Municipal regulatory discourse in the natural environment

This paper investigates the Linguistic Landscape in the Qinling Mountains, a range which possess significant ecological and economic importance which has led to the formulation of multilevel laws and policies governing them. Within the mountains, LL signs are erected to promulgate and enforce pertinent laws and policies. In this paper, I present five examples of an ethnography of LL in the mountains. The results indicate that human beings and non-human beings co-shape LL signs which exhibit heterogeneity in terms of their style, contents, and history. They index multiple institutions contributing to the ‘polycentricity’ of the LL in terms of their contents and give rise to the formation of ‘municipal regulatory discourse’ specific to the Qinling Mountains. These signs also demarcate the natural environment and assign varying levels of importance to the divided areas, thereby underscoring the legal and economic status of the mountains and facilitating official institutions’ ‘human management’.

本文聚焦于中国秦岭这一东西走向的山脉，对其语言景观展开探究。秦岭具备重要的生态与经济价值，基于此，中国政府制定了多层次的秦岭相关法律与政策。在秦岭山区中，语言景观标牌被用于宣传这些法律和政策。在本文中，我对一项有关秦岭语言景观的民族志中的五个例子进行了分析。研究结果显示，由人类与非人类实体共同塑造的语言景观标牌，在形式、内容和历史方面存在差异。秦岭的语言景观标牌代表着参与秦岭治理的不同机构，这些机构共同促成了语言景观内容上的 ‘多中心性’，而语言景观标牌也催生了秦岭山区特有的 ‘市政监管话语’。其中，部分标牌体现了生态保护相关法律和政策，有的则用于保障山区民众权益。此外，语言景观标牌将山区自然环境划分为重要程度各异的区域，进一步凸显了秦岭的法律和经济地位，推动了政府机构对 ‘人的管理’。