinguistics4.4: 514-533. doi: 10.1111/1467‑9481.00128
     https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9481.00128 [Google Scholar]
  3. (2012) Ethnographic perspectives on multilingual computer-mediated discourse. In M. Martin-Jones , and S. Gardner (eds.), Multilingualism in Discourse and Ethnography. London: Routledge, pp. 179-186.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Angermeyer, Philipp S
    (2005) Spelling Bilingualism: Script choice in Russian American classified ads and signage. Language in Society34: 493-531. doi: 10.1017/S0047404505050190
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404505050190 [Google Scholar]
  5. Arel, Dominique
    (2002) Interpreting 'Nationality' and 'Language' in the 2001 Ukrainian census. Post-Soviet Affairs18.3: 213-50. doi: 10.2747/1060‑586X.18.3.213
     https://doi.org/10.2747/1060-586X.18.3.213 [Google Scholar]
  6. Barton, David
    (1994) Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language. Oxford: Blackwell.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Bilaniuk, Laada
    (2004) A typology of surzhyk: Mixed Ukrainian-Russian language. International Journal of Bilingualism8.4: 409-425. doi: 10.1177/13670069040080040101
     https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069040080040101 [Google Scholar]
  8. (2005) Contested Tongues: Language Politics and Cultural Correction in Ukraine. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Czaplicka, John
    (2005) Lviv: A City in the Crosscurrents of Culture. Cambridge: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Dale, Ian R.H
    (1980) Digraphia. International Journal of the Sociology of Language26: 5-13.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. DeFrancis, John
    (1984) Digraphia. Word35.1: 59-66. doi: 10.1080/00437956.1984.11435748
     https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.1984.11435748 [Google Scholar]
  12. Fairclough, Norman
    (1995) Critical discourse analysis. London: Longman.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. (1998) Political discourse in the media: An analytical framework. In Allan Bell , and Peter Garrett (eds.), Approaches to media discourse. London: Blackwell, pp. 142-162.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Gal, Susan , and Kathryn Woolard
    (1994) Constructing languages and publics: Authority and representation. Pragmatics5.2: 129-138. doi: 10.1075/prag.5.2.01gal
     https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.5.2.01gal [Google Scholar]
  15. Gee, James Paul
    (2012)[1990] Social linguistics and literacies. Fourth Edition. London: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. (2000) The new literacy studies: From ‘socially situated’ to the work of the social. In David Barton , Mary Hamilton , and Roz Ivanic (eds.), Situated Literacies: Reading and Writing in Context. London: Routledge, pp. 180-196
     [Google Scholar]
  17. Grivelet, Stephane
    (2001a) Introduction. International Journal of the Sociology of Language150: 1-10. doi: 10.1515/ijsl.2001.033
     https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl.2001.033 [Google Scholar]
  18. (2001b) Digraphia in Mongolia. International Journal of the Sociology of Language150: 75-93.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Irvine, Judith , and Susan Gal
    (2000) Language ideology and linguistic differentiation. In P. Kroskrity (ed.), Regimes of language. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press, pp. 35-83
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Jaffe, Alexandra , Jannis Androutsopoulos , Mark Sebba , and Sally Johnson
    (eds.) (2012) Orthography as Social Action: Scripts, Spelling, Identity and Power. Boston: De Gruyter. doi: 10.1515/9781614511038
     https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614511038 [Google Scholar]
  21. Kataoka, Kuniyoshi
    (1997) Affect and letter writing: Unconventional conventions in casual writing by young Japanese women. Language in Society26.1: 103-136. doi: 10.1017/S0047404500019424
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500019424 [Google Scholar]
  22. Kulyk, Volodymyr
    (2011) Language identity, linguistic diversity and political cleavages: Evidence from Ukraine. Nations and Nationalism17.3: 627-648. doi: 10.1111/j.1469‑8129.2011.00493.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8129.2011.00493.x [Google Scholar]
  23. Magner, Thomas F
    (2001) Digraphia in the territories of the Croats and Serbs. International Journal of the Sociology of Language150: 11-26.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Miller, Laura
    (2004) Those naughty teenage girls: Japanese kogals, slang, and media assessments. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology14.2: 225-247. doi: 10.1525/jlin.2004.14.2.225
     https://doi.org/10.1525/jlin.2004.14.2.225 [Google Scholar]
  25. Mitchenko, Vitalij
    (2007) Estetyka Ukrajins’koho Rukopysnoho Shryftu. Kyiv: Vydavnytstvo Hramota.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Noy, Chaim
    (2008) Writing ideology: Hybrid symbols in a commemorative visitor book in Israel. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology18.1: 62-81. doi: 10.1111/j.1548‑1395.2008.00004.x
     https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1395.2008.00004.x [Google Scholar]
  27. Picard, Daniel
    (1993) Jackhammers and alarm clocks: Perceptions in stereo. Visible Language27.1/2: 99-136.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Piller, Ingrid
    (2001) Identity constructs in multilingual advertising. Language in Society30.2: 153-186. doi: 10.1017/S0047404501002019
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404501002019 [Google Scholar]
  29. (2003) Advertising as a site of language contact. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics23: 170-183. doi: 10.1017/S0267190503000254
     https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190503000254 [Google Scholar]
  30. Pine, Judith
    (2015) Writing right: Language standardization and entextualization. Pragmatics25.4: 473-588.
