Geosemiotic Analysis of Signs in the Linguistic Cityscape of China

Jing Jing Wang

doi:doi:10.11648/j.ijll.20210904.23

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Geosemiotic Analysis of Signs in the Linguistic Cityscape of China

Jing Jing Wang

Published in International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 9, Issue 4)

Received: 15 July 2021 Accepted: 10 August 2021 Published: 23 August 2021

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Abstract

In the last several decades, adding English to public signboards has become a common phenomenon in China, and the inclusion of more foreign languages other than English for a sign in public sphere has drawn much attention in recent years. In sociolinguistic research, linguistic landscape is a more common term and has been adopted most in studies worldwide which always target at languages used in city centers as a tradition. This study is an attempt to investigate multilingualism in the public sphere of China. Focusing on the linguistic landscape of Xi’an, an ancient city of China, it explores the visibility and salience of languages used on signboards in the city center under the theoretical framework of Geosemiotics. The Geosemiotic analysis demonstrates that Chinese-English bilingual signs constitute about half of the linguistic cityscape of Xi’an; trilingual signs on commercial signboards often carry incoordinate information in different languages; for quadrilingual signs, a relatively fixed order is given to different languages. Besides, the display of traditional Chinese characters on signboards in the cityscape often appear on the wooden plates, which create an “ancient” feeling to visitors. This research also indicates that there is a tendency to standardize the display of language signs in the public sphere of Xi’an city, despite that the desire to be internationalized had been emphasized a lot by many researchers in early studies on linguistic landscape worldwide.

Published in	International Journal of Language and Linguistics (Volume 9, Issue 4)
DOI	10.11648/j.ijll.20210904.23
Page(s)	226-232
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Linguistic Landscape, Geosemiotics, Public Visibility, Multilingualism, China

References

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Jing Jing Wang. (2021). Geosemiotic Analysis of Signs in the Linguistic Cityscape of China. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 9(4), 226-232. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20210904.23

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ACS Style

Jing Jing Wang. Geosemiotic Analysis of Signs in the Linguistic Cityscape of China. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2021, 9(4), 226-232. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20210904.23

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AMA Style

Jing Jing Wang. Geosemiotic Analysis of Signs in the Linguistic Cityscape of China. Int J Lang Linguist. 2021;9(4):226-232. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20210904.23

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@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20210904.23,
  author = {Jing Jing Wang},
  title = {Geosemiotic Analysis of Signs in the Linguistic Cityscape of China},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {9},
  number = {4},
  pages = {226-232},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20210904.23},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20210904.23},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20210904.23},
  abstract = {In the last several decades, adding English to public signboards has become a common phenomenon in China, and the inclusion of more foreign languages other than English for a sign in public sphere has drawn much attention in recent years. In sociolinguistic research, linguistic landscape is a more common term and has been adopted most in studies worldwide which always target at languages used in city centers as a tradition. This study is an attempt to investigate multilingualism in the public sphere of China. Focusing on the linguistic landscape of Xi’an, an ancient city of China, it explores the visibility and salience of languages used on signboards in the city center under the theoretical framework of Geosemiotics. The Geosemiotic analysis demonstrates that Chinese-English bilingual signs constitute about half of the linguistic cityscape of Xi’an; trilingual signs on commercial signboards often carry incoordinate information in different languages; for quadrilingual signs, a relatively fixed order is given to different languages. Besides, the display of traditional Chinese characters on signboards in the cityscape often appear on the wooden plates, which create an “ancient” feeling to visitors. This research also indicates that there is a tendency to standardize the display of language signs in the public sphere of Xi’an city, despite that the desire to be internationalized had been emphasized a lot by many researchers in early studies on linguistic landscape worldwide.},
 year = {2021}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Geosemiotic Analysis of Signs in the Linguistic Cityscape of China
AU  - Jing Jing Wang
Y1  - 2021/08/23
PY  - 2021
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20210904.23
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20210904.23
T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP  - 226
EP  - 232
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0221
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20210904.23
AB  - In the last several decades, adding English to public signboards has become a common phenomenon in China, and the inclusion of more foreign languages other than English for a sign in public sphere has drawn much attention in recent years. In sociolinguistic research, linguistic landscape is a more common term and has been adopted most in studies worldwide which always target at languages used in city centers as a tradition. This study is an attempt to investigate multilingualism in the public sphere of China. Focusing on the linguistic landscape of Xi’an, an ancient city of China, it explores the visibility and salience of languages used on signboards in the city center under the theoretical framework of Geosemiotics. The Geosemiotic analysis demonstrates that Chinese-English bilingual signs constitute about half of the linguistic cityscape of Xi’an; trilingual signs on commercial signboards often carry incoordinate information in different languages; for quadrilingual signs, a relatively fixed order is given to different languages. Besides, the display of traditional Chinese characters on signboards in the cityscape often appear on the wooden plates, which create an “ancient” feeling to visitors. This research also indicates that there is a tendency to standardize the display of language signs in the public sphere of Xi’an city, despite that the desire to be internationalized had been emphasized a lot by many researchers in early studies on linguistic landscape worldwide.
VL  - 9
IS  - 4
ER  -

