Cover not available

Article published In: Methodology in Linguistic Landscape Research
Edited by Robert Blackwood
[Linguistic Landscape 3:3] 2017
► pp. 267–285

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Analyzing the linguistic landscape of mass-scale events

 | Victoria University, Wellington
Published online: 19 January 2018
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.17012.sea
Abstract
The past few years have seen a redefining of the linguistic landscape to become inclusive of the wide variety of semiotic encounters that people have each day. The current article partakes in this expansion by looking to the ever-shifting nature of the LL of mass-scale events, particularly protests. In particular, the current article outlines a method for designing LL studies of mass-scale events, including data collection, data analysis, and presentation of findings. The strengths and limitations of such a method are also discussed, paying particular attention to the experiential nature of mass-scale events and importance of transparent researcher positionality and reflexivity.
Español
Los últimos años han visto una redefinición del paisaje lingüístico hacia la inclusividad de la gran variedad de encuentros semióticos que la gente tiene cada día. Este artículo muestra la expansión de la investigación lingüística en este terreno con un énfasis hacia la naturaleza siempre cambiante del paisaje lingüístico de eventos de gran escala, en particular el de las protestas. El artículo introduce un método para diseñar estudios lingüísticos en relación a los eventos de gran escala e incluye métodos para la recopilación de datos, análisis, y exhibición de conocimientos. También se discuten las fortalezas y limitaciones de este método, prestando atención hacia las características de la experiencia de los eventos a gran escala e importancia de la habilidad reflexiva y posición personal del investigador.
Українська
Останні роки ознаменувалися перевизначенням лінгвістичного краєвиду задля включення у нього широкого спектру семіотичного взаємообміну, який щоденно відбувається між людьми. Дана стаття робить внесок у це розширення, відстежуючи постійно-змінну природу лінгвістичного ландшафту масових заходів, особливо протестів. Стаття, зокрема, окреслює метод проектування вивчення лінгвістичного ландшафту масових заходів, включаючи збір даних, їх аналіз та презентацію висновків. Обговорюються також сильні та слабкі сторони такого методу, приділяючи особливу увагу емпіричній природі масових заходів і важливості прозорості позиціонування та рефлексивності дослідника.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction: The nature of the linguistic landscape
  • 2.The value of including more qualitative, exploratory research
    • 2.1Embracing dynamic, shifting experiences
  • 3.A method for analyzing the linguistic landscape of mass-scale events
    • 3.1Ethnographic approach and case studies
    • 3.2Defining the aims
    • 3.3Collecting the data
    • 3.4Analyzing the data
      • 3.4.1An example of methodological application
    • 3.5Reaching conclusions and presenting the findings
  • 4.Implications, limitations, and future possibilities
    • 4.1Implications
    • 4.2Limitations
    • 4.3Future possibilities
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (46)
References
Abdelhay, A., Ahmed, M., & Mohamed, E. (2016). The semiotic landscaping of heritage: Al-Mantiqa al-Tarikhiyya in Jeddah. Linguistic Landscape, 2(1), 52–79. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Aboelezz, M. (2016). The geosemiotics of Tahrir Square: A study of the relationship between discourse and space. In L. Martín Rojo (Ed.), Occupy: The spatial dynamics of discourse in global protest movements (pp. 23–46). Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Agustín, O. G., & Díaz, J. A. (2016). Spatial practices and narratives: The GenkiDoma for education for Chilean students. In L. Martín Rojo (Ed.), Occupy: The spatial dynamics of discourse in global protest movements (pp. 157–178). Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Backhaus, P. (2005). Signs of multilingualism in Tokyo: A diachronic look at the linguistic landscape. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 1751, 103–121.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2007). Linguistic Landscapes: A comparative study of urban multilingualism in Tokyo. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2016). Attention, please! A linguistic soundscape/landscape analysis of ELF information provision in public transport in Tokyo. In K. Murata (Ed.), Exploring ELF in Japanese academic and business contexts (pp. 194–210). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bakhtin, M. (1984). Problems of Dostoevsky’s poetics. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1992). The dialogic imagination: Four essays. Austin: University of Austin Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barni, M., & Bagna, C. (2016). 1 March – ‘A day without immigrants’: The urban linguistic landscape of the immigrants’ protest. In R. Blackwood, E. Lanza, and H. Woldemariam (Eds.), Negotiating and contesting identities in linguistic landscapes (pp. 55–70). London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ben-Rafael, E., Shohamy, E., Amara, M. H., & Trumper-Hecht, N. (2006). Linguistic landscape as symbolic construction of the public space: The case of Israel. In D. Gorter (Ed.), Linguistic landscapes: A new approach to multilingualism (pp. 52–61). Buffalo: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bucholtz, M. (2003). Sociolinguistic nostalgia and the authentication of identity. Journal of Sociolinguistics 7(3), 398–416. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Charmaz, K. (2014). Constructing Grounded Theory. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chun, C. W. (2016). Mobilities of a linguistic landscape at Los Angeles City Hall Park. In L. Martín Rojo (Ed.), Occupy: The spatial dynamics of discourse in global protest movements (pp. 77–98). Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cohen, A. P. (2002). Epilogue. In V. Amit (Ed.), Realizing community (pp. 165–170). London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coupland, N. (2003). Sociolinguistic authenticities. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 7(3), 417–431. