Linguistic landscape

Last updated
A trash can in Seattle labeled in four languages: English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish. Seattle trash lese rac basura 200511.jpg
A trash can in Seattle labeled in four languages: English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Spanish.

The linguistic landscape refers to the "visibility and salience of languages on public and commercial signs in a given territory or region". [1] Linguistic landscape research has been described as being "somewhere at the junction of sociolinguistics, sociology, social psychology, geography, and media studies". [2] It is a concept which originated in sociolinguistics and language policy as scholars studied how languages are visually displayed and hierarchised in multilingual societies, from large metropolitan centers to Amazonia. [3] For example, linguistic landscape scholars have described how and why some public signs in Jerusalem are presented in Hebrew, English, and Arabic, or a combination thereof. [4] [5] It also looks at how communication in public space plays a crucial role in the organisation of society. [6]

Contents

Development of the field of study

Multilingual gravestone: Welsh, English, French Carreg Fedd Ddwyieithog - Bilingual Gravestone - geograph.org.uk - 576196.jpg
Multilingual gravestone: Welsh, English, French

Studies of the linguistic landscape have been published from research done around the world. The field of study is relatively recent; "the linguistic landscapes paradigm has evolved rapidly and while it has a number of key names associated with it, it currently has no clear orthodoxy or theoretical core". [7] A special issue of the International Journal of Multilingualism (3.1 in 2006) was devoted to the subject. Also, the journal World Englishes published a themed issue of five papers as a "Symposium on World Englishes and Linguistic Landscapes: Five Perspectives" (2012, vol. 31.1). Similarly, an entire issue of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language (228 in 2014) was devoted to the subject, including looking at signs that show influences from one language on another language. In 2015 an academic journal devoted to this topic was launched, titled Linguistic Landscape: An International Journal, from John Benjamins. There is also a series of academic conferences on the study of linguistic landscape. [8] A comprehensive, searchable Linguistic Landscape Bibliography [9] is available. [10] A 2016 special issue of Manusya (number 22, 2016) [11] begins with a history and summary of the field. [12]

Because "the methodologies employed in the collection and categorisation of written signs is still controversial", [13] basic research questions are still being discussed, such as: "do small, hand-made signs count as much as large, commercially made signs?". The original technical scope of "linguistic landscape" involved plural languages, and almost all writers use it in that sense, but the scholar Papen has applied the term to the way public writing is used in a monolingual way in a German city [14] and Heyd has applied the term to the ways that English is written, and people's reactions to these ways. [15]

Multilingualism and monolingualism in signs

Information in English, Bible verse in German, Texas English-German tombstone in Texas.jpg
Information in English, Bible verse in German, Texas

In much of the research the signs studied are multilingual signs, reflecting an expected multilingual readership. In other cases, there are monolingual signs in different languages, written in relevant languages found within a multilingual community. [16] [17] Backhaus even points out that some signs are not meant to be understood so much as to appeal to readers via a more prestigious language (2007:58).

Bathroom sign in French restaurant in USA, spelling "Toilets" to convey a French aura, but understood by unilingual English speakers. Pseudo-French sign in American French restaurant.JPG
Bathroom sign in French restaurant in USA, spelling "Toilets" to convey a French aura, but understood by unilingual English speakers.

Some signs are spelled to convey the aura of another language (sometimes genuinely spelled as in the other language, other times fictionally), but are still meant to be understood by monolinguals. For example, some signs in English are spelled in a way that conveys the aura of German or French, but are still meant to be understood by monolingual English speakers. Similarly, some signs use Latin script that is aestheticized to look like Chinese characters or Cyrillic script, in order to evoke the associated languages while still being readable to people who don't know them. For example, Leeman and Modan (2010) describe the use of aestheticized Latin script in the Washington DC's Chinatown and the Arab Quarter of Granada, Spain. [18]