     [Google Scholar]
  31. Risch, William Jay
    (2011) The Ukrainian West: Culture and the Fate of Empire in Soviet Lviv. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. doi: 10.4159/harvard.9780674061262
     https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674061262 [Google Scholar]
  32. Riskedahl, Diane
    (2015) Lebanese political advertising and the dialogic emergence of signs. Pragmatics25.4: 535-551.
     [Google Scholar]
  33. Sarkonak, Ralph , and Richard Hodgson
    (1993) Seeing in depth: The practice of bilingual writing. Visible Language27.1/2: 6-39.
     [Google Scholar]
  34. Scollon, Ron , and Susie Wong Scollon
    (2004) Discourses in Place: Language in the Material World. London: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  35. Sebba, Mark
    (2007) Spelling and Society. Cambridge: University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511486739
     https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486739 [Google Scholar]
  36. (2012) Researching and theorizing multilingual texts. In Mark Sebba , Shahrzad Mahootian , and Carla Jonsson (eds.), Language Mixing and Code-Switching in Writing. New York: Routledge, pp. 1-26.
     [Google Scholar]
  37. Shevelov, George
    (1989) The Ukrainian Language in the First Half of the Twentieth Century (1900-1941): Its State and Status. Cambridge: Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.
     [Google Scholar]
  38. Skrypchenko, Jurij O
    (1982) Esteticheskoje oformlenije goroda. Kyiv: Budivel’nyk.
     [Google Scholar]
  39. Smith, Janet S. , and David Schmidt
    (1996) Variability in Written Japanese: Towards a sociolinguistics of script choice. Visible Language30: 46-71.
     [Google Scholar]
  40. Street, Brian V
    (ed.) (1993) Cross-cultural approaches to literacy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  41. Tkachenko, Serhij
    (2004) New rules for advertising in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Journal of Business LawMay 2004: 24-25.
     [Google Scholar]
  42. White, Matthew
    (2006) A city with two alphabets – Cyrillic and Latin scripts in Belgrade. Slovo18.1: 79-103.
     [Google Scholar]
  43. Woolard, Kathryn A
    (1999) Simultaneity and bivalency as strategies in bilingualism. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology8.1: 3-29. doi: 10.1525/jlin.1998.8.1.3
     https://doi.org/10.1525/jlin.1998.8.1.3 [Google Scholar]
  44. Yavorska, Galina
    (1995) Movne reformuvannia iak zasib vypravlennia diisnosti. In Galina Yavorska (ed.), Mova totalitarnoho suspil’stva. Kyiv: NAN Ukrayiny, Instytut movoznavstva, pp. 15-24.
     [Google Scholar]
  45. (2010) The impact of ideologies on the standardization of modern Ukrainian. International Journal of the Sociology of Language201: 163-197. doi: 10.1515/ijsl.2010.008
     https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl.2010.008 [Google Scholar]
  46. Yurchak, Alexei
    (2005) Everything was forever until it was no more: The last Soviet generation. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  47. Zima, Petr
    (1974) Digraphia: The case of Hausa. Linguistics124: 57-69.
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1075/prag.25.4.02dic
Loading
  • Article Type: Research Article
Keyword(s): Advertising; Digraphia; Orthography; Ukraine

Most Cited

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was successful
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error