Linguistic landscape studies

Linguistic Landscape (LL) studies were one of my earlier research interests when I shifted from human geography to linguistics. I treated LL not only as a mirror reflecting what have been going on in a specific area, but also an active, actual material that constructs the social/urban space.

My first case study was on Taipei. I focused on different urban areas in Taipei, enumerating the languages shown in signage. My research shows that the old urban area Wanhua has far less western languages use in signs; rather, the eastern area, the central business district, hardly shows pure local language use. I argued the LL not only told us the different place imaginations of different areas but also assigned different symbolic capital to different city areas in Taipei. My result was published on a geographical journal Environment and World in Mandarin. 

My second case study was on Seoul. I was particularly interested in the Insadong area that is one of the oldest areas in Seoul city. Insadong has a very famous Starbucks branch that only used Korean script (Hangul) on its sign. The local government further announced the policy that business sectors should put Hangul in the center of their signs. My research diachronically examines the development of Hangul landscape in Insadong to trace how the social meaning of Hangul landscape changes through the local language practices which were also urban practices. This study has been sent to peer review by several journals but was finally rejected. I've temporarily paused my plan to publish this study.