The study of linguistic landscape also examines such patterns as which languages are used for which types of institutions (e.g. country club, hospital, ethnic grocery store), which languages are used for more expensive/cheaper items (new cars or used cars), or which languages are used for more expensive/cheaper services (e.g. pool cleaning or washing machine repair). Also, the linguistic landscape can be studied across an area, to see which neighborhoods have signs in which languages. For example, Carr (2017) examined the languages of three cities in Southeast Los Angeles in her dissertation, [19] while Blommaert undertook an ethnography of his local neighbourhood in Antwerp, Belgium to examine how multilingual signs chronicles the complex social and cultural histories of a place. [20]

The languages used in public signs indicate what languages are locally relevant, or give evidence of what languages are becoming locally relevant (Hult 2009; Kasanga 2012). In many multilingual countries, multilingual signs and packaging are taken for granted, especially as merchants try to attract as many customers as possible or people realize that they serve a multilingual community (Hult, 2014). In other places, it is a matter of law, as in Quebec, where signs cannot be in English only, but must include French (Bill 101, Charte de la langue française ). In Jerusalem it is legally required that 50% of a business's sign be in Hebrew. [21] In Texas, some signs are required to be in English and Spanish, such as warning signs about consuming alcohol while pregnant.

A grocery store sign in Dallas, TX in three languages English, Amharic, and Spanish. English-Amharic-Spanish sign.jpg
A grocery store sign in Dallas, TX in three languages English, Amharic, and Spanish.

Linguistic landscape can also be applied to the study of competing scripts for a single language. For example, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, some signs in Mongolia were erected in the traditional Mongolian script, not just Cyrillic (Grivelet 2001). Similarly, in some Cherokee speaking communities, street signs and other public signage is written with the Cherokee syllabary (Bender 2008). Also, license plates in Greek Cyprus have been printed with Greek or Roman letters in different eras. [22]

Different approaches to linguistic landscape studies

Slavic language carved into gravestone, though no longer spoken in the city. Orthodox bilingual gravestone in Berwick PA 1984.jpg
Slavic language carved into gravestone, though no longer spoken in the city.

More recently, scholars have rejected the purely quantitative approaches to Linguistic Landscape. For example, using Scollon and Scollon's (2003) framework of geosemiotics, researchers have analyzed the placement and relative size of different languages and signs. [23] Leeman and Modan (2009) proposed a "contextualized historical approach" to linguistic landscape that emphasizes the importance of considering how the signs came to be, and what they mean in a given context. [24] Their example of the different symbolic meanings of Chinese and English on Starbucks signs in Washington DC's Chinatown and a Shanghai shopping mall shows that it is unwise to draw conclusions based on the relative frequency of languages in signage. [24]

The study of the linguistic landscape can also show evidence of the presence and roles of different languages through history. [25] [26] Some early work on a specific form of linguistic landscape was done in cemeteries used by immigrant communities, [27] some languages being carved "long after the language ceased to be spoken" in the communities. [28]

In addition to larger public signage, some who study linguistic landscapes are now including the study of other public objects with multilingual texts, such as banknotes in India which are labeled in over a dozen languages. [29]

Politics and the linguistic landscape

While the politics of language, particularly around which particular languages are privileged and which are not, has been an important focus for the discipline since its earliest beginnings, [1] the role that the linguistic landscape can play in politics more generally is increasingly becoming a topic for investigation. Seargeant's study of Political Activism in the Linguistic Landscape, [30] for example, examines how the UK activist group Led by Donkeys used a variety of sociolinguistic strategies drawing on the affordances of public space to expose acts of political hypocrisy. The book is also notable for using a graphic novel format to analyse its topic.

Linguistic landscape studies on areas of conflict

The study of language in post-war and conflict-ridden areas has also attracted the interest of scholars who applied the Linguistic Landscape approach as a method to explore how language use in the public space represents ethnic groups, reflects territorial conflicts, expresses statehood and projects ideologies and socio-cultural identities. Themistocleous (2019) for instance explored the use of Greek and Turkish on public signs in the centre of Nicosia (Cyprus) and found that traditional discourses of separation and conflict are dominant in the public space but at the same time new discourses of unification, peace and integration slowly begin to surface. [31]

Linguistic landscape in the Valencian community

Bilingual (Valencian, Spanish) road sign along the highway in the Valencian Community. Bilingual road sign in Valencian Community.jpg
Bilingual (Valencian, Spanish) road sign along the highway in the Valencian Community.

