Cover not available

In:Risk Discourse and Responsibility
Edited by Annelie Ädel and Jan-Ola Östman
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 336] 2023
► pp. 214–231

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

Chapter 9
Risk discourse in the linguistic landscape

Safety information signage onboard metro carriages in Stockholm and Helsinki

ORCiD logo with link | Södertörn University, Sweden
Published online: 24 July 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.336.09syr
Abstract
Signs in the linguistic landscape (LL) can be used to both inform the public and to regulate their actions – functions that are highly relevant when communicating about risk. This chapter discusses the characteristics of the risk discourse carried by the linguistic landscape, more specifically the safety information signage found onboard metro carriages in Stockholm and Helsinki. The analysis deals with both how such information is presented on the multimodal signs and what kinds of risks and responsibilities are depicted as part of this information. The results show that emplacement and the visual design, more specifically the application of colours, are noteworthy characteristics of risk discourse present in the LL. Few actual risks are spelled out in the signage and even if the readers can be given responsibility to act in the face of risks, this information can be worded in different ways. Considering interpersonal speech functions, both direct commands and more ambivalent, passive statements can be found, with some differences in practices between the two cities. Overall, the situated nature of the safety information signage points to the role of place semiotics in meaning making within risk discourse, thus highlighting the value of considering the LL in order to gain a better understanding of risk communication.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Linguistic landscape studies
    • 2.2Communicating risk in the linguistic landscape
  • 3.The case study
  • 4.Analysis
    • 4.1Results: Characteristics of the signs
      • 4.1.1Emplacement
      • 4.1.2Colours
    • 4.2Results: Contents of the signs
  • 5.Closing remarks
  • Notes
  • References
References (27)
References
Amos, H. William, and Barbara Soukup. 2020. “Quantitative 2.0: Toward Variationist Linguistic Landscape Study (VaLLS) and a Standard Canon of LL Variables.” In Reterritorializing Linguistic Landscapes. Questioning Boundaries and Opening Spaces, ed. by David Malinowski, and Stefania Tufi, 56–76. London: Bloomsbury. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barni, Monica, and Carla Bagna. 2015. “The Critical Turn in LL: New Methodologies and New Items in LL.” Linguistic Landscape 1 (1/2): 6–18. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Candlin, Christopher N., Jonathan Crichton, and Arthur S. Firkins. 2016. “Crucial Sites and Research Orientations: Exploring the Communication of Risk.” In Communicating Risk, ed. by Jonathan Crichton, Christopher N. Candlin, and Arthur S. Firkins, 1–14. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ehrhardt, Claus. 2021. “‘Pinkeln verboten’. Anmerkungen über Verbote in öffentlichen Räumen [‘No peeing’. Notes on prohibitions in public spaces].” In Linguistic Landscapes im deutschsprachigen Kontexten. Forschungsperspektiven, Methoden und Anwendungsmöglichkeiten. Forum Angewandte Linguistik 65, ed. by Evelyn Ziegler, and Heiko F. Marten, 87–110. Berlin: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ekwall, Per Erik, Annelie Ädel, and Catharina Nyström Höög. 2021. “Towards a Unified Affordance Approach: Searching for Congruent Meaning Making in COVID-19 Warning Designs.” Social Semiotics. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1983. “The Interaction Ritual.” American Sociological Review 48 (1): 1–19. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gorter, Durk. 2014. “Linguistic Landscape Studies.” In Handbook of Pragmatics Online. 2014 instalment, ed. by Jan-Ola Östman, and Jef Verschueren. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. 2014. Halliday’s Introduction to Functional Grammar. Fourth Edition. Revised by Christian M. I. M. Matthiessen. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jaworski, Adam, and Crispin Thurlow. 