Linguistic Landscape - Volume 9, Issue 2, 2023

Abstract

Building on semiotic landscapes research, the present paper seeks to expand the existing field with its exploration of protest through the lens of turbulence (Stroud, 2015a). While making visible the fabric of resistance in semiotic landscapes of annexed Crimea, the ethnographic engagement with the interactional and visual data provides insights into small-scale performative acts of protest. It shows that protest evolves as a manoeuvring act across a minefield of possibilities and constraints and manifests itself materially and discursively. More specifically, acts of protest emerge out of an agential intra-action of humans and non-humans, thus revealing the necessity of synergies between people and objects. Such intra-actions create interpretative ambiguity. Protestors deliberately play on this ambiguity to simultaneously conceal and to visibilise dissent. Jointly achieved performative acts of protest, if only temporary, create turbulence and unsettle the status of Crimea as a ‘Russian’ space, thus disturbing the status quo in the area.

Abstract

This study examines the Linguistic Landscape (LL) of two streets in Beirut (Foch and Weygand) following a series of protests in October 2019 against the Lebanese government. We analyzed signs of protest on those two streets collected in 2020 and compared them to archival data collected back in 2015 prior to the commencement of the protests. We drew upon an expanding LL literature of contestation and resistance and theoretically framed our study in concepts of reclaiming public spaces through protest signs (Martín Rojo, 2014a). Photographic data was collected and analyzed based on a critical discourse historiographical approach (Flowerdew, 2017). Implications with regard to Beirut’s changing identity and conflicting discourses of protest, hope, and censorship competing for space on its streets are presented. The study also presents asynchronous narrative layering as an approach that addresses historical and cultural dimensions and power structures that underlie the narratives that shape protest movements.

Abstract

Although gaining momentum in research, the issue of gender representations in the Linguistic Landscape demands more attention. Hence, this study aims to explore the issue of language and gender in the LL of the red-light district (RLD) of Ermita-Malate, Manila, using frameworks from semiotics, multimodality, and feminist stylistics. Particularly, it seeks to answer questions on verbal and non-verbal choices in sign production, and the role of women in the process of interpretation, production, and function of these signs in the RLD. The linguistic and multimodal analysis reveals that the RLD Ermita-Malate, Manila, features linguistic diversity, and that language and image choice support the highly consumerist activities observed in the area. A more in-depth feminist reading of the texts also reveals that women’s role in sign production is limited to the commodification of their images whose function is highly symbolical and imaginative.

Abstract

This article addresses the role of translocal interconnectedness between offline and online spaces by examining the varied presence of language displays in such spaces. Quantitative findings on language presence in the offline public spaces of four Gothenburg neighbourhoods are contrasted with the online presence found in three Swedish search portals, and the differences are interpreted in light of the broader socioeconomic processes of gentrification and segregation. The comparison between online and offline presence allows us to give a more holistic picture of the neighbourhoods; it reveals, among other things, the presence of semi-public spaces, with a multilingual presence of commercial enterprises and civil society organizations, and points out that some super-diverse neighbourhoods have more online than offline presence on search portals. Thus, the often-stereotyped mental picture of these neighbourhoods as being passive, static, ‘segregated’ and ‘problematic’ is challenged.

This article reviews Multilingualism in public space: Empowering and transforming communities978-1-3501-8659-0978-1-3501-8660-6978-1-3501-8661-3£95.00 (hbk)£85.50 (ePDF)£85.50 (e-Book)

This article reviews Linguistic Landscape in the Spanish-speaking World97890272088669789027259813€105