Does the Linguistic Landscape influence happiness?
Framing perceptions of language signs among speech communities in Germany
This paper investigates the potential relationship between multilingual landscapes and minority speech community members’ sense of subjective well-being. It focuses on three speech communities located in Germany: Chinese, Japanese, and Turkish. Drawing on interviews with members of these speech communities, it analyzes how individuals perceive their engagement with public displays of their language in terms of happiness and in the context of the host society. Integration, which is prominent in both Happiness studies and Linguistic Landscape research, is identified as a key theme influencing the emotional interaction between signs and sign readers. The paper’s aim is to integrate a subject-focused approach into the study of Linguistic Landscapes that can better address how individuals perceive and interact with language signs in multilingual and multi-ethnic settings.
Article outline
- 1.Background
- 2.Three communities
- 3.Bridging happiness and the Linguistic Landscape
- 4.Methods
- 5.Analysis
- 5.1The LL signifying group dependency
- 5.2Transboundary interaction
- 5.3Selective representation
- 6.Discussion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
References
Amadasi, S.
(
2014)
Beyond belonging. How migrant children actively construct their cultural identities in the interaction.
Interdisciplinary Journal of Family Studies,
19
(1).
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Amos, H. W.
(
2016)
Chinatown by numbers: Defining an ethnic space by empirical linguistic landscape.
Linguistic Landscape,
2
(2), 127–156.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Amponsem, G.
(
1996)
Global trading and business networks among Ghanaians: An interface of the local and the global (Doctoral dissertation).
Backhaus, P.
(
2007)
Linguistic Landscapes. A comparative study of urban multilingualism in Tokyo. Clevedon, Buffalo, Toronto: Multilingual Matters.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Baranova, V., & Fedorova, K.
(
2019)
‘Invisible minorities’ and ‘hidden diversity’in Saint-Petersburg’s linguistic landscape.
Language & Communication,
68
1, 17–27.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ben-Rafael, E.
(
2009)
A sociological approach to the study of linguistic landscapes.
Shohamy, E. &
Gorter, D. (eds.) 2009
Linguistic Landscape. Expanding the scenery. New York and London: Routledge, 40–54.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ben-Rafael, E., & Ben-Rafael, M.
(
2016)
Berlin’s linguistic landscapes: two faces of globalization.
Blackwood, R.,
Lanza, E., &
Woldemariam, H. (eds.).
Negotiating and contesting identities in linguistic landscapes, London: Bloomsbury, 197–213.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
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.
International journal of multilingualism,
3
(1), 7–30.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Blommaert, J.
(
2017)
Society through the lens of language: A new look at social groups and integration.
Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies, No. 178.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Blommaert, J., Collins, J., & Slembrouck, S.
(
2005)
Spaces of multilingualism.
Language & Communication,
25
(3), 197–216.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K.
(
2005)
Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach.
Discourse studies,
7
(4–5), 585–614.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Dailey-O’Cain, J., & Liebscher, G.
(
2011)
Language attitudes, migrant identities and space.
International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2121, 91–134.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Extra, G., & Yağmur, K.
(
2011)
Urban multilingualism in Europe: Mapping linguistic diversity in multicultural cities.
Journal of Pragmatics,
43
(5), 1173–1184.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Garvin, R. T.
(
2010)
Responses to the Linguistic Landscape in Memphis, Tennessee: and Urban Space in Transition.
Shohamy, E.,
Barni, M. &
Ben-Rafael, E. (eds.).
Linguistic Landscape in the City. Bristol, Buffalo and Toronto: Multilingual Matters, 252–272.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Georgakopoulou, A.
(
2015)
Small stories research.
De Fina, A. &
Georgakopoulou, A. (eds.).
The Handbook of Narrative Analysis. Chichester: Wiley Blackwell, 255–271.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gorter, D.
(
2013)
Linguistic landscapes in a multilingual world.
Annual Review of Applied Linguistics,
33
1, 190–212.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hadjar, A., & Backes, S.
(
2013)
Migration background and subjective well-being a multilevel analysis based on the European social survey.
Comparative Sociology,
12
(5), 645–676.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Haybron, D. M.
(
2003)
What do we want from a theory of happiness?.
Metaphilosophy,
34
(3), 305–329.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hendriks, M.
(
2015)
The happiness of international migrants: A review of research findings.
Migration Studies,
3
(3), 343–369.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Hendriks, M., & Bartram, D.
(
2019)
Bringing Happiness Into the Study of Migration and Its Consequences: What, Why, and How?.
Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies,
17
(3), 279–298.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Joppke, C.
(
2007)
Beyond national models: Civic integration policies for immigrants in Western Europe.
West European Politics,
30
(1), 1–22.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Kogan, I., Shen, J., & Siegert, M.
(
2018)
What makes a satisfied immigrant? Host-country characteristics and immigrants’ life satisfaction in eighteen European countries.
Journal of Happiness Studies,
19
(6), 1783–1809.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Landry, R. & R. Y. Bourhis
(
1997)
Linguistic landscape and ethnolinguistic vitality. An empirical study.
Journal of Language and Social Psychology 161: 24–49.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Leeman, J., & Modan, G.
(
2009)
Commodified language in Chinatown: A contextualized approach to linguistic landscape 1.
Journal of Sociolinguistics,
13
(3), 332–362.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Pappenhagen, R., Scarvaglieri, C., & Redder, A.
(
2016)
Expanding the linguistic landscape scenery? Action theory and ‘Linguistic Soundscaping’.
Blackwood, R.,
Lanza, E., &
Woldemariam, H. (eds.).
Negotiating and contesting identities in linguistic landscapes. London: Bloomsbury, 147–162.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schneider, J. & Crul, M.
(
2012)
Comparative integration context theory: Participation and belonging in diverse European cities.
Crul, M., &
Schneider, J. &
Lelie, F. (eds.).
The European second generation compared: Does the integration context matter? Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 19–37.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Scollon, R., & Scollon, S. W.
(
2003)
Discourses in place: Language in the material world. Routledge.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Silverstein, M.
(
2003)
Indexical order and the dialectics of sociolinguistic life. In
Language and Communication, 231, 193–229.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Stroud, C., & Mpendukana, S.
(
2009)
Towards a material ethnography of linguistic landscape: Multilingualism, mobility and space in a South African township 1.
Journal of Sociolinguistics,
13
(3), 363–386.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Szabó, T. P., & Troyer, R. A.
Van Leeuwen, B.
(
2010)
Dealing with urban diversity: Promises and challenges of city life for intercultural citizenship.
Political theory,
38
(5), 631–657.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Veenhoven, R.
(
2013)
Conditions of happiness. Springer Science & Business Media.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Vertovec, S.
(
2006)
The emergence of super-diversity in Britain.
ESRC Centre on Migration, Policy and Society Working Paper,
25
1.
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Virta, E., Sam, D. L., & Westin, C.
(
2004)
Adolescents with Turkish background in Norway and Sweden: A comparative study of their psychological adaptation.
Scandinavian journal of psychology,
45
(1), 15–25.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wee, L., & Goh, R. B.
(
2019)
Language, space and cultural play: Theorising