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Article published In:
Diaspora and Asian Spaces in a Transnational World
Edited by Thom Huebner
[Linguistic Landscape 7:2] 2021
► pp. 235–257

Linguistic landscapes as discursive frame

Chinatown in Paris in the eyes of new Chinese migrants

ORCID logo | Birkbeck, University of London

Previous research on the Linguistic Landscapes of Chinatowns has highlighted the perceptions and experiences of long-term residents (Lou, 2009, 2016; Amos, 2016). To explore Chinatown in the eyes of newly arrived migrants, this paper presents a study of the Linguistic Landscape of the Triangle de Choisy, the Chinatown in Paris. Drawing upon Scollon and Scollon’s geosemiotic framework (2003) and Augé’s place theory (1995), it analyzes 130 photographs of the field and four interviews with newly arrived Chinese migrants. It is found that the Linguistic Landscape of the Chinatown constructs a coherent semiotic aggregate for the newcomers as an identifiable, relational, and historical transnational space that helps to orient them in a new country. Thus, this study illustrates how the Linguistic Landscape of Chinatown could serve as structured and structuring discursive frame (Coupland & Garrett, 2010) in the lives of new migrants.

Keywords: linguistic landscape, space, place, discursive frame, Chinatown, Paris, new migrants, diaspora
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Linguistic landscape as discursive frame
  • 3.Methodology
  • 4.A geosemiotic analysis of the Linguistic Landscape of the Triangle de Choisy
    • 4.1Visual semiotics: Polyphonic code preference
    • 4.2Place semiotics: Spatial appropriation of visibility
    • 4.3Reshaped interaction order
  • 5.Place-making of the Triangle de Choisy through the linguistic landscape
    • 5.1Chinatown as identifiable place
    • 5.2Chinatown as relational place
    • 5.3Chinatown as a historical place
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 2 March 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.20009.zha
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