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Patterns of discursive urban place-making in Brooklyn, New York

  • Beatrix Busse
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Corpus Linguistics, Context and Culture
This chapter is in the book Corpus Linguistics, Context and Culture

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to conceptualise urban linguistic and semiotic patterns from an interdisciplinary perspective. Drawing on the example of multimodal discursive practices used in selected neighbourhoods of Brooklyn, New York, this paper shows how spaces are turned into meaningful places through various social semiotic moves and stylistic practices. These discursive processes of urban “place-making” (cf. Busse & Warnke 2015) create, construe and contest this specific urban Brooklynite place and identity and therewith mark - due to its speakers’ active role in positioning themselves in the social landscape (Silverstein 2003; Johnstone, Andrus, & Danielson 2006; Searle 1995) - the value of particular Brooklynite neighbourhoods. The paper chooses a mixed-methods approach which combines both a qualitative and a quantitative methodological framework as well as approaches from sociolinguistics, corpus linguistic methodologies as well as semiotic landscape studies.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to conceptualise urban linguistic and semiotic patterns from an interdisciplinary perspective. Drawing on the example of multimodal discursive practices used in selected neighbourhoods of Brooklyn, New York, this paper shows how spaces are turned into meaningful places through various social semiotic moves and stylistic practices. These discursive processes of urban “place-making” (cf. Busse & Warnke 2015) create, construe and contest this specific urban Brooklynite place and identity and therewith mark - due to its speakers’ active role in positioning themselves in the social landscape (Silverstein 2003; Johnstone, Andrus, & Danielson 2006; Searle 1995) - the value of particular Brooklynite neighbourhoods. The paper chooses a mixed-methods approach which combines both a qualitative and a quantitative methodological framework as well as approaches from sociolinguistics, corpus linguistic methodologies as well as semiotic landscape studies.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part I: Discourse contexts and cultures
  5. Patterns of discursive urban place-making in Brooklyn, New York 13
  6. The English of current Caribbean newspapers 43
  7. Corporate identity and its variation over time 75
  8. Applying Geographical Information Systems to researching historical corpora 109
  9. Corpus linguistics: Widening the remit 137
  10. Part II: Contexts of lexis and grammar
  11. Family collocation 165
  12. Factors influencing the translation of -ing participial free adjuncts 197
  13. The diachronic productivity of native combining forms in American English 223
  14. Advise against -ing: An emerging class of exceptions to Bach’s Generalization 253
  15. Subjective progressives in the history of American English 275
  16. Part III: Learner contexts
  17. A syntactic analysis of the introductory it pattern in non-native-speaker and nativespeaker student writing 307
  18. Phraseological teddy bears 339
  19. “Dear Man men and women madam, dear xxx sir” 363
  20. Marked themes in advanced learner English 387
  21. Phrasal verbs in the spoken and written modes of Norwegian L2 learner English 409
  22. Conversational gesture corpus analysis 437
  23. Corpus research for SLA 467
  24. List of contributors 483
  25. Index 487
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110489071-002

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter I
  2. Contents V
  3. Introduction 1
  4. Part I: Discourse contexts and cultures
  5. Patterns of discursive urban place-making in Brooklyn, New York 13
  6. The English of current Caribbean newspapers 43
  7. Corporate identity and its variation over time 75
  8. Applying Geographical Information Systems to researching historical corpora 109
  9. Corpus linguistics: Widening the remit 137
  10. Part II: Contexts of lexis and grammar
  11. Family collocation 165
  12. Factors influencing the translation of -ing participial free adjuncts 197
  13. The diachronic productivity of native combining forms in American English 223
  14. Advise against -ing: An emerging class of exceptions to Bach’s Generalization 253
  15. Subjective progressives in the history of American English 275
  16. Part III: Learner contexts
  17. A syntactic analysis of the introductory it pattern in non-native-speaker and nativespeaker student writing 307
  18. Phraseological teddy bears 339
  19. “Dear Man men and women madam, dear xxx sir” 363
  20. Marked themes in advanced learner English 387
  21. Phrasal verbs in the spoken and written modes of Norwegian L2 learner English 409
  22. Conversational gesture corpus analysis 437
  23. Corpus research for SLA 467
  24. List of contributors 483
  25. Index 487
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