Cover not available

Article published In: Memory and memorialization
Edited by Eliezer Ben-Rafael and Elana Shohamy
[Linguistic Landscape 2:3] 2016
► pp. 211–222

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

Shop sign as monument

The discursive recontextualization of a neon sign

Published online: 3 March 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.2.3.01lou
Ethnographic studies of linguistic landscape have shed light on the complex processes in which signage is designed, created, perceived, and interpreted. This paper highlights the role of public discourse in such processes by tracing how the neon sign of a restaurant in Hong Kong ironically reached monumental status after its removal. Expanding the geosemiotic framework with the theory of recontexualization, it examines the shifting meanings of the sign as represented in four types of discourse, and suggests that it is their contradiction and divergence that has shaped the shop sign into an urban monument.
References (36)
Abousnnouga, G., & Machin, D. (2010). War monuments and the changing discourses of nation and soldiery. In A. Jaworski & C. Thurlow (Eds.), Semiotic landscapes: Language, image, space (pp. 219–240). London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Albano, J. (2014, July 9). Hong Kong’s Top 10... Neon Signs. TimeOut Hong Kong. Retrieved from [URL]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Backhaus, P. (2007). Linguistic landscapes: A comparative study of urban multilingualism in Tokyo. Clevedon, Buffalo, Toronto: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bauman, R., & Briggs, C.L. (1990). Poetics and performance as critical perspectives on language and social life. Annual Review of Anthropology, 191, 59–88. 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 landscape Linguistic landscape: A new approach to multilingualism. (pp. 7–27). Clevedon, Buffalo, Toronto: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Blommaert, J. (2013). Ethnography, Superdiversity and Linguistic Landscapes: Chronicles of Complexity. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
British Pathé. (n.d.). Neons in Hong Kong (1970). Retrieved from [URL]
Buildings Department, HKSAR. (2015). Building safety. Retrieved 4 April 2016, from [URL]
Cenoz, J., & Gorter, D. (2006). Linguistic landscape and minority languages. The International Journal of Multilingualism, 31, 67–80. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Collins, J., & Slembrouck, S. (2007). Reading shop windows in globalized neighborhoods: Multilingual literacy practices and indexicality. Journal of Literacy Research, 39(3), 335–356. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Garvin, R.T. (2010). Responses to the linguistic landscape in Memphis, Tennessee: An urban space in transition. In E. Shohamy, E. Ben-Rafael, & M. Barni (Eds.), Linguistic landscape in the city (pp. 252–271). Bristol, Buffalo, and Toronto: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everday life. New York: Anchor Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hall, S., & Datta, A. (2010). The translocal street: Shop signs and local multi-culture along the Walworth Road, south London. City, Culture and Society, 11, 69–77. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harvey, D. (1979). Monument and myth. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 69(3), 362–381. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Herman, S. (2013, May 25). In Hong Kong, Beef Over Sammy Kitchen’s 3D Cow. Retrieved 22 February 2016, from [URL]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Iedema, R. (2001). Resemiotization. Semiotica, 137(1), 23–39.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2003). Multimodality, resemiotization: Extending the analysis of discourse as multi-semiotic practice. Visual Communication, 2(1), 29–57. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kallen, J. (2010). Changing landscapes: Language, space and policy in the Dublin linguistic landscape. In A. Jaworski & C. Thurlow (Eds.), Semiotic landscapes: Language, image, space (pp. 41–58). London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lai, M. -L. (2013). The linguistic landscape of Hong Kong after the change of sovereignty. International Journal of Multilingualism, 10(3), 251–272.
CrossRef DOI logo with hyperlink to permanent DOI
. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lefebvre, H. (1991[1973]). The production of space. (D. Nicholson-Smith, Trans.). Oxford, UK and Cambridge, USA: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lo, A. (2013, June 27). Sammy Yip. HK Magazine. Retrieved from [URL]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lou, J.J. (2007). Revitalizing Chinatown into a heterotopia: A geosemiotic analysis of shop signs in Washington, DC’s Chinatown. Space and Culture, 10(2), 145–169. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (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). Bristol, Buffalo, and Toronto: Multilingual Matters. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
MacGregor, L. (2003). The language of shop signs in Tokyo. English Today, (11), 18–23. 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 and London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peck, A., & Banda, F. (2014). Observatory’s linguistic landscape: Semiotic appropriation and the reinvention of space. Social Semiotics, 24(3), 302–323.
CrossRef DOI logo with hyperlink to permanent DOI
. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peirce, C.S. (1991 [1873]). On the nature of signs. In J. Hoopes (Ed.), Peirce on signs: Writings on semiotic by Charles Sanders Peirce (pp. 141–143). Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schlick, M. (2003). The English of shop signs in Europe. English Today, (11), 3–17. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scollon, R. (2001). Mediated discourse: The nexus of practice. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. (2003). Discourses in place: Language in the material world. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scollon, R., & Scollon, S.W. (2004). Nexus analysis: Discourse and the emerging Internet. London and New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shohamy, E., & Waksman, S. (2010). Building the nation, writing the past: History and textuality at the Ha’apala memorial in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. In A. Jaworski & C. Thurlow (Eds.), Semiotic landscapes: Language, image, space (pp. 241–255). London & New York: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Silverstein, M., & Urban, G. (1996). Natural histories of discourse. In The natural history of discourse (pp. 1–17). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stroud, C., & Mpendukana, S. (2009). Towards a material ethnography of linguistic landscape: Multilingualism, mobility and space in a South African township. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 13(3), 363–386. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
West Kowloon Cultural District. (2014). Why M+ Collects Neon. Retrieved from [URL]Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yu, P. (2015, August 6). Farewell to the iconic Sammy’s Kitchen neon sign in Sheung Wan. Retrieved 22 February 2016, from [URL]
Cited by (14)

