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Chinatown in Washington, DC: The bilingual landscape
Author(s) -
JIA LOU JACKIE
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
world englishes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.6
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-971X
pISSN - 0883-2919
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-971x.2011.01740.x
Subject(s) - linguistic landscape , conceptualization , linguistics , multilingualism , representation (politics) , focus (optics) , chinatown , sociology , inscribed figure , history , political science , archaeology , philosophy , physics , geometry , mathematics , optics , politics , law
Originated as a new approach to multilingualism, research on linguistic landscapes has typically focused on the varieties of language inscribed on the surface of a particular place. As this original conceptualization and its associated methodology have not always sufficed to capture the sociolinguistic complexities of contemporary urban environments, recent researchers have called for a more contextualized approach to linguistic landscapes. Drawing on Lefebvre and Scollon and Scollon, this paper suggests that the linguistic landscapes might be considered with reference to a triadic model of place and spatial representation. This model is applied to reevaluate the bilingual landscape of Washington DC's Chinatown, with a particular focus on the multiple roles played by the English language in shaping and navigating the multilingual environment.