Linguistic Landscape ─ Expanding the Scene

Shaohamy (language education, Tel-Aviv University) and Gorter (education, University of the Basque Country) have assembled essays on the relatively new discipline of linguistic landscape, the study of the use of written language in public places. This includes signs on businesses, street signs, public monuments, even graffiti. The articles include several on theory and methodology before concentrating on specific examples of multi-lingual displays. Language linguistics draws on other disciplines, sociology, psychology, political science among them. This is evident in the ways in which the subject is approached. From the lack of Roman lettering on signs in Tokyo to English used rather than Arabic on signs in Israel to the use of local dialects in Northern Italy and more, there is a variety of meanings both for those posting signs and those encountering them. They can signal defiance, governmental mandates, brotherhood or plain good business sense. The final chapter suggests areas in which the subject might be expanded to include actions in public places and individual responses. A full-color insert of several pages is a graphic example of the subject. Annotation c2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Elana Shohamy is a Professor and Chair of Language Education program at the School of Education, Tel-Aviv University. Her research focuses on language policy in education and societies within a framework of critical applied linguistics, specifically in relation to immigrants and minority groups, rights and activism. In the past few years she has worked extensively on the topic of linguistic landscape, specifically documenting the LL of Israel with its linguistic complexity (Ben Rafael, Shohamy, et al. 2006) and on topics related to language in the public space including LL of tourism and education. Her recent books include: The Languages of Israel (1999, with Bernard Spolsky, Multilingual Matters), The Power of Tests: Critical perspective of the use of language tests (2001, Longman); and Language policy: Hidden Agendas and New Approaches (2006). She is currently working on a manuscript entitled: 'In the name of language', examining among others methods of revival of Hebrew. Prof Shohamy is also the current editor of the journal Language Policy.

Durk Gorter is now Ikerbasque Research Professor at the Faculty of Education of the University of the Basque Country in San Sebastian/Donostia, where he carries out work on multilingualism and minority languages. From 1979 to 2007 he was a researcher in the sociology of language and head of the department of social sciences at the Fryske Akademy in Ljouwert/Leeuwarden, The Netherlands. Since 1994 he has been part-time full professor at the Universiteit van Amsterdam in the sociolinguistics of Frisian. He has been involved in survey studies of the Frisian language situation and European minority languages, on which he has published numerous books and articles. He also does comparative work on the education of minority languages in the framework of the Mercator-Education project. He edited a book called Linguistic Landscape: a New Approach to Multilingualism (Multilingual Matters, 2006).