28.3358, Diss: Signs of Our Times: Language Contact and Attitudes in the Linguistic Landscape of Southeast Los Angeles

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-28-3358. Wed Aug 09 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.3358, Diss: Signs of Our Times: Language Contact and Attitudes in the Linguistic Landscape of Southeast Los Angeles

Moderators: linguist at linguistlist.org (Damir Cavar, Malgorzata E. Cavar)
Reviews: reviews at linguistlist.org (Helen Aristar-Dry, Robert Coté,
                                   Michael Czerniakowski)
Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
           http://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

Editor for this issue: Yue Chen <yue at linguistlist.org>
================================================================


Date: Wed, 09 Aug 2017 09:49:14
From: Jhonni Carr [jhonni at ucla.edu]
Subject: Signs of Our Times: Language Contact and Attitudes in the Linguistic Landscape of Southeast Los Angeles

 
Institution: University of California, Los Angeles 
Program: Department of Spanish & Portuguese 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2017 

Author: Jhonni Carr

Dissertation Title: Signs of Our Times: Language Contact and Attitudes in the
Linguistic Landscape of Southeast Los Angeles 

Dissertation URL:  http://escholarship.org/uc/item/3k10h7g5

Linguistic Field(s): Sociolinguistics

Subject Language(s): English (eng)
                     Spanish (spa)


Dissertation Director(s):
Carlos Quicoli

Dissertation Abstract:

There are nearly 5 million Latinos and 3.7 million Spanish speakers in Los
Angeles County (U.S. Census Bureau, 2015a, 2015b). As such, Spanish is
commonly seen in the city's signage, or its linguistic landscape (Landry &
Bourhis, 1997). This dissertation exposes the power relations that lie in the
coexistence of Spanish and English inscriptions in the urban space of three
Southeast L.A. cities. This is done by comparing the material presence of
languages in the linguistic landscape with Latina and Latino community
members' perceptions of language use and their resulting attitudes. A corpus
containing images of 4,664 signs is examined, along with responses from 24
semi-directed, sociolinguistic interviews. In the quantitative analyses of
signs, I investigate languages' appearance and dominance, degree of prestige,
and communicative usefulness. This is compared with informants' comments
regarding their perceived amount of English and Spanish in the city, as well
as language prestige and utility.

Results show that, while there is some overlap, we can gain insight from both
the production and perception of languages in L.A. signage. In the
quantitative analyses of signs, I demonstrate that English holds a great deal
of prestige in the area. The qualitative studies confirm English's overt
prestige but also reveal a covert prestige for Spanish as a language of
solidarity among Latinas and Latinos. Similarly, while the majority of
interviewees agree that Spanish is more useful for communication in these
geographical areas, quantitative examinations show that both languages in fact
have a high degree of utility. Furthermore, I use regression analyses to
demonstrate how we can predict the arrangement of languages in signs.

This investigation illuminates the dynamic situation of language contact in
the signage of Southeast Los Angeles and the manner in which language is
directly intertwined with the public space and power relations. In addition to
expanding sociolinguistic and linguistic landscape scholarship, this research
has implications for language policy and planning, as well as for social and
language justice organizations devoted to the needs of residents who have been
linguistically excluded from public services.




------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*****************    LINGUIST List Support    *****************
Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
            http://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/
 


----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-28-3358	
----------------------------------------------------------