Studies in Literature and Language
The Linguistic Landscape of China: A Field-Based Study of an Ancient Town’s Historical Precinct
Abstract
This study comprises an empirical LL case study in Datong, an ancient town of China. Specifically, it focuses on the top-down (government) and bottom-up (commercial and other) linguistic landscape of historic Lanxi Street as its research setting.
The paper draws on theories of LL studies to examine the use of written language on signs in the public area of a historical street. The study analyzed the differences between official signs and unofficial signs, and to identify characteristics that might be specific to a historic precinct. The researchers compared the linguistic landscape of Lanxi Old Street with an urban commercial street in Tongling City, to examine the differences and their causes between a small, heritage town and a city. Based on a mixed-methods research design, the data of this paper incorporate photographs, interviews and questionnaires, which were analyzed with the help of SPSS. This empirical study sheds light on protect heritage LL to preserve its own characteristics against the flow of globalization and the worldwide domination of English in the context of a sociolinguistics approach.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Agnihotrri, R., & Mcormick, K. (2010). Language in the material world: Multilingual in signage. International Journal of Multilingualism, 3, 45-59.
Allen, F. (2008). China’s financial system: Past, present and future. In L. Brandt & T. G. T. Rawski (Eds.), China’s great transformation. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Backhaus, P. (2005). Signs of multilingualism in Tokyo—A diachronic look at the linguistic landscape. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 175/176, 103-121.
Backhaus, P. (2007). Linguistic landscape: A comparative study of urban multilingualism in Tokyo. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Ben-Rafael, E. (2009). A sociological approach to the study of linguistic landscape. In E. Shohamy, & D. Gorter (Eds.), Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery (pp.40-54). New York: Routledge.
Calvet, L-J. (1990). Des mots sur les murs: Une comparaison entre Paris et Dakar. In R. Chaudenson (Ed.) Des language et des villes (pp.73-83). Paris: Agence de cooperation culturelle et technique.
Calvet, L.-J. (1994). Les voix de la ville: Introduction a la socilinuistique urbaine. Paris: Payot et Rivages.
Gorter, D. (2006). Further possibilities for linguistic landscape research. In D. Gorter (Ed.), Linguistic landscape: A new approach to multilingualism (pp.81-89). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Guo Guihang& Li Bingjie. (2017). Linguistic landscape of China: A case study of the language use of shop signs in Wuhan. Studies in Literature and Language, 15(1), 1-9.
Huebner, T. (2006). Bangkok’s linguistic landscapes: Environmental print, code mixing, and language change. International Journal of Multilingualism, 3(1), 31-51.
Koch, H., & Hercus, L. (Eds.) (2009). Aboriginal placenames: Naming and renaming the Australian Landscape. Canberra: ANU E Press and Aboriginal History Incorporated.
Landry, R., & Bourhis, R. (1997). Linguistic landscape and ethnolinguistic vitality. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 16(1), 23-49.
Lefebvre, H. (1991). The production of space. Oxford: Blackwell.
Lü, HeFa. (2005). On Functional Features and Chinese-English translation of the expressions on public signs. Terminology Standardization &Information Technology, 2, 21-26.
Li. Pi. (2010). On place name in PinYin in China. Chinese Translators Journal, 2, 48-51.
Masai, Yasuo. (1972). Living map of Tokyo. Tokyo: Jiji Tsushinsha.
Qian, qi. (2007). The influence of international trends on Chinese heritage preservation. International journal of heritage studies, 13(3), 255-264.
Scollon and S. W. Scollon. (2003). Discourses in place: Language in the material world. London and New York: Routledge.
Spolsky, B., & Cooper, R. L. (1991). The languages of Jerusalem. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Shohamy E., Ben Rafael, E., & Barni, M. (2010). Linguistic landscape in the city. UK: Multilingual Matters.
Tan, S. X.-W., & Tan, Y.-Y. (2015). Examining the functions and identities associated with English and Korean in South Korea: a linguistic landscape study. Asian Englishes, 17(1), 59-79.
Trumper-Hecht. (2010). Linguistic landscape in mixed cities in Israel from the perspective of ‘walkers’: The case of Arabic. In E. Shohamy, E. Ben-Rafael, & M. Barni (Eds.), Linguistic landscape in the city (pp.219-234). Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Wang, Jingjing. (2013). Linguistic landscape of China—A case study of shop signs in Beijing. CSCanada: Studies in Literature & Language, 6(1), 40-47.
Xu, Ming. (2015). Research progress and prospect of urban linguistic landscape. Journal of Human Geography, 14(1), 21-25.
Yao Nai. (2000). Xinhua Dictionary. Beijing: The Commercial Press.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/11172
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Copyright (c) 2019 rong sheng
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Share us to: 
Online Submission: http://cscanada.org/index.php/sll/submission/wizard
Reminder
How to do online submission to another Journal?
If you have already registered in Journal A, then how can you submit another article to Journal B? It takes two steps to make it happen:
1. Register yourself in Journal B as an Author
Find the journal you want to submit to in CATEGORIES, click on “VIEW JOURNAL”, “Online Submissions”, “GO TO LOGIN” and “Edit My Profile”. Check “Author” on the “Edit Profile” page, then “Save”.
2. Submission
Go to “User Home”, and click on “Author” under the name of Journal B. You may start a New Submission by clicking on “CLICK HERE”.
We only use three mailboxes as follows to deal with issues about paper acceptance, payment and submission of electronic versions of our journals to databases: caooc@hotmail.com; sll@cscanada.net; sll@cscanada.org
Articles published in Studies in Literature and Language are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY).
STUDIES IN LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE Editorial Office
Address: 1055 Rue Lucien-L'Allier, Unit #772, Montreal, QC H3G 3C4, Canada.
Telephone: 1-514-558 6138
Website: Http://www.cscanada.net; Http://www.cscanada.org
E-mail: office@cscanada.net; office@cscanada.org; caooc@hotmail.com
Copyright © 2010 Canadian Academy of Oriental and Occidental Culture 
