Article published In:
Memory and memorializationEdited by Eliezer Ben-Rafael and Elana Shohamy
[Linguistic Landscape 2:3] 2016
► pp. 211–222
Edited by Eliezer Ben-Rafael and Elana Shohamy
[Linguistic Landscape 2:3] 2016
► pp. 211–222
Shop sign as monument
The discursive recontextualization of a neon sign
Ethnographic studies of linguistic landscape have shed light on the complex processes in which signage is designed, created, perceived, and interpreted. This paper highlights the role of public discourse in such processes by tracing how the neon sign of a restaurant in Hong Kong ironically reached monumental status after its removal. Expanding the geosemiotic framework with the theory of recontexualization, it examines the shifting meanings of the sign as represented in four types of discourse, and suggests that it is their contradiction and divergence that has shaped the shop sign into an urban monument.
Keywords: recontextualization, monument, Hong Kong, neon, shop sign
References (36)
Abousnnouga, G., & Machin, D. (2010). War monuments and the changing discourses of nation and soldiery. In A. Jaworski & C. Thurlow (Eds.), Semiotic landscapes: Language, image, space (pp. 219–240). London & New York: Continuum.
Albano, J. (2014, July 9). Hong Kong’s Top 10... Neon Signs. TimeOut Hong Kong. Retrieved from [URL]
Backhaus, P. (2007). Linguistic landscapes: A comparative study of urban multilingualism in Tokyo. Clevedon, Buffalo, Toronto: Multilingual Matters.
Bauman, R., & Briggs, C.L. (1990). Poetics and performance as critical perspectives on language and social life. Annual Review of Anthropology, 191, 59–88. 
Ben-Rafael, E., Shohamy, E., Amara, M.H., & Trumper-Hecht, N. (2006). Linguistic landscape as symbolic construction of the public space: The case of Israel. In D. Gorter (Ed.), Linguistic landscape Linguistic landscape: A new approach to multilingualism. (pp. 7–27). Clevedon, Buffalo, Toronto: Multilingual Matters.
Blommaert, J. (2013). Ethnography, Superdiversity and Linguistic Landscapes: Chronicles of Complexity. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
British Pathé. (n.d.). Neons in Hong Kong (1970). Retrieved from [URL]
Buildings Department, HKSAR. (2015). Building safety. Retrieved 4 April 2016, from [URL]
Cenoz, J., & Gorter, D. (2006). Linguistic landscape and minority languages. The International Journal of Multilingualism, 31, 67–80.
Collins, J., & Slembrouck, S. (2007). Reading shop windows in globalized neighborhoods: Multilingual literacy practices and indexicality. Journal of Literacy Research, 39(3), 335–356.
Garvin, R.T. (2010). Responses to the linguistic landscape in Memphis, Tennessee: An urban space in transition. In E. Shohamy, E. Ben-Rafael, & M. Barni (Eds.), Linguistic landscape in the city (pp. 252–271). Bristol, Buffalo, and Toronto: Multilingual Matters.
Goffman, E. (1959). The presentation of self in everday life. New York: Anchor Books.
Hall, S., & Datta, A. (2010). The translocal street: Shop signs and local multi-culture along the Walworth Road, south London. City, Culture and Society, 11, 69–77.
Harvey, D. (1979). Monument and myth. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 69(3), 362–381.
Herman, S. (2013, May 25). In Hong Kong, Beef Over Sammy Kitchen’s 3D Cow. Retrieved 22 February 2016, from [URL]
Iedema, R. (2001). Resemiotization. Semiotica, 137(1), 23–39.
. (2003). Multimodality, resemiotization: Extending the analysis of discourse as multi-semiotic practice. Visual Communication, 2(1), 29–57.
Kallen, J. (2010). Changing landscapes: Language, space and policy in the Dublin linguistic landscape. In A. Jaworski & C. Thurlow (Eds.), Semiotic landscapes: Language, image, space (pp. 41–58). London: Continuum.
Lai, M. -L. (2013). The linguistic landscape of Hong Kong after the change of sovereignty. International Journal of Multilingualism, 10(3), 251–272.
.
Lefebvre, H. (1991[1973]). The production of space. (D. Nicholson-Smith, Trans.). Oxford, UK and Cambridge, USA: Blackwell.