Cited by 14 other publications

Smith, Sean P., Johan Järlehed & Adam Jaworski
2025. HOLLYWOOD: The political economy and global citation of an emblematic language object. Language in Society 54:1 ► pp. 57 ff. DOI logo
Xia, Zihan
2025. Negotiation of identity and indexical order in linguistic landscapes in Hong Kong: a comparison among Central, Tsim Sha Tsui, and Sheung Shui. Chinese Semiotic Studies 21:3 ► pp. 361 ff. DOI logo
Zhang, Tianyang
2025. Sociolinguistic ecology disparities and linguistic landscaping in different urban spaces: the case of Hong Kong. International Journal of Multilingualism ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Buchstaller, Isabelle, Carolin Schneider & Seraphim Alvanides
2023. Towards a taxonomy of arguments for and against street renaming. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 9:1 ► pp. 5 ff. DOI logo
Demaj, Uranela
2023. Symbolic identity building, ethnic nationalism and the linguistic reconfiguration of the urban spaces of the capital of Pristina, Kosovo. Ethnicities 23:3 ► pp. 500 ff. DOI logo
Demaj, Uranela
2023. Constructing national identity in the public space. The discursive transformations of the semiotic-linguistic landscapes of Pristina, Kosovo. National Identities 25:3 ► pp. 191 ff. DOI logo
Chęć-Małyszek, Agnieszka
2022. Neon signs in urban space, yesterday and today. A case study based on Lublin. Teka Komisji Architektury, Urbanistyki i Studiów Krajobrazowych 18:1 ► pp. 34 ff. DOI logo
Buchstaller, Isabelle & Małgorzata Fabiszak
2021. Editorial: ideology and commemoration in the urban space. Linguistics Vanguard 7:s5 DOI logo
Bolton, Kingsley, Werner Botha & Siu‐Lun Lee
2020. English in Asian Linguistic Landscapes. In The Handbook of Asian Englishes, ► pp. 833 ff. DOI logo
Bolton, Kingsley, Werner Botha & Siu‐Lun Lee
2020. Linguistic Landscapes and Language Contact. In The Handbook of Language Contact, ► pp. 281 ff. DOI logo
Malinowski, David
2020. Linguistic landscape. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 6:1 ► pp. 23 ff. DOI logo
Michalovich, Amir
2019. Reframing the linguistic to analyze the landscape. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 5:1 ► pp. 28 ff. DOI logo
Leimgruber, Jakob R. E.
2018. Itineracy immobilised. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 4:2 ► pp. 178 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2025. Researching Hong Kong's Multilingual Landscape. In The Handbook of Linguistic Landscapes and Multilingualism, ► pp. 309 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