Valencia is an officially bilingual city, where Valencian and Spanish populations coexist. In this territory the Valencian language lives in a situation of diglossia, and therefore the Valencian public institutions must maintain, protect and promote the use of the Valencian language. To ensure this, in 2005 the Valencia City Council developed "the Reglamento municipal sobre uso y normalización del valenciano en el municipio de Valencia" ("Municipal Regulations on the Use and Standardisation of Valencian Language in the Municipality of Valencia" [32] ). The autonomous legislation of Valencia considers the use of Valencian as the preferred language for signs, banners, announcements, billboards, public road signs and toponyms. Moreover, the autonomous government and the municipal regulations from Valencia encourage private entities to use Valencian over Spanish in their efforts to raise the prestige and recognition of the language, which, despite being official, is used by minority throughout the territory.

Socially speaking, the Valencian Community is a territory with a great number of inhabitants who are either monolingual in Spanish, or bilingual in Spanish-Valencian, and it is a strongly touristy region. There is international tourism, especially from England and Northern Europe, and also national tourism. Among the use of other languages within the territory, the use of English is noteworthy as a lingua franca or vehicular language. For this reason, many shops use English in order to be accessible to a wider public. As described by Bruyèl-Olmedo and Juan-Garau, "among the number of languages featured on signs, shop fronts, billboards and the like, English enjoys a privileged position when it comes to addressing a multilingual, heterogeneous readership" [33]

Basque and Spanish languages

The Basque Country has invested in the protection of bilingualism, with particular regard to the introduction of measures aimed at ensuring the normalisation of the Basque language in institutions and the achievement of equal rights in its use and enjoyment for citizens, which at the moment is not fully achieved, especially in the working environment. In fact, according to the Unesco Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, Basque is a minority and vulnerable language in its own territory, and is in an asymmetrical situation with respect to the other official language, Spanish. The challenge, therefore, is to bring the two official languages (Castilian and Euskara) up to the same level in practice, beyond the formal recognition they have already enjoyed since 1978, the year in which the newborn Constitution established in the second paragraph of Article 3 that all other languages should be equally official in their respective Autonomous Communities. [34]

Bilingual sign (Spanish, Basque) at a bookstore in Bilbao Bookstore with two signs in Bilbao.jpg
Bilingual sign (Spanish, Basque) at a bookstore in Bilbao

This historic concession constituted a decisive change of direction after the years of Franco's dictatorship, during which the regime had banned the use of the Basque language and attempted to erase its history and traditions.

The Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country (1979), for its part, proclaimed the status of the Basque language as its own official language in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country and the right of all persons to know and use both official languages (Article 6.1). Finally, Article 6.4 provided that the Royal Academy of the Basque Language-Euskaltzaindia is the official consultative institution with regard to Basque. [35]

Getting to the present day, in 2009 of the approximately two million people living in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, or Euskadi, only around 35% spoke Euskera, the Basque language, a non-Indo-European language isolate. Apart from that, notably Euskera had also a 9% of speakers in the Autonomous Community of Navarre and 26% in the Basque territories in the south of France. [36]

At the time, it was in the second year of the Basque Government's fourth planning period (2008-2012). Since then, the major intervention made is that contained in Decree 179/2019 of 19 November 2019, which gave to each local council the decision-making power on how to organise the use of both languages in its internal and public relations.

This decree put an end to the stage of a single rule for all local entities, and opened a new time in which each local institution could decide which language to use according to its sociolinguistic reality.