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cox, A. (2005). What are communities of practice? A comparative review of four seminal works. Journal of Information Science, 31(6), 527–540. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Fina, A., & Perrino, S. (2011). Interviews vs. “natural” contexts: A false dilemma. Language in Society, 40(1), 1–11. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Duff, P. A. (2012). How to carry out case study research. In A. Mackey and S. M. Gass (Eds.), Research methods in Second Language Acquisition: A practical guide (pp. 95–116). Malden: Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Flam, H., & King, D. (Eds.) (2008). Emotions and social movements. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hassa, S., & Krajcik, C. (2016). “Un peso, mami!” Linguistic landscape and transnationalism discourses in Washington Heights, New York City. Linguistic Landscape, 2(2), 157–181.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hult, F. M. (2003). English on the streets of Sweden: An ecolinguistic view of two cities and a language policy. Working Papers in Educational Linguistics, 19(1), 43–63.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jaworski, A., & Thurlow, C. (2009). Semiotic landscapes: Language, image, space. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kindon, S. (2003). Participatory video in geographic research: A Feminist practice of looking? Area, 35(2), 142–153. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lanza, E., & Woldemariam, H. (2009). Language ideology and linguistic landscape: Language policy and globalization in a regional capital of Ethiopia. In E. Shohamy & D. Gorter (Eds.), Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery (pp. 189–205). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lou, J. J. (2010). Chinese on the side: The marginalization of Chinese in the linguistic and social landscapes of Chinatown in Washington, DC. In E. Shohamy, E. Ben-Rafael, & M. Barni (Eds.), Linguistic landscape in the city (pp. 96–114). Buffalo: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2017). Spaces of consumption and senses of place: A geosemiotic analysis of three markets in Hong Kong. Social Semiotics, 27(4), 513–531. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Malinowski, D. (2009). Authorship in the linguistic landscape: A multimodal-performative view. In E. Shohamy & D. Gorter (Eds.), Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery (pp. 107–125). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marten, H. F., van Mensel, L., & Gorter, D. (2011). Studying minority languages in the linguistic landscape. In D. Gorter, H. F. Marten, & L. van Mensel (Eds.), Minority languages in the linguistic landscape (pp. 1–18). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Martín Rojo, L. (2016). Taking over the Square: The role of linguistic practices in contesting urban spaces. In L. Martín Rojo (Ed.), Occupy: The spatial dynamics of discourse in global protest movements (pp. 47–76). Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pavlenko, A. (2010). Linguistic landscape of Kyiv, Ukraine: A diachronic study. In E. Shohamy, E. Ben-Rafael, & M. Barni (Eds.), Linguistic landscape in the city, (pp. 133–150). New York, NY: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peck, A., & Stroud, C. (2015). Skinscapes. Linguistic Landscape, 1(1/2), 133–151. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pennycook, A. (2009). Linguistic landscapes and the transgressive semiotics of graffiti. In E. Shohamy & D. Gorter (Eds.), Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery (pp. 302–312). New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pennycook, A., & Otsuji, E. (2015). Making scents of the landscape. Linguistic Landscape, 1(3), 191–212. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Seals, C. A. (2011). Reinventing the linguistic landscape of a national protest. Working Papers of the Linguistics Circle, 21(1), 190–202.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2012). Creating a landscape of dissent in Washington, DC. In C. Helot, M. Barni, R. Janssens, & C. Bagna (Eds.), Linguistic landscapes, multilingualism, and social change (pp. 127–138). New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2015). Overcoming erasure: Reappropriation of space in the linguistic landscape of mass-scale protests. In S. Ben Said & R. Rubdy (Eds.), Conflict, exclusion, and dissent in the linguistic landscape (pp. 223–238). New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shohamy, E., & Waksman, S. (2012). Talking back to the Tel Aviv Centennial: LL responses to top-down agendas. In C. Helot, M. Barni, R. Janssens, & C. Bagna (Eds.), Linguistic landscapes, multilingualism, and social change (pp. 109–126). New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Steinberg, R. L. (2016). The Occupy Assembly: Discursive experiments in direct democracy. In L. Martín Rojo (Ed.), Occupy: The spatial dynamics of discourse in global protest movements (pp. 127–156). Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Troyer, R. A., & T. P. Szabó. (2017). Representation and videography in linguistic landscape studies. Linguistic Landscape, 3(1), 56–77. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trumper-Hecht, N. (2010). Linguistic landscape in mixed cities in Israel from the perspective of the ‘walkers’: The case of Arabic. In E. Shohamy, E. Ben-Rafael, & M. Barni (Eds.), Linguistic Landscape in the City (pp. 235–251). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Waksman, S., & E. Shohamy. (2010). Decorating the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa for its centennial: Complementary narratives via linguistic landscape. In E. Shohamy, E. Ben-Rafael, & M. Barni (Eds.), Linguistic landscape in the city (pp. 57–73). Buffalo: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wenger, E., McDermott, R. A., & Snyder, W. (2002). Cultivating communities of practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Cambridge: Harvard Business Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wertheim, S. (2006). Cleaning up for company: Using participant roles to understand fieldworker effect. Language in Society, 35(5), 707–727. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (15)

