35.1317, Review: Linguistic Landscapes: Kallen (2023)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-35-1317. Wed Apr 24 2024. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 35.1317, Review: Linguistic Landscapes: Kallen (2023)

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Date: 24-Apr-2024
From: Troy Spier [tspier2 at gmail.com]
Subject: Sociolinguistics: Kallen (2023)


Book announced at https://linguistlist.org/issues/34.3301

AUTHOR: Jeffrey L. Kallen
TITLE: Linguistic Landscapes
SUBTITLE: A Sociolinguistic Approach
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press
YEAR: 2023

REVIEWER: Troy Spier

SUMMARY

Chapter 1 opens with the introduction and analysis of a trilingual
sign (Spanish, English, Arabic) found outside a New York-based church,
paying particular attention to the multimodal and multilingual nature
of such a sign as an indicator of social and linguistic factors in the
immediate environment. From this point, the chapter shifts to
discussions of language planning, language policy, language barriers,
and conflict creation and resolution as precedents for the importance
of undertaking any study of a linguistic landscape. These discussions
are punctuated by photographs of sample signs, both historically and
contemporaneously, of Latin inscriptions from the 1600s, contemporary
governmental signage, and lay expressions through e.g. protest
posters, graffiti, and remembrance stones for those who lost their
lives in the Holocaust (‘Stolpersteine’). These illustrate the role of
linguistic landscapes in both reifying normative language usage and
serving as places of contention, two topics discussed later in the
book.

Chapter 2 is primarily diachronic in nature and begins with
terminological concerns, addressing, for instance, the metaphorical
usage of ‘landscape’ in ‘linguistic landscape’ and ‘semiotic
landscape.’ Next, comparisons are made between linguistic landscapes
and the advent of writing, linguistic landscapes and the visual arts.
Finally, before shifting to a discussion of published research and
conferences within linguistic landscape studies more broadly, this
chapter offers an anecdote outlining the author’s first encounter with
linguistic landscapes as a distinct field of study.

Chapter 3 foregrounds a discussion of codes and playfully alludes
through its title to Austin’s (1962) most known work. In doing so, it
calls attention to the way that “sign instigators (1) choose and
display codes; (2) map between the content of messages and code
choices; (3) manipulate codes for cross-linguistic visual signifiers”
(p. 51). An interesting distinction is made between ‘in vitro’ and ‘in
vivo’ policies (and recognition thereof), where the former corresponds
to those of the government or other officials; the latter, to
lay-people. In contrasting these perspectives, this chapter then
shifts to important nomenclature (e.g. indexication, interlanguaging,
translanguaging, and transliteration) in addition to explicating the
fundamental factors of multimodal discourse analysis.

Chapter 4 positions a decidedly more metaphysical approach by arguing
that linguistic landscapes “should not be understood as physical
objects which either occupy or exist in a given space, but as elements
of discourse whose physical and referential properties [...] create
spatial relationships” (p. 80). Such relationships do not exclusively
concern the physical but, rather, highlight the sociopsychological
‘space’ within the linguistic landscape more broadly. In so doing, the
author revisits the terminological importance of ‘landscape’ in these
discussions and even notes that ‘-scape’ has become widely utilized in
discussions of particular linguistic landscapes (e.g. ‘schoolscape’).
Next, this chapter builds upon these social and psychological factors
by bifurcating proximal and distal space (‘hereness’ and ‘thereness,’
respectively) as indexed through and represented in approximately two
dozen images containing signs and maps ranging from a train between
New York and Montréal to an art exhibit in Dublin, Ireland.

Chapter 5 challenges the assumption that the languages present in a
linguistic landscape automatically index the speaker of those
languages. Put another way, the mere presence of any given language
can serve a number of purposes beyond exclusively connecting with a
population that speaks the language. To this end, this chapter begins
with a review of literature on markedness before connecting it to
linguistic landscapes more broadly. Next, the markedness filter is
schematized visually and described prosaically as the ‘bridge’ between
the viewer of a sign and all the code choices and affordances that
contribute toward the presentation of this sign. Finally, the most
exciting part of this chapter addresses enregisterment by first
reviewing the literature and then discussing the extent of ‘Greekness’
in Astoria (NYC) and Greektown (Chicago) through the indexicality
present in their respective linguistic landscapes.

Chapter 6 builds upon earlier discussions by reiterating that the
signs within a linguistic landscape are not just an object; instead,
they contribute to and even constitute discourse. This is because the
sign does not simply exist but, instead, also performs a function
through its existence or attestation (like speech acts), i.e., in the
sense that it can frame, reproduce, and/or reify a salient topic of
discourse as a result of its visibility. This was also illustrated
earlier in the volume through images that ‘played’ with different
elements of writing systems and languages to add a pseudo-authenticity
to the sign. Next, the chapter turns to genre-based concerns,
providing an overview of approaches to and definitions of genre study.
Finally, the ability of elements within the linguistic landscape to
engage in conversation and to follow conversational maxims is
analogized to the formal definitional criteria of particular genres
within this domain, such as plaques on streets and directives found on
governmental and administrative signs.

Chapter 7 offers an incredibly interesting discussion of the
importance of time and space in discussions of linguistic landscapes,
noting, for instance, that “most LL research relies on data which is
collected by the observer in the present and analysed accordingly” (p.
219). This is not inherently problematic in all instances, but it
could result in an anachronistic reading. Instead, this chapter argues
for an approach built upon Bakhtin’s (1981 [1937/8]) chronotope, where
the reading can be impacted both by the time that the sign was created
and also when it was witnessed, resulting in different time
configurations. Because the original chronological context might be
too distant, though, this results in the playfully named label of
‘ghost’ or ‘remnant’ signs.’ The remainder of the chapter considers
the ways in which a single sign might have multiple labels and, thus,
multiple temporal referents ‘layered’ on top of one another.

