Connecting visual presents to archival pasts in multilingual California

Towards historical depth in Linguistic Landscape

Bibliographic Data

ID21235790
AuthorsRobert W Train (Sonoma State University), Robert Train (0000-0002-7574-2186, Sonoma State University, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume2
Issue3
Pages223-246
Publication date2016-12-31
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueLinguistic Landscape An international journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2214-9953 • E-ISSN: 2214-9961
PublisherJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/ll.2.3.02tra
OpenAlexW2563476272
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited25

Linguistic Landscape (LL) research has emerged as an approach to document and analyze language use in public spaces in present-day multilingual California and elsewhere in the world. This paper extends the conceptual and methodological frame of LL beyond the visual, ethnographic present. It seeks to create dialogue between text-oriented archival research into historical contexts of language and identity, and the present-oriented ethnographic focus of LL grounded in current sociolinguistic, applied linguistic, anthropological, and educational research. Building upon research into monuments and memorialization, this paper develops “memorization” to conceptualize the multilayered historicity, intertextuality and materiality that commit to public memory linguistic, political, and educational discourses — with their constitutive ideologies, practices, and policies — designed to “make the past present for the future” in public space. This paper offers an interdisciplinary perspective on the memorization of the colonial Spanish missions in California and the 2015 canonization of their founder, Junípero Serra. Several methodological opportunities and challenges for LL are discussed for critically connecting present and past landscapes of multilingualism, and their future ethical implications

Aesthetics · Ethnography · Intertextuality · Linguistics · Media studies · Memorialization · Multilingualism · Pedagogy · Political science · Politics · Public space · Sociology · Anthropology · Interpreting and Communication in Healthcare · Multilingual Education and Policy · Second Language Learning and Teaching

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