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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 678

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

English as a Lingua Franca in Tokyo’s Linguistic Landscape

Authors: Backhaus, Peter; Murata, Kumiko
Submitted by: Backhaus, Peter (Waseda University, Japan)

 In this paper we look at the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in Tokyo’s linguistic landscape and its role in the city’s transformation from a formerly ‘monolingual’ into an increasingly multilingual environment. The paper focuses on the occurrence of ELF in this setting, seeing its use from a perspective slightly different from most previous research on English and Japanese bilingual signs. English in this paper is not defined by its ‘native’ speaker norms but regarded as being owned by users from different language backgrounds as a means of communication in their contact situation.

     Although research in Tokyo’s linguistic landscape with a view to investigating the use of English was conducted extensively in the past (see Backhaus 2007 for an overview), often English texts were treated as examples of ‘inter-language’ (see, for example, Kallen and Dhonnacha 2010) apparently ‘incomprehensible’ to native speakers of English. This paper, by contrast, explores how ELF signs are effectively and creatively used as a means of communication, where space and cost-wise, multi-language signs are not an option. In particular, we focus on ‘how ELF users exploit the resources of the language to communicative effect’ (Seidlhofer 2011: 95). One example is enhancing clarity and explicitness of otherwise rather lengthy and politeness-orientated expressions in original Japanese signs such as too-biru wa shuujitsu kin en desu (lit. ‘Smoking is not allowed in this building all day long’). The English version on the sign simply reads “NO SMOKING”. This rendition makes it possible to achieve the pragmatic function of requesting most economically and with less processing effort so that it can easily be accessed and understood by people from different language backgrounds.

     Thus, a special focus of the paper will be placed on the distinctiveness of ELF messages as opposed to their corresponding Japanese counterparts. A closer analysis of data collected in the centre of Tokyo reveals noteworthy patterns such as the omission of spatio-temporal information and common politeness features as seen in the above example. Our findings suggest that such examples in the context of ELF use can be regarded as an effective and creative means of communication in Tokyo’s linguistic landscape.

References

Backhaus, P. (2007) Linguistic Landscapes: A Comparative Study of Urban Multilingualism in Tokyo. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Kallen, J.L. and E.N. Dhonnacha (2010) Language and inter-language in Urban Irish and Japanese linguistic landscapes.  In E. Shohamy, E. Ben-Rafael and M. Barni (2010) Linguistic Landscape in the City. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. pp. 19-36.

Seidlhofer, B. (2011) Understanding English as a Lingua Franca. Oxford: Oxford University Press.