Linguistic Landscape in the City

Edited by Prof. Elana Shohamy, Prof. Eliezer Ben-Rafael, Monica Barni

Publication date:

29 July 2010

Publisher

Multilingual Matters

Dimensions:

234x156mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9781847692986

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.

Introduction by Eliezer Ben-Rafael, Elana Shohamy and Monica Barni

Part I: LL Multilingualisms

1. Monica Barni and Carla Bagna: Linguistic Landscapes and Language Vitality

2. Jeffrey L. Kallen and Esther Ní Dhonnacha: Language and Inter-language in Urban Irish and Japanese Linguistic Landscapes

3. Yael Guilat: “The Holy Ark in the Street”: Sacred and Secular Painting of Utility Boxes in the Public Domain in a Small Israeli Town

Part II: Top-down, Power and Reactions

4. Shoshi Waksman and Elana Shohamy: Decorating the City of Tel Aviv-Jaffa for its Centennial: Complementary Narratives via Linguistic Landscape

5. Theo du Plessis: Bloemfontein/Mangaung, ‘City on the Move’: Language Management and Transformation of a Non-representative Linguistic Landscape

6. Jia Jackie Lou: Chinese on the Side: The Marginalization of Chinese on the Linguistic Landscape of Chinatown in Washington, DC

7. Heiko Marten: LL under Strict State Language Policy: Reversing the Soviet Legacy in a Regional Centre in Latvia

8. Aneta Pavlenko: Linguistic Landscape of Kyiv , Ukraine: A Diachronic Study

Part III: Benefits of LL

9. Adam Jaworski and Simone Yeung: Life in the Garden of Eden: Naming in Hong Kong

10. Jennifer Leeman and Gabriella Modan: Selling the City: Language, Ethnicity and Commodified Space

11. David Malinowski: Showing Seeing in the Korean Linguistic Cityscape

Part IV: Perceptions of Passers-by

12. Jokin Aiestaran, Jasone Cenoz and Durk Gorter: Multilingual Cityscapes: Perceptions and Preferences of the Inhabitants of the City of Donostia-SanSebastián

13. Nira Trumper-Hecht: LL in Mixed Cities in Israel from the Perspective of 'Walkers': The Case of Arabic

14. Rebecca Garvin: Responses to the Linguistic Landscape in Memphis, Tennessee: An Urban Space in Transition

Part V: Multiculturalism in LL

15. François Bogatto and Christine Helot: Linguistic Landscape and Language Diversity in Strasbourg: The « Quartier Gare »

16. Robert Blackwood: Marking France's Public Space: Empirical Surveys on Regional Heritage Languages in Provincial Cities

17. Gerda de Klerk and Terrence G. Wiley: Linguistic Landscape as Multi-layered Representation: Suburban Asian Communities in the Valley of the Sun

18. Eliezer Ben-Rafael and Miriam Ben-Rafael: Diaspora and Returning Diaspora: French-Hebrew and Vice-versa

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.