Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: This paper presents a multi-level analysis of the signage in Los Angeles (LA) Chinatowns. Through a combined method of ethnographic observations, interviews and textual and visual analysis of language orthographies, the processes in which signage is designed, perceived, and interpreted are examined. A discussion of the range of interpretive readings of Chinese orthography and romanization is presented, with a focus on the relationship between the linguistic landscape and people’s language perception, and the changing social indexicalities of different linguistic variables displayed in LA Chinatowns. The paper concludes that the linguistic landscape can be taken as a form of informal language input which impacts Chinese immigrants’ language perception. Moreover, linguistic variables displayed on public signage not only contribute to the construction of the sociolinguistic context but also to the immigrants’ identity transformation.
Source: New perspectives on languages.
Authors: Feiyang Tian, Sjaak Kroon
Institutions: Beihang University, Tilburg University
Language: English
Subfield: Linguistics and Language
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4401881750