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

Abstract

This paper addresses the complex multilingual linguistic landscapes (LLs) of three strategically-chosen areas in global city Brussels by examining how language displays on public signage in these areas are used for different purposes, functions or intentions. The focus will be on meaning-construction in the post-Fordist globalised era as shaped by different contextual scales. By drawing on a systematic corpus of linguistic landscape data indicative of language visibility and functionality patterns in each of these three areas and by drawing on a small selection of interviews with shop-owners, this study will discuss the 'landscapes' and diverse displays of Brussels' three 'big' languages (French, English and Dutch) and 'ethnoscapes' (Appadurai 1990) of their attendant transnational communities of tourists, immigrants and expats. In order to assess these differences in functionality and meaning, the geographical notion of TimeSpace scales is applied as an analytical and interpretative concept and as a metaphor most apt to study sociolinguistic processes and phenomena of globalisation. This more interpretative, scale-sensitive and contextualised approach to LL and language meaning is also in line with recent arguments in favour of qualitative, interdisciplinary approaches to linguistic landscape research

Socio‐economic stratification of English in globalized landscapes: A market‐oriented perspective

“…The question still remains of how this complex phenomenon will evolve in both cities, with their increasingly ‘messy, multilingual marketplaces’ (Blommaert ). A diachronic perspective on the ample studies that have engaged with multilingual landscapes in Brussels (Tulp ; Wenzel ; Vandenbroucke ) and Amsterdam (Edelman ) suggests the (omni)presence of English has increased significantly over recent years. Given the interest of politicians in both capitals in granting English (semi‐)official status, the fact that English proficiency is deemed indispensable and highly desired in higher‐range job markets (see Mettewie and Van Mensel for Brussels) and that English proficiency is also promoted by Brussels policy‐makers and academics (see http://www.marnixplan.org), the local importance of English will only continue to increase.…”

Multilingualism, urban change and gentrification in the landscape of a Brussels neighbourhood

“…Instead, I only documented a minor presence for Dutch in a highly multilingual mosaic of French and English signs interspersed with other foreign immigrant or tourist languages in the current LL. In an earlier comparison of language use in the LL of Rue Antoine Dansaert with two other shopping streets in Brussels, I did find that this visibility of Dutch albeit minor is still relatively stronger compared to a more homogeneous French-speaking locale in Brussels (Vandenbroucke 2015). The construction and perpetuation of the image of the Quartier Dansaert as Flemishassertive is thus largely constructed through media and political discourses as an "imagined community" (Anderson 1991), as it were.…”

English in advertising in Lubumbashi, Democratic Republic of Congo

“…Since then, LL has expanded tremendously. Researchers have especially described urban agglomerations (Backhaus, 2006;Calvet, 1994;Huebner, 2006;Kasanga, 2010Kasanga, , 2012bKasanga, , 2014aLeeman & Modan, 2009;Lou, 2010;Manan, David, Dumanig, & Naqeebullah, 2015;Nikolau, 2016;Shang & Guo, 2016;Spolsky & Cooper, 1991;Vandenbroucke, 2004). The study of LL has moved beyond public roads, streets, shops and government buildings (Landry & Bourhis, 1997) to embrace many objects marking the space, such as: manhole covers (Tufi & Blackwood, 2010), electric poles, the wall space of a microbiology laboratory (Hanauer, 2009), the domestic and commercial waste and litter containers (Kallen, 2010).…”