Among its objectives: to make Basque the language of work and of relations between administrations, to rationalise the use of translations and interpretations and to promote the use of the language in and from municipalities. [37]

Examples

Notes

  1. 1 2 Landry and Bourhis 1997:23
  2. Sebba, Mark (2010). "Review of Linguistic Landscapes: A Comparative Study of Urban Multilingualism in Tokyo.". Writing Systems Research. 2 (1): 73–76. doi:10.1093/wsr/wsp006. S2CID   144039684.
  3. Shulist, Sarah. 2018. Signs of status: language policy, revitalization, and visibility in urban Amazonia. Language Policy 17: 4, pp 523–543.
  4. Spolsky and Cooper 1991, The languages of Jerusalem. Clarendon Press.
  5. Ben-Rafael, Eliezer, Elana Shohamy, Muhammad Hasan Amara, and Nira Trumper-Hecht. "Linguistic landscape as symbolic construction of the public space: The case of Israel." International journal of multilingualism 3, no. 1 (2006): 7-30.
  6. Seargeant, Philip; Giaxoglou, Korina (2020), Georgakopoulou, Alexandra; De Fina, Anna (eds.), "Discourse and the Linguistic Landscape" (PDF), The Cambridge Handbook of Discourse Studies, Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 306–326, doi:10.1017/9781108348195.015, ISBN   978-1-108-42514-8, S2CID   201363082 , retrieved 2023-06-13
  7. Sebba 2010:73
  8. "Linguistic Landscape 7 - 7-9 May 2015, UC Berkeley". berkeley.edu. Archived from the original on 11 May 2017. Retrieved 9 December 2016.
  9. "Zotero - Groups > Linguistic Landscape Bibliography > Library". zotero.org. Retrieved 9 December 2016.
  10. Troyer, Robert A. 2016. "Linguistic Landscape Bibliography". Zotero.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  11. Manusya website
  12. Huebner, Thom (2016). "Linguistic landscape: History, Trajectory and Pedagogy" (PDF). Manusya: Journal of the Humanities. 2016 (22): 1–11. doi: 10.1163/26659077-01903001 .
  13. Tufi, Stefania; Blackwood, Robert (2010). "Trademarks in the linguistic landscape: methodological and theoretical challenges in qualifying brand names in the public space". International Journal of Multilingualism. 7 (3): 197–210. doi:10.1080/14790710903568417. S2CID   145448875.
  14. Papen, Uta (2012). "Commercial discourses, gentrification and citizens' protest: the linguistic landscape of Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin". Journal of Sociolinguistics. 16 (1): 56–80. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9841.2011.00518.x.
  15. Heyd, Theresa (2014). "Folk-linguistic landscape". Language in Society. 43 (5): 489–514. doi:10.1017/s0047404514000530. S2CID   145139107.
  16. Hult, F.M. (2009). Language ecology and linguistic landscape analysis. In E. Shohamy & D. Gorter (Eds.), Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery (pp. 88-104). London: Routledge.
  17. Hult, F.M. (2014). Drive-thru linguistic landscaping: Constructing a linguistically dominant place in a bilingual space. International Journal of Bilingualism, 18, 507-523.
  18. Leeman, Jennifer; Modan, Gabriella (2010), "Elana Shohamy, Eli Ben-Rafael and Monica Barni (Eds.) Selling the City: Language, Ethnicity, and Commodified Space", Linguistic Landscape in the City, retrieved 2018-04-22
  19. Carr, Jhonni (2017). Signs of Our Times: Language Contact and Attitudes in the Linguistic Landscape of Southeast Los Angeles. EScholarship (Thesis). UCLA.
  20. Blommaert, Jan (2013). Ethnography, superdiversity and linguistic landscapes: chronicles of complexity. Critical language and literacy studies. Bristol Buffalo Toronto: Multilingual Matters. ISBN   978-1-78309-040-2.
  21. Jerusalem Post
  22. Dimitra Karoulla-Vrikki. 2013. Which alphabet on car number-plates in Cyprus? Language Problems and Language Planning 37.3: pp. 249–270
  23. Scollon, Ron; Scollon, Suzie Wong (2003). Discourses in Place: Language in the Material World. Routledge. ISBN   9781134436903.
  24. 1 2 Leeman, Jennifer; Modan, Gabriella (2009). "Commodified language in Chinatown: A contextualized approach to linguistic landscape". Journal of Sociolinguistics. 13 (3): 332–362. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9841.2009.00409.x.
  25. Jam Blommaert. 2013. Ethnography, superdiversity, and linguistic landscapes: Chronicles of complexity. Multilingual Matters.
  26. Ramamoorthy, L. (2002) Linguistic landscaping and reminiscences of French legacy: The case of Pondicherry. In N.H. Itagy and S.K. Singh (eds) Linguistic Landscaping in India (pp. 118–131). Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages/Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University.
  27. Doris Francis, Georgina Neophytu, Leonie Kellaher. 2005. The Secret Cemetery. Oxford: Berg.
  28. p. 42. Kara VanDam. 2009. Dutch- American language shift: evidence from the grave. LACUS Forum XXXIV 33–42.
  29. Larissa Aronin and Muiris Ó Laoire. 2012. The material culture of multilingualism. In Durk Gorter, Heiko F. Marten and Luk Van Mensel, eds., Minority Languages in the Linguistic Landscape, pp. 229–318. (Palgrave Studies in Minority Languages and Communities.) Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.
  30. Seargeant, Philip (2023). Political Activism in the Linguistic Landscape: Or, how to use Public Space as a Medium for Protest. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. ISBN   9781800416840.
  31. Themistocleous, C. (2019) Conflict and unification in the multilingual landscape of a divided city: the case of Nicosia's border. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 40 (2). pp. 94-114
  32. "Reglamento municipal sobre uso y normalización del Valenciano en el Municipio de Valencia". Global Economist & Jurist.
  33. Bruyèl-Olmedo i Juan-Garau, 2009:1
  34. "Boletín oficial del País Vasco" (PDF).
  35. "PROYECTO DE DECRETO 000/2019, DE 00 DE XXXXXX, SOBRE NORMALIZACIÓN DEL USO INSTITUCIONAL Y ADMINISTRATIVO DE LAS LENGUAS OFICIALES EN LAS INSTITUCIONES LOCALES DE EUSKADI" (PDF).
  36. "Lengua e identidad nacional en el País Vasco: Del franquismo a la democracia". Lengua e identidad nacional en el País Vasco: Del franquismo a la democracia. By Santiago De Pablo. Études. Presses universitaires de Perpignan. 2 October 2013. pp. 53–64. ISBN   9782354122164.
  37. "El Gobierno Vasco aprueba el nuevo decreto que regula el uso, oral y escrito, de las dos lenguas oficiales en las entidades locales de Euskadi (Consejo de Gobierno 19-12-2019)".

