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Linguistic Landscape in the City

Linguistic Landscape in the City

Prof. Elana Shohamy | Prof. Eliezer Ben-Rafael | Monica Barni

(2010)

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Abstract

This book focuses on linguistic landscapes in present-day urban settings. In a wide-ranging collection of studies of major world cities, the authors investigate both the forces that shape linguistic landscape and the impact of the linguistic landscape on the wider social and cultural reality. Not only does the book offer a wealth of case studies and comparisons to complement existing publications on linguistic landscape, but the editors aim to investigate the nature of a field of study which is characterised by its interest in ‘ordered disorder’. The editors aspire to delve into linguistic landscape beyond its appearance as a jungle of jumbled and irregular items by focusing on the variations in linguistic landscape configurations and recognising that it is but one more field of the shaping of social reality under diverse, uncoordinated and possibly incongruent structuration principles.


Arguably, the greatest strength of Longuistic Langscape in the City lies in ites diversity. The 18 chapters take the reader on a captivating journey to more than 25 cities around the world, while introducing a variety of theoretical perspectives on the urban linguistic landscape and how it can be studied…This volume is a highly stimulating collection of papers, which will undoubtedly inspire future research.


Janus Mortensen, Roskilde University, Denmark

Elana Shohamy is a professor and chair of the language education program at the School of Education, Tel Aviv University, where she teaches, researches and writes about multiple issues relating to multilingualism: language policy, language testing and language in the public space.

Eliezer Ben-Rafael, is Professor Emeritus of Sociology and held the Weinberg Chair of Political sociology, at Tel-Aviv University. He is Past President of the International Institute of Sociology. He has published in the area of transnationalism, the comparative study of modernities, identity and culture.

Monica Barni is an associate professor in Educational Linguistics at the Università per Stranieri, Siena. Her research focuses on language policy in education, specifically in relation to immigrants, and in plurilingual societies. She has published on the impact of national and European language policies and about plurilingualism and linguistic contact in Italy.


Arguing that the public space is symbolically constructed by the linguistic landscape, this book urges us to take a fresh look at the signs around us. As we talk, walk, eat, drink, dance, cycle in and through parks, squares, stations, restaurants, streets and alleyways, the multilingual signage of the city is a central part of urban meaning making. From Kiev to Hong Kong, Chinatowns to railway stations, this book opens up exciting new questions about migration, multilingualism and the manipulation of meaning in the urban context, giving us new insights into how languages, signs, people and cities interact.


Alastair Pennycook, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia.

Linguistic Landscaping has added a new and fascinating dimension to the mapping of multilingualism and linguistic diversity in urban spaces, outside the private domain of the home. The editors have contributed in significant ways to the foundation of this emerging field of sociolinguistic research. In this inspiring volume, they offer a widened array of multidisciplinary perspectives on the multitude of verbal signs which catch the eye in urban areas across the world.


Guus Extra, Tilburg University, The Netherlands

Table of Contents

Section Title Page Action Price
Contents v
Contributors vii
Introduction\r xi
Part 1\rLinguistic Landscape\rMultilingualisms 1
Chapter 1\rLinguistic Landscape and\rLanguage Vitality 3
Chapter 2\rLanguage and Inter-language in\rUrban Irish and Japanese\rLinguistic Landscapes 19
Chapter 3\r‘The Holy Ark in the Street’:\rSacred and Secular Painting of\rUtility Boxes in the Public Domain\rin a Small Israeli Town 37
Part 2\rTop-down, Power and Reactions 55
Chapter 4\rDecorating the City of Tel\rAviv-Jaffa for its Centennial:\rComplementary Narratives via\rLinguistic Landscape 57
Chapter 5\rBloemfontein/Mangaung,\r‘City on the Move’. Language\rManagement and Transformation\rof a Non-representative Linguistic\rLandscape 74
Chapter 6\rChinese on the Side: The\rMarginalization of Chinese in the\rLinguistic and Social Landscapes\rof Chinatown in Washington, DC 96
Chapter 7\rLinguistic Landscape under\rStrict State Language Policy:\rReversing the Soviet Legacy\rin a Regional Centre in Latvia 115
Chapter 8\rLinguistic Landscape of Kyiv,\rUkraine: A Diachronic Study 133
Part 3\rBenefits of Linguistic Landscape 151
Chapter 9\rLife in the Garden of Eden:\rThe Naming and Imagery of\rResidential Hong Kong 153
Chapter 10\rSelling the City: Language,\rEthnicity and Commodified Space 182
Chapter 11\rShowing Seeing in the Korean\rLinguistic Cityscape 199
Part 4\rPerceptions of Passers-by 217
Chapter 12\rMultilingual Cityscapes:\rPerceptions and Preferences of\rthe Inhabitants of the City of\rDonostia-San Sebastian 219
Chapter 13\rLinguistic Landscape in Mixed\rCities in Israel from the Perspective\rof ‘Walkers’: The Case of Arabic 235
Chapter 14\rResponses to the Linguistic\rLandscape in Memphis, Tennessee:\rAn Urban Space in Transition 252
Part 5\rMulticulturalism in Linguistic\rLandscape 273
Chapter 15\rLinguistic Landscape and\rLanguage Diversity in Strasbourg:\rThe ‘Quartier Gare’ 275
Chapter 16\rMarking France’s Public Space:\rEmpirical Surveys on Regional\rHeritage Languages in Two\rProvincial Cities 292
Chapter 17\rLinguistic Landscape as\rMulti-layered Representation:\rSuburban Asian Communities in\rthe Valley of the Sun 307
Chapter 18\rDiaspora and Returning Diaspora:\rFrench-Hebrew and Vice-Versa 326
Epilogue: The Theoretical Edge 344
Author Index 347
Subjects and Places Index 351