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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 932

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

The transformation of a cityscape: Representation, symbolism, exclusion in public signs

Authors: Kasanga, Luanga Adrien
Submitted by: Kasanga, Luanga Adrien (University of Bahrain, Bahrain)

The irrepressible globalization wind blows much more strongly than ever has turned the modern city into an “iconosphere” (Chmielewska 2005, 2010), or a festival of signs, many of which represent international concerns. One consequence of this international outlook is the pervasive use of English in the urban mosaic of signs. Lubumbashi in the Democratic Republic of Congo is a case in point. The transformation in the mid-1990s of its linguistic landscape from a monolingual, francophone cityscape to a multilingual one is characterized by a high level of visibility of English. Previous research (Kasanga 2010) has established a number of motivations for the (often parallel) use of English in signs in a French-dominated space where it is seldom used in everyday interactions. English is used in signs mainly for symbolic purposes (cosmopolitanism, global identity) and for commercial reasons (branding, corporate identity). Three themes sum up the presence of English in signs: symbolism, imagined identity, and modernity. This presentation explores further these issues on the basis of new data. In addition, it discusses the issue of unintended “exclusion” which was not sufficiently dealt with in previous analyses. To do this, it starts by describing the various linguistic patterns in public signs, the motivations behind the use of multilingual signs, and the place of English in signs. The data, comprising signs (n=1360) and photographs (n= 98), come from two field trips undertaken in 2010 and in 2011. The transformation of Lubumbashi’s environmental print into a highly multilingual scenery owes much to the influx of foreign businesses in mining and trade and fortune-seekers who have imprinted the cityscape with their identities, but also by local businesses and individuals seeking to portray new multiplex identities. Signs used by multinational entities (“brand” and “hybrid” advertisements) index and help to maintain their international brand identity. Signs preferred by medium-size local business owners (“clone” advertisements) serve for identification of their businesses with well-known international brands.  Smaller local shops choose signs (“imitation” advertisements) which portray their owners’ sophisticated identity deserving of modern world travellers. An analysis of the impact on multiple audiences of the semiotic resources deployed in the environment print reveals their unintended, but negative effect in the form of exclusion of part of the audience. The research reported in this presentation is a contribution to the area of linguistic landscape, more specifically how languages interact in their relevant social contexts and how they are selected for use.

References

Chmielewska, Ella. 2005. Logos or the resonance of branding: A close reading of the iconosphere of Warsaw. Space and Culture 8(4): 349-380.

Chmielewska, Ella. 2010. Semiosis takes place or radical uses of quaint theories. In Adam Jaworski and Crispin Thurlow (eds.), Semiotic landscapes: Language, image, space. London/New York: Continuum. 274-291.

Kasanga, Luanga A. 2010. Streetwise English and French advertising in multilingual D R Congo: Symbolism, modernity, and cosmopolitan identity. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 206: 181-205.