Linguistic Landscape - Volume 11, Issue 3, 2025

Abstract

This paper contributes to the emerging analytical framework of anthropo­morphized artifacts as part of Linguistic Landscapes. It describes and analyzes cases where signage, objects, or related inanimate objects are inscribed with language that includes first-person pronoun usage and thus constructs the notion of speakerhood. We analyze a corpus of over 80 such items and provide qualitative analysis that includes structural aspects such as emerging syntactic regularities as well as the prevalence of graphematic and stylistic informality markers. We identify discursive and pragmatic functions that the construction of voice has in the analyzed material. We connect the phenomenon and our findings to theories of anthropo­morphization in general and to current developments in posthumanist linguistics and the uncertain epistemic status of speakerhood more specifically.

Abstract

This article explores the French overseas territory of French Polynesia, specifically the island of Tahiti and its capital, Pape‘ete. Through a qualitative analysis of the LL, it is argued that the visibility of Tahitian exceeds the domains typically associated with French regional languages. Following a brief contextualization of the territory and its languages, the themes of centre-periphery dynamics, environmental discourse, public health discourse, and linguistic commodification are discussed. These are cross-examined with various signs in the LL which demonstrate that, in addition to its commodification for visitors, Tahitian plays an important and multifarious role in the everyday lives of local people. The article further argues that Tahitian occupies different types of space that are not traditionally associated with peripheral languages. Concurrently, this calls for a re-evaluation of Tahitian — and, by extension, of Tahiti and French Polynesia at large — as peripheral to mainland France.

Abstract

This paper investigates the Linguistic Landscape in the Qinling Mountains, a range which possess significant ecological and economic importance which has led to the formulation of multilevel laws and policies governing them. Within the mountains, LL signs are erected to promulgate and enforce pertinent laws and policies. In this paper, I present five examples of an ethnography of LL in the mountains. The results indicate that human beings and non-human beings co-shape LL signs which exhibit heterogeneity in terms of their style, contents, and history. They index multiple institutions contributing to the ‘polycentricity’ of the LL in terms of their contents and give rise to the formation of ‘municipal regulatory discourse’ specific to the Qinling Mountains. These signs also demarcate the natural environment and assign varying levels of importance to the divided areas, thereby underscoring the legal and economic status of the mountains and facilitating official institutions’ ‘human management’.

This article reviews Linguistic Landscapes and Educational Spaces97817889238599781788923880£ 39.95£ 30

This article reviews Locating Translingualism9781009105361$ 64.85