Related Research Articles

In bilingual education, students are taught in two languages. It is distinct from learning a second language as a subject because both languages are used for instruction in different content areas like math, science, and history. The time spent in each language depends on the model. For example, some models focus on providing education in both languages throughout a student's entire education while others gradually transition to education in only one language. The ultimate goal of bilingual education is fluency and literacy in both languages through a variety of strategies such as translanguaging and recasting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Code-switching</span> Changing between languages during a single conversation

In linguistics, code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation. Code-switching is different from plurilingualism in that plurilingualism refers to the ability of an individual to use multiple languages, while code-switching is the act of using multiple languages together. Multilinguals sometimes use elements of multiple languages when conversing with each other. Thus, code-switching is the use of more than one linguistic variety in a manner consistent with the syntax and phonology of each variety. Code-switching may happen between sentences, sentence fragments, words, or individual morphemes. However, some linguists consider the borrowing of words or morphemes from another language to be different from other types of code-switching. Likewise, code-switching can occur when there is a change in the environment one is speaking. Code-switching can happen in the context of speaking a different language or switching the verbiage to match that of the audience. There are many ways in which code-switching is employed, such as when speakers are unable to express themselves adequately in a single language or to signal an attitude towards something. Several theories have been developed to explain the reasoning behind code-switching from sociological and linguistic perspectives.