2010. “Introducing Semiotic Landscapes.” In Semiotic Landscapes. Language, Image, Space, ed. by Adam Jaworski, and Crispin Thurlow, 1–40. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Karlander, David. 2019. “Mobile Semiosis and Mutable Metro Spaces: Train Graffiti in Stockholm’s Public Transport System.” In Making Sense of People and Place in Linguistic Landscapes, ed. by Amiena Peck, Christopher Stroud, and Quentin Williams, 71–87. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kress, Gunther, and Theo van Leeuwen. 2021. Reading Images. The Grammar of Visual Design. [Third Edition.] London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Landry, Rodrigue, and Richard Y. Bourhis. 1997. “Linguistic Landscape and Ethnolinguistic Vitality: An Empirical Study.” The Journal of Language and Social Psychology 16 (1): 23–49. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ledin, Per, and David Machin. 2020. Introduction to Multimodal Analysis. Second Edition. London: Bloomsbury. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lou, Jackie Jia, David Malinowski, and Amiena Peck. 2022. “The Linguistic Landscape of Covid-19.” Linguistic Landscape 8 (2/3): 123–130. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marshall, Steve. 2021. “Navigating COVID-19 Linguistic Landscapes in Vancouver’s North Shore: Official Signs, Grassroots Literacy Artefacts, Monolingualism, and Discursive Convergence.” International Journal of Multilingualism. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nordman, Lieselott, and Väinö Syrjälä. (forthcoming). “Rules and Recommendations on Unofficial Signs – the Covid-19 Signscapes of Helsinki and Stockholm.” In Sociolinguistic Variation in Urban Linguistic Landscapes, ed. by Carla Bagna, Martina Bellinzona, Sofie Henricsson, and Väinö Syrjälä. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.
Puzey, Guy. 2016. “Linguistic Landscapes.” In The Oxford Handbook of Names and Naming, ed. by Carole Hough, 395–411. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Reh, Mechthild. 2004. “Multilingual Writing: A Reader-Oriented Typology – with Examples from Lira Municipality (Uganda).” International Journal of the Sociology of Language 170: 1–41. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Scollon, Ron, and Suzie Wong Scollon. 2003. Discourses in Place. Language in the Material World. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Syrjälä, Väinö. 2015. “Svenskan i Helsingfors metro. En studie av ett lingvistiskt landskap [Swedish in the Helsinki metro. A study of a linguistic landscape].” In Svenskan i Finland 15, ed. by Mona Forsskåhl, Marja Kivilehto, Johanna Koivisto, and Pasi Metsä, 350–365. Tampere: Tampere University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2022. “Linguistic Landscapes in the Stockholm Archipelago – Producing and Reflecting a Sense of Place.” Languages 7 (1):37. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tan, Mei Shan, and Selim Ben Said. 2015. “Linguistic Landscape and Exclusion: An Examination of Language Representation in Disaster Signage in Japan.” In Conflict, Exclusion and Dissent in the Linguistic Landscape, ed. by Rani Rubdy, and Selim Ben Said, 145–169. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
van Leeuwen, Theo. 2008. Discourse and Practice. New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Mensel, Luk, Mieke Vandenbroucke, and Robert Blackwood. 2016. “Linguistic Landscapes.” In The Oxford Handbook of Language and Society, ed. by Ofelia García, Nelson Flores, and Massimiliano Spotti, 423–449. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vickers, Caroline H., Christopher Lindfelt, and Marsha Greer. 2014. “The Co-Influence of the Natural, Built, and Linguistic Landscape: Indexing Security.” Language Policy 14: 25–47. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ziegler, Evelyn, and Heiko F. Marten. 2021. “Linguistic Landscapes in deutschsprachigen Kontexten [Linguistic Landscapes in German language contexts].” In Linguistic Landscapes im deutschsprachigen Kontexten. Forschungsperspektiven, Methoden und Anwendungsmöglichkeiten. Forum Angewandte Linguistik 65, ed. by Evelyn Ziegler, and Heiko F. Marten, 13–35. Berlin: Peter Lang. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue