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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 1249

Part of Session 132: Re-writing and Engaging with Urban Spaces via Linguistic Landscape (Other abstracts in this session)

Material semiosis, linguistic landscaping and the architecture of post-apartheid identities at three Western Cape Universities

Authors: Banda, Felix
Submitted by: Banda, Felix (University of the Western Cape, South Africa)

The three major universities in the Western Cape Province (Stellenbosch, Cape Town and Western Cape) have different demographic and linguistic histories, owing to the apartheid policy and planning of ‘separate’ development for assumed ethnic/racial groups. Following and extending Scollon and Scollon’s (2003) geosemiotics, Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) grammar of visual design and the emerging linguistic landscaping theories and approaches (Shohamy, Ben-Rafael and Barni 2010; Blommaert and Huang 2010); Shohamy and Gorter 2009; Stroud and Mpendukana 2009), the paper showcases data not only on language in spaces and places, but also the (placement of) buildings, signage and (social interaction of) people as social semiotics that produce meanings that contribute to the different identities of the three universities. Focusing on place semiotics and visual semiotics, the paper particularly pays attention to how the dialogic positioning (Bakhtin) of the sites of the three universities, the building architecture, names of buildings, street signage and linguistic landscapes generally, contribute to the material world of the institutions, which in turn gives them social meaning and different identities. In the process, I introduce the notion of material semiosis to account for dialogic positioning of the material resources that constitute the semiotic landscapes of the universities (cf. Banda 2009; Banda and Munshi forthcoming).

References:

Blommaert, J and Huang A (2010). Semiotic and spatial scope: Towards a materialist semiotics.  Working Papers in Urban Language & Literacies, 62.

Kress, G, and T. Van Leeuwen. (1996/2006). Reading images: The grammar of visual design. London: Routledge.

Scollon, Ron & Scollon, Suzie Wong (2003) Discourses in place: Language in the

material world. London and New York: Routledge.

Shohamy, E, E. Ben- Rafael, and M. Barni (eds.) (2010) Linguistic landscape in the city. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Shohamy, E. and Gorter, D. (2009). Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery. New York and London: Routledge.

Stroud, C and S. Mpendukana. (2009). Towards a material ethnography of linguistic landscape: Multilingualism mobility and Space in a South African township. Journal of sociolinguistics 13/3:363-386.