Language policy is both an interdisciplinary academic field and implementation of ideas about language use. Some scholars such as Joshua Fishman and Ofelia García consider it as part of sociolinguistics. On the other hand, other scholars such as Bernard Spolsky, Robert B. Kaplan and Joseph Lo Bianco argue that language policy is a branch of applied linguistics.

Language transfer is the application of linguistic features from one language to another by a bilingual or multilingual speaker. Language transfer may occur across both languages in the acquisition of a simultaneous bilingual, from a mature speaker's first language (L1) to a second language (L2) they are acquiring, or from an L2 back to the L1. Language transfer is most commonly discussed in the context of English language learning and teaching, but it can occur in any situation when someone does not have a native-level command of a language, as when translating into a second language. Language transfer is also a common topic in bilingual child language acquisition as it occurs frequently in bilingual children especially when one language is dominant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mutual intelligibility</span> Closeness of linguistic varieties

In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between languages or dialects in which speakers of different but related varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. It is sometimes used as an important criterion for distinguishing languages from dialects, although sociolinguistic factors are often also used.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Multilingualism</span> Use of multiple languages

Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all Europeans claim to speak at least one language other than their mother tongue; but many read and write in one language. Being multilingual is advantageous for people wanting to participate in trade, globalization and cultural openness. Owing to the ease of access to information facilitated by the Internet, individuals' exposure to multiple languages has become increasingly possible. People who speak several languages are also called polyglots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sociology of language</span> Branch of sociology relating to language

Sociology of language is the study of the relations between language and society. It is closely related to the field of sociolinguistics, which focuses on the effect of society on language. One of its longest and most prolific practitioners was Joshua Fishman, who was founding editor of the International Journal of the Sociology of Language, in addition to other major contributions. The sociology of language studies society in relation to language, whereas sociolinguistics studies language in relation to society. For the former, society is the object of study, whereas, for the latter, language is the object of study. In other words, sociolinguistics studies language and how it varies based on the user's sociological background, such as gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic class. On the other hand, sociology of language studies society and how it is impacted by language. As Trent University professor of global politics Andreas Pickel states, "religion and other symbolic systems strongly shaping social practices and shaping political orientations are examples of the social significance such languages can have." The basic idea is that language reflects, among several other things, attitudes that speakers want to exchange or that just get reflected through language use. These attitudes of the speakers are the sociologist's information.

Code-mixing is the mixing of two or more languages or language varieties in speech.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joshua Fishman</span> American linguist

Joshua Fishman was an American linguist who specialized in the sociology of language, language planning, bilingual education, and language and ethnicity.

Bimodal bilingualism is an individual or community's bilingual competency in at least one oral language and at least one sign language, which utilize two different modalities. An oral language consists of a vocal-aural modality versus a signed language which consists of a visual-spatial modality. A substantial number of bimodal bilinguals are children of deaf adults (CODA) or other hearing people who learn sign language for various reasons. Deaf people as a group have their own sign language(s) and culture that is referred to as Deaf, but invariably live within a larger hearing culture with its own oral language. Thus, "most deaf people are bilingual to some extent in [an oral] language in some form". In discussions of multilingualism in the United States, bimodal bilingualism and bimodal bilinguals have often not been mentioned or even considered. This is in part because American Sign Language, the predominant sign language used in the U.S., only began to be acknowledged as a natural language in the 1960s. However, bimodal bilinguals share many of the same traits as traditional bilinguals, as well as differing in some interesting ways, due to the unique characteristics of the Deaf community. Bimodal bilinguals also experience similar neurological benefits as do unimodal bilinguals, with significantly increased grey matter in various brain areas and evidence of increased plasticity as well as neuroprotective advantages that can help slow or even prevent the onset of age-related cognitive diseases, such as Alzheimer's and dementia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bilingual sign</span> Sign with text in more than one language

A bilingual sign is the representation on a panel of texts in more than one language. The use of bilingual signs is usually reserved for situations where there is legally administered bilingualism or where there is a relevant tourist or commercial interest. However, more informal uses of bilingual signs are often found on businesses in areas where there is a high degree of bilingualism, such as tourist venues, ethnic enclaves and historic neighborhoods. In addition, some signs feature synchronic digraphia, the use of multiple writing systems for a single language.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Language geography</span>

Language geography is the branch of human geography that studies the geographic distribution of language(s) or its constituent elements. Linguistic geography can also refer to studies of how people talk about the landscape. For example, toponymy is the study of place names. Landscape ethnoecology, also known as ethnophysiography, is the study of landscape ontologies and how they are expressed in language.