Lo, A. (2013, June 27). Sammy Yip. HK Magazine. Retrieved from [URL]
Lou, J.J. (2007). Revitalizing Chinatown into a heterotopia: A geosemiotic analysis of shop signs in Washington, DC’s Chinatown. Space and Culture, 10(2), 145–169.
. (2010). Chinese on the side: The marginalization of Chinese in the linguistic and social landscapes of Chinatown in Washington, DC. In E. Shohamy, E. Ben-Rafael, & M. Barni (Eds.), Linguistic landscape in the city (pp. 96–114). Bristol, Buffalo, and Toronto: Multilingual Matters.
MacGregor, L. (2003). The language of shop signs in Tokyo. English Today, (11), 18–23.
Malinowski, D. (2009). Authorship in the linguistic landscape: A multimodal-performative view. In E. Shohamy & D. Gorter (Eds.), Linguistic landscape: Expanding the scenery (pp. 107–125). New York and London: Routledge.
Peck, A., & Banda, F. (2014). Observatory’s linguistic landscape: Semiotic appropriation and the reinvention of space. Social Semiotics, 24(3), 302–323.
.
Peirce, C.S. (1991 [1873]). On the nature of signs. In J. Hoopes (Ed.), Peirce on signs: Writings on semiotic by Charles Sanders Peirce (pp. 141–143). Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press.
Schlick, M. (2003). The English of shop signs in Europe. English Today, (11), 3–17.
Scollon, R. (2001). Mediated discourse: The nexus of practice. London: Routledge.
Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. (2003). Discourses in place: Language in the material world. London: Routledge.
Scollon, R., & Scollon, S.W. (2004). Nexus analysis: Discourse and the emerging Internet. London and New York: Routledge.
Shohamy, E., & Waksman, S. (2010). Building the nation, writing the past: History and textuality at the Ha’apala memorial in Tel Aviv-Jaffa. In A. Jaworski & C. Thurlow (Eds.), Semiotic landscapes: Language, image, space (pp. 241–255). London & New York: Continuum.
Silverstein, M., & Urban, G. (1996). Natural histories of discourse. In The natural history of discourse (pp. 1–17). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Stroud, C., & Mpendukana, S. (2009). Towards a material ethnography of linguistic landscape: Multilingualism, mobility and space in a South African township. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 13(3), 363–386.
West Kowloon Cultural District. (2014). Why M+ Collects Neon. Retrieved from [URL]
Yu, P. (2015, August 6). Farewell to the iconic Sammy’s Kitchen neon sign in Sheung Wan. Retrieved 22 February 2016, from [URL]
Cited by (11)
Cited by 11 other publications
Buchstaller, Isabelle, Carolin Schneider & Seraphim Alvanides
2023. Towards a taxonomy of arguments for and against street renaming. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 9:1 ► pp. 5 ff. 
Demaj, Uranela
2023. Symbolic identity building, ethnic nationalism and the linguistic reconfiguration of the urban spaces of the capital of Pristina, Kosovo. Ethnicities 23:3 ► pp. 500 ff.
Demaj, Uranela
2023. Constructing national identity in the public space. The discursive transformations of the semiotic-linguistic landscapes of Pristina, Kosovo. National Identities 25:3 ► pp. 191 ff.
Smith, Sean P., Johan Järlehed & Adam Jaworski
2023. HOLLYWOOD: The political economy and global citation of an emblematic language object. Language in Society ► pp. 1 ff.
Chęć-Małyszek, Agnieszka
2022. Neon signs in urban space, yesterday and today. A case study based on Lublin. Teka Komisji Architektury, Urbanistyki i Studiów Krajobrazowych 18:1 ► pp. 34 ff.
Buchstaller, Isabelle & Małgorzata Fabiszak
2021. Editorial: ideology and commemoration in the urban space. Linguistics Vanguard 7:s5
Bolton, Kingsley, Werner Botha & Siu‐Lun Lee
2020. English in Asian Linguistic Landscapes. In The Handbook of Asian Englishes, ► pp. 833 ff.
Bolton, Kingsley, Werner Botha & Siu‐Lun Lee
2020. Linguistic Landscapes and Language Contact. In The Handbook of Language Contact, ► pp. 281 ff.
Malinowski, David
Michalovich, Amir
2019. Reframing the linguistic to analyze the landscape. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 5:1 ► pp. 28 ff.
Leimgruber, Jakob R. E.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.