Chapter 8 is one of the longest and strongest chapters in the volume –
and for good reason, as it not only reiterates some of the major ideas
offered earlier, but also examines fundamental questions. To this end,
space is provided to determine by which criteria something should be
defined as a ‘linguistic landscape’ in the first place, and concerns
surrounding the importance and adequacy of evidence, in addition to
the ‘borders’ between linguistic landscape studies and other fields,
are addressed. In pursuit of this goal, extant scholarship from the
last twenty to twenty-five years is examined, and photographic and
non-photographic evidence are considered. Finally, this chapter
considers significant areas for future research within linguistic
landscapes studies.

EVALUATION

The author should be commended for compiling such an intriguing
volume, and any scholar within linguistic landscape studies would be
enriched for having read it. Indeed, following the characterization in
Sebba (2010), this volume does a wonderful job of illustrating the
incredibly interdisciplinary nature of such studies. Extensive
prefatory materials are provided (i.e., table of contents and lists of
figures, places, diagrams, and tables), the almost forty pages of
references indicate significant familiarity with extant scholarship on
the topic, and the index is quite reasonable for a volume of this
nature. Additionally, the chapters are generally well balanced in
length, averaging approximately forty pages and ranging from
twenty-four to fifty-seven pages. Furthermore, numerous images are
provided in every chapter, both to reinforce the concepts discussed
and to serve as objects of analysis to illustrate those concepts.
Finally, the introduction of genre to linguistic landscape studies is
particularly welcome and fills a gap in the literature. Several small
criticisms can, however, be made.

First, though it might seem trivial, the subtitle prepares the reader
for a very different type of volume. While the usage of ‘approach’
suggests that the reader will be presented with a clearly demarcated
heuristic that s/he can follow to implement a
sociolinguistically-informed perspective, this volume does not, in
fact, offer such. Instead, it is a ‘framework’ through which similar
research into linguistic landscapes can be understood more effectively
through consideration not only of the textual dimension, but also
through recourse to time, space, place, and multimodality in
discussions of indexicality. As a result, this volume is much more
theoretical than it is practical. Whether this was the intention or
not, however, remains unclearly explicated within the volume itself.
Indeed, the final chapter of the volume even notes that the author has
provided “a particular approach to language in the public space [...]
a model” (p. 251).

Second, the discussion about the historical innovation of writing
systems in Chapter 2 seems somewhat tangential, given that this
suggests that the presence of literacy is causally linked to the
existence of a linguistic landscape. Of course, it might well be the
case that some–or even most–linguistic landscape studies exclusively
examine the written word, but numerous examples are presented
throughout this volume that consider the non-textual dimension. For
this reason, either this foray into historical linguistics is
unnecessary or a broader discussion of the foundations of semiotics
needs to be added for appropriate balance and coverage. Moreover, it
is entirely possible that spoken or signed languages (i.e., without
recourse to writing) could constitute the linguistic landscape, albeit
in a slightly different sense than that which characterizes much
contemporary research in this area.

Third, the reader is presented with formal definitions of a linguistic
landscape for the first time almost at the very end of the second
chapter. This leads to a situation where an assumption is made,
rightly or wrongly, for the first fourth of the volume that the reader
is equipped with the prerequisite knowledge to ‘jump’ immediately into
analytical concerns. This can be contrasted, for instance, with the
approach undertaken in other frequently referenced texts on the
subject, including Spolsky and Cooper (1991), Backhaus (2006), and
Shohamy and Gorter (2009). What happens, then, is that the reader may
encounter a framework without enough background to recognize why it is
important and/or where it fits within the broader literature of the
field. On the other hand, Chapter 8 presents exactly the kind of
background information that a reader would need before ‘diving’ into
the rest of the volume; for this reason, it might have more
effectively served as one of the earliest in the volume, i.e., as
opposed to appearing at the very end. For instance, Chapter 8 makes
the case for the value of photographic evidence, some 250 pages after
the first images are presented to the reader.
Despite these areas for potential revision, this volume–and the
author–should be recognized for expanding the existing scope of and
potential for studies within linguistic landscapes by providing such a
detailed, evidence-reinforced account of sociologically-oriented
topics for consideration in designing, undertaking, and analyzing the
data from such research endeavors.

REFERENCES

Austin, John Langshaw. 1962. How to Do Things with Words. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press.

Backhaus, Peter. 2006. Linguistic Landscapes: A Comparative Study of
Urban Multilingualism in Tokyo. Buffalo, NY: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

Bakhtin, Mikhail. 1981 [1937/8]. “Forms of Time and of the Chronotope
in the Novel.” In Michael Holquist (ed.), The Dialogic Imagination:
Four Essays by M.M. Bakhtin, translated by Caryl Emerson and Michael
Holquist, pp. 84-258. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

Sebba, Mark. 2010. “Review of Linguistic Landscapes: A Comparative
Study of Urban Multilingualism in Tokyo.” Writing Systems Research,
2(1): 73-76.

Shohamy, Elana and Durk Gorter. 2009. Linguistic Landscape: Expanding
the Scenery. New York, NY: Routledge.

Spolsky, Bernard and Robert Cooper. 1991. The Languages of Jerusalem.
Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Troy E. Spier is Assistant Professor of English and Linguistics at
Florida A&M University. He earned his MA and Ph.D. in Linguistics at
Tulane University, his B.S.Ed. in English/Secondary Education at
Kutztown University, and a graduate certificate in Islamic Studies at
Dallas International University. His research interests include
language documentation and description, discourse analysis, corpus
linguistics, and linguistic landscapes.



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