Reading Shop Windows in Globalized Neighborhoods: Multilingual Literacy Practices and Indexicality

Abstract

Shop and café signs in multiple languages are familiar features of polyglot immigrant neighborhoods. This paper examines such signs, presenting photographic, observational, and interview data from a multisited ethnographic study of language contact in Ghent, an urban Belgian city. Drawing upon diverse ethnographic sources, especially the comparative readings of foreign, immigrant, and native adults, we analyze signs and notices in several immigrant neighborhoods as (a) literacy practices, attending to their contexts of use as well as to their interpretations, and as (b) examples of indexical orders and orders of discourse, asking what hierarchical frames of interpretation and evaluation are brought to bear on the reading of such signs. Our findings show that shop signs and notices are complex indexes of source, addressee, and community, which are manifest in different readers' interpretations. The overall argument addresses several general points: that the study of indexicality helps conceptualize and analyze the rich and unexpectedly broad frames of interpretation readers bring to situated multilingual texts; that concepts of indexical or discursive order contribute to our understanding of multilingual literacy practices in situations of globalized locality; and that, conversely, the study of literacy practices reveals unexpected dimensions of Late Modern discursive orders. Shop and café signs in multiple languages are familiar features of polyglot immigrant neighborhoods. What passersby make of them, how they are read, is a question rarely addressed, but readings will surely vary by purposes of reading, prior experiences with such signs, and knowledge of languages. The field of

Language visibility, functionality and meaning across various TimeSpace scales in Brussels' multilingual landscapes

“…Given this specific focus, certain avenues of inquiry had to remain underexplored. In this respect, in line with the focus of recent studies by Collins and Slembrouck (2007), Malinowski (2009), Garvin (2010) and Aiestaran, Cenoz, and Gorter (2010), for example, further research could yield interesting insights in the intentional and perceptional aspects of the different LLs studied here, especially by relying on TimeSpaces as interpretative metaphors; it could also explore the possible changes in language display patterns and meaning over time in these specific areas in Brussels by adopting a more diachronic perspective; it could additionally also differentiate further according to type of commercial activity or textual genre and procure correlations between genre and language use; etc. An important implication of the diversification of meaning in Brussels' landscapes as discussed in this paper (e.g.…”

“…Another example is of Collins, Slembrouck and Baynham (2009) which contains several papers on globalisation, embedded scales and communicative practice. Moreover, Collins and Slembrouck (2007) examine the landscape of polyglot migrant neighbourhoods in Ghent (Belgium) and suggest that one publicly displayed sign can be addressed from different pedestrian participant perspectives: interpretation is 'scaled' and this results in the possible diversification of meaning of the same sign. Stroud and Mpendukana (2009) also talk about spatial and scalar circulation of languages in a South African township's 166…”

Multilingualism in Tokyo: A Look into the Linguistic Landscape

“…Itagi and Singh (2002) have edited a publication about linguistic landscaping in India (also Ladousa, 2002); Scollon and Scollon (2003) have developed an overall approach to language on signs, referred to as 'geosemiotics'; Ben-Rafael et al . (2004;present issue) have made a large-scale study of language on signs in Israeli cities and towns; Reh (2004) has scrutinised the linguistic landscape of Lira Municipality, Uganda, with special regard to the readership of multilingual signs; Collins and Slembrouck (2004) discuss variable ways of perceiving and construing multilingual shop signs in immigrant neighbourhoods in Ghent, Belgium; Born (2004) analyses the presence of written Italian and German in two South Brazilian cities; and smaller contributions about research into English on commercial signs at various places across Europe have regularly been published in English Today (e.g. Griffin, 2004;McArthur, 2000;Schlick, 2002).…”

Signs of multilingualism in Tokyo — a diachronic look at the linguistic landscape

“…Some recent publications are Itagi and Singh's (2002) collection of papers dealing with various issues of linguistic landscaping in India; Scollon and Scollon's (2003) overall approach to the study of ''geosemiotics''; Ben-Rafael et al's (2004) large-scale study of language on signs in Israeli communities; Reh's (2004) reader-oriented survey of multilingual signs in Lira Municipality, Uganda; and Collins and Slembrouck's (2004) discussion of variable ways of perceiving and construing multilingual shop signs in immigrant neighborhoods in Ghent, Belgium, to name but a few. Regular contributions about research into English on commercial signs at various places across Europe have been published in English Today (e.g., McArthur 2000;Schlick 2002;Gri‰n 2004).…”