Linguistic rights are the human and civil rights concerning the individual and collective right to choose the language or languages for communication in a private or public atmosphere. Other parameters for analyzing linguistic rights include the degree of territoriality, amount of positivity, orientation in terms of assimilation or maintenance, and overtness.

Neuroscience of multilingualism is the study of multilingualism within the field of neurology. These studies include the representation of different language systems in the brain, the effects of multilingualism on the brain's structural plasticity, aphasia in multilingual individuals, and bimodal bilinguals. Neurological studies of multilingualism are carried out with functional neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and through observation of people who have suffered brain damage.

Translanguaging is a term that can refer to different aspects of multilingualism. It can describe the way bilinguals and multilinguals use their linguistic resources to make sense of and interact with the world around them. It can also refer to a pedagogical approach that utilizes more than one language within a classroom lesson. The term "translanguaging" was coined in the 1980s by Cen Williams in his unpublished thesis titled “An Evaluation of Teaching and Learning Methods in the Context of Bilingual Secondary Education.” Williams used the term to describe the practice of using two languages in the same lesson, which differed from many previous methods of bilingual education that tried to separate languages by class, time, or day. In addition, Vogel and Garcia argued that translanguaging theory posits that rather than possessing two or more autonomous language systems, as previously thought when scholars described bilingual or multilingual speakers, bilinguals and multilingual speakers select and deploy their languages from a unitary linguistic repertoire. However, the dissemination of the term, and of the related concept, gained traction decades later due in part to published research by Ofelia García, among others. In this context, translanguaging is an extension of the concept of languaging, the discursive practices of language speakers, but with the additional feature of using multiple languages, often simultaneously. It is a dynamic process in which multilingual speakers navigate complex social and cognitive demands through strategic employment of multiple languages.

Linguistic ecology or language ecology is the study of how languages interact with each other and the places they are spoken in, and frequently argues for the preservation of endangered languages as an analogy of the preservation of biological species.

Alastair Pennycook is an applied linguist. He is Emeritus Professor of Language, Society and Education at the University of Technology Sydney, and a Research Professor at the Centre for Multilingualism in Society Across the Lifespan at the University of Oslo. He was elected a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jasone Cenoz</span>

Jasone Cenoz is a professor of education at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) University of the Basque Country in Donostia-San Sebastian, Spain since 2004. From 2000 to 2004 she was Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of the Basque Country in Vitoria-Gasteiz. Her research focuses on multilingual education, bilingualism and multilingualism. She is known for her work on the influence of bilingualism on third language acquisition, pedagogical translanguaging, linguistic landscape, minority languages and Content and Language Integrated Learning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ingrid Piller</span> Australian linguist (born 1967)

Ingrid Piller is an Australian linguist, who specializes in intercultural communication, language learning, multilingualism, and bilingual education. Piller is Distinguished Professor at Macquarie University and an elected fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Piller serves as Editor-in-Chief of the academic journal Multilingua and as founding editor of the research dissemination site Language on the Move. She is a member of the Australian Research Council (ARC) College of Experts.

Language attitudes refer to an individual's evaluative reactions or opinions toward languages and the speakers of those languages. These attitudes can be positive, negative, or neutral, and they play a crucial role in shaping language use, communication patterns, and interactions within a society. Language attitudes are extensively studied in several areas such as social psychology, sociolinguistics or education It has long been considered to be a triad of cognitive, affective, and behavioral components. Language attitudes play an important role in language learning, identity construction, language maintenance, language planning and policy, among other facets of language development. These attitudes are dynamic and multifaceted, shaping our perceptions, interactions, and societal structures.

References