Cited by 15 other publications

Rowlett, Benedict J. L., Pavadee Saisuwan, Christian Go, Li-Chi Chen & Mie Hiramoto
2025. Pride in Asia, DOI logo
Lou, Jackie Jia
2024. Linguistic Landscape. In Reference Module in Social Sciences, DOI logo
Rowlett, Benedict J. L. & Christian Go
2024. “The Amazingly Fabulous Tuk tuk Race”: mobility and carnival praxis in the semiotic landscape of Phnom Penh Pride. Social Semiotics 34:3 ► pp. 430 ff. DOI logo
Singay
2024. From Dzongkha to English. English Today 40:4 ► pp. 274 ff. DOI logo
Niehaus, Konstantin
2023. The temporality of commodified landscapes at events & local constructions of identity in Salzburg. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 9:4 ► pp. 357 ff. DOI logo
Volvach, Natalia
2023. Manoeuvres of dissent in landscapes of annexation. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 9:2 ► pp. 113 ff. DOI logo
Kim, Sungwoo & In Chull Jang
2022. A trajectory of a mediational means in protest: the hand placard in South Korea’s Candlelight Protests. Social Semiotics 32:2 ► pp. 205 ff. DOI logo
Theng, Andre Joseph, Vincent Wai Sum Tse & Jasper Zhao Zhen Wu
2022. Complicating solidarity. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 8:2-3 ► pp. 264 ff. DOI logo
Starks, Donna & Nhan Phan
2021. An exploration of stasis and change: a park in the Old Quarter Hanoi as a palimpsest. Social Semiotics 31:4 ► pp. 550 ff. DOI logo
Ku, Eric K.
2020. ‘Waiting for my red envelope’: discourses of sameness in the linguistic landscape of a marriage equality demonstration in Taiwan. Critical Discourse Studies 17:2 ► pp. 156 ff. DOI logo
Pani, Laura
2020. The Role of the Japanese Language in Venice A Multidisciplinary Perspective on Japanese Linguistic Landscape. In European Approaches to Japanese Language and Linguistics, DOI logo
Seals, Corinne A.
2020. Classroom Translanguaging Through the Linguistic Landscape. In Language Teaching in the Linguistic Landscape [Educational Linguistics, 49], ► pp. 119 ff. DOI logo
Raish, Michael
2019. YaskoT 7OKM EL3aSKaR. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 5:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Sebastian, Paul
2019. Signs of resistance in the Asturian linguistic landscape. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 5:3 ► pp. 302 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2025. Multilingualism and Linguistic Landscapes of Protest and Conflict. In The Handbook of Linguistic Landscapes and Multilingualism, ► pp. 127 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 26 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue