Chapter published in:
The Sociolinguistics of Place and Belonging: Perspectives from the margins
Edited by Leonie Cornips and Vincent A. de Rooij
[IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society 45] 2018
► pp. 261–286

Yooperisms in tourism

Commodified enregistered features in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula’s linguistic landscape

| Grand Valley State University
This ethnography explores interpretive practices in the multimodal landscape of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a remote and rural region in the United States, to examine the role of tourism in discursive representations of identity. The study is distinct from other linguistic landscape research in that it investigates the role of commodified enregistered features in redefining cultural values about identity and its relationship to place in the periphery. The indexes communicated through enregistered features in signs, souvenirs, monuments, digital media, and news accounts lead to new and limited meanings. More significantly, as commodities, these contextualized features function not only to sell souvenirs, but also to sell the idea of a dialect, a sense of place, and a regional persona, but only because their meanings are recognizable, valued, and valuable. Their value lies in regenerated ideological schemas that have emerged from sociohistorical processes and events and related discursive practices. At the center of this intersection is tourism, which affects enregisterment and commodification, and the semiotic practices that link identity, and place.
Published online: 07 March 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/impact.45.13rem
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