Linguistic landscape as mediational means of collective action: a nexus analysis of Covid signs in China
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Hong Zhang
Hong Zhang is Full Professor at College of Foreign Languages, Huaqiao University, China. She has obtained her PhD degree from University of Macau and her main research interests are linguistic/semiotic landscapes, translanguaging, multilingualism, multimodality, graffiti, classroom emotions and English language teaching. She has offered graduate and undergraduate courses such as Sociolinguistics, Linguistic Landscape, Comprehensive English, English Writing, etc. In the past few years, she has published research articles as the first or single author in
Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development ,International Journal of Bilingualism, International Journal of Multilingualism, Language and Intercultural Communication, Visual Communication, Journal of Language and Politics, English in Education , etc. She has been serving as a frequent referee for prestigious SSCI-indexed journals such asInternational Journal of Multilingualism ,Applied Linguistics Review ,Frontiers in Psychology ,International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism ,Language and Intercultural Communication ,Language & Education ,Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development ,Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching ,International Journal of Bilingualism ,Language, Culture and Curriculum ,Multilingua ,English Studies ,International Journal of Applied Linguistics , etc.
Abstract
Signs as Linguistic Landscape (henceforth LL) data not only reflect social phenomena but also instigate social action. This paper documents governmental signage in the pandemic and investigates how LL reflects historical and sociocultural conventions, shapes people’s understanding of pandemic life and contributes to regulating public behavior. Expounding the three dimensions of ‘nexus analysis’, i.e. ‘interaction order’, ‘historical body’ and ‘discourses in place’, this paper reveals that LL serves as mediational means to afford the government’s collective action of calling for unity and obedience in a time of national crisis. By highlighting materiality, emplacement, and historical and sociocultural connotations, this paper pinpoints mediated actions and cycles of discourse in the Chinese context at the critical time of Covid. The ‘interaction order’ is analyzed according to social relationships behind sign usage, ‘historical body’ embraces the previous histories of not only people but also their habit of using signs while ‘discourses in place’ form semiotic aggregate with the help of multimodality and materiality.
Funding source: Social Science Fund of Fujian Province
Award Identifier / Grant number: FJ2022A017
Funding source: Huaqiao University’s Academic Project Supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
Award Identifier / Grant number: 2024HQYJ03
About the author
Hong Zhang is Full Professor at College of Foreign Languages, Huaqiao University, China. She has obtained her PhD degree from University of Macau and her main research interests are linguistic/semiotic landscapes, translanguaging, multilingualism, multimodality, graffiti, classroom emotions and English language teaching. She has offered graduate and undergraduate courses such as Sociolinguistics, Linguistic Landscape, Comprehensive English, English Writing, etc. In the past few years, she has published research articles as the first or single author in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, International Journal of Bilingualism, International Journal of Multilingualism, Language and Intercultural Communication, Visual Communication, Journal of Language and Politics, English in Education, etc. She has been serving as a frequent referee for prestigious SSCI-indexed journals such as International Journal of Multilingualism, Applied Linguistics Review, Frontiers in Psychology, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Language and Intercultural Communication, Language & Education, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, International Journal of Bilingualism, Language, Culture and Curriculum, Multilingua, English Studies, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, etc.
Acknowledgments
I am extremely grateful to the editor Professor Li Wei and the anonymous reviewers for offering me useful and constructive comments which helped to improve this paper. I would also like to express great thanks to my students for collecting some of the data.
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Research funding: This work was supported by a key project under the Social Science Fund of Fujian Province [Grant Number: FJ2022A017] and Huaqiao University’s Academic Project Supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [Grant Number: 2024HQYJ03].
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