Mapping cosmopolitanisms in Taipei: toward a theorisation of cosmopolitanism in linguistic landscape research
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Melissa Curtin
Abstract
While frequently referenced in linguistic landscape (LL) research, the notion of “cosmopolitanism” has generally been under-theorised in the field. This article, in keeping with the call for an ethnographically grounded, multi-centric understanding of different varieties of cosmopolitanism, traces the emergence of a “bona fide cosmopolitanism” in the LL of Taipei, Taiwan. This overarching cosmopolitanism is cumulatively indexed via orthographies employed in several domains of the LL: (1) traditional Mandarin Chinese characters and Romanisation systems thereof; (2) non-Chinese scripts in official and unofficial domains; and (3) graffiti. Furthermore, each domain contributes to several varieties of cosmopolitanism. Drawing upon theorisations of social indexicality, distinction and transgressive semiotics, these varieties have been given the working labels of “presumptive, distinctive and transgressive cosmopolitanisms”. This article thus demonstrates that cosmopolitanism in the LL is best apprehended as multi-centric and recursive, as well as highly situated.
©2014 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Signs in context: multilingual and multimodal texts in semiotic space
- The presence of minority languages in linguistic landscapes in Amsterdam and Friesland (the Netherlands)
- Informal signs as expressions of multilingualism in Chisinau: how individuals shape the public space of a post-Soviet capital
- 630 kilometres by bicycle: observations of English in urban and rural Finland
- Language contact, agency and power in the linguistic landscape of two regionalcapitals of Ethiopia
- Tallinn: monolingual from above and multilingual from below
- Bilingual winks and bilingual wordplay in Montreal's linguistic landscape
- Mapping cosmopolitanisms in Taipei: toward a theorisation of cosmopolitanism in linguistic landscape research
- Semiotic landscapes and mobile narrations of place: performing the local
- Sexed signs – queering the scenery
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Signs in context: multilingual and multimodal texts in semiotic space
- The presence of minority languages in linguistic landscapes in Amsterdam and Friesland (the Netherlands)
- Informal signs as expressions of multilingualism in Chisinau: how individuals shape the public space of a post-Soviet capital
- 630 kilometres by bicycle: observations of English in urban and rural Finland
- Language contact, agency and power in the linguistic landscape of two regionalcapitals of Ethiopia
- Tallinn: monolingual from above and multilingual from below
- Bilingual winks and bilingual wordplay in Montreal's linguistic landscape
- Mapping cosmopolitanisms in Taipei: toward a theorisation of cosmopolitanism in linguistic landscape research
- Semiotic landscapes and mobile narrations of place: performing the local
- Sexed signs – queering the scenery