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Author Information

Jing Jing Wang

College of Languages and Culture, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang, China

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APA Style

Jing Jing Wang. (2021). Geosemiotic Analysis of Signs in the Linguistic Cityscape of China. International Journal of Language and Linguistics, 9(4), 226-232. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20210904.23

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ACS Style

Jing Jing Wang. Geosemiotic Analysis of Signs in the Linguistic Cityscape of China. Int. J. Lang. Linguist. 2021, 9(4), 226-232. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20210904.23

Copy | Download

AMA Style

Jing Jing Wang. Geosemiotic Analysis of Signs in the Linguistic Cityscape of China. Int J Lang Linguist. 2021;9(4):226-232. doi: 10.11648/j.ijll.20210904.23

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.ijll.20210904.23,
  author = {Jing Jing Wang},
  title = {Geosemiotic Analysis of Signs in the Linguistic Cityscape of China},
  journal = {International Journal of Language and Linguistics},
  volume = {9},
  number = {4},
  pages = {226-232},
  doi = {10.11648/j.ijll.20210904.23},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20210904.23},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijll.20210904.23},
  abstract = {In the last several decades, adding English to public signboards has become a common phenomenon in China, and the inclusion of more foreign languages other than English for a sign in public sphere has drawn much attention in recent years. In sociolinguistic research, linguistic landscape is a more common term and has been adopted most in studies worldwide which always target at languages used in city centers as a tradition. This study is an attempt to investigate multilingualism in the public sphere of China. Focusing on the linguistic landscape of Xi’an, an ancient city of China, it explores the visibility and salience of languages used on signboards in the city center under the theoretical framework of Geosemiotics. The Geosemiotic analysis demonstrates that Chinese-English bilingual signs constitute about half of the linguistic cityscape of Xi’an; trilingual signs on commercial signboards often carry incoordinate information in different languages; for quadrilingual signs, a relatively fixed order is given to different languages. Besides, the display of traditional Chinese characters on signboards in the cityscape often appear on the wooden plates, which create an “ancient” feeling to visitors. This research also indicates that there is a tendency to standardize the display of language signs in the public sphere of Xi’an city, despite that the desire to be internationalized had been emphasized a lot by many researchers in early studies on linguistic landscape worldwide.},
 year = {2021}
}

Copy | Download

TY  - JOUR
T1  - Geosemiotic Analysis of Signs in the Linguistic Cityscape of China
AU  - Jing Jing Wang
Y1  - 2021/08/23
PY  - 2021
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20210904.23
DO  - 10.11648/j.ijll.20210904.23
T2  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JF  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
JO  - International Journal of Language and Linguistics
SP  - 226
EP  - 232
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2330-0221
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijll.20210904.23
AB  - In the last several decades, adding English to public signboards has become a common phenomenon in China, and the inclusion of more foreign languages other than English for a sign in public sphere has drawn much attention in recent years. In sociolinguistic research, linguistic landscape is a more common term and has been adopted most in studies worldwide which always target at languages used in city centers as a tradition. This study is an attempt to investigate multilingualism in the public sphere of China. Focusing on the linguistic landscape of Xi’an, an ancient city of China, it explores the visibility and salience of languages used on signboards in the city center under the theoretical framework of Geosemiotics. The Geosemiotic analysis demonstrates that Chinese-English bilingual signs constitute about half of the linguistic cityscape of Xi’an; trilingual signs on commercial signboards often carry incoordinate information in different languages; for quadrilingual signs, a relatively fixed order is given to different languages. Besides, the display of traditional Chinese characters on signboards in the cityscape often appear on the wooden plates, which create an “ancient” feeling to visitors. This research also indicates that there is a tendency to standardize the display of language signs in the public sphere of Xi’an city, despite that the desire to be internationalized had been emphasized a lot by many researchers in early studies on linguistic landscape worldwide.
VL  - 9
IS  - 4
ER  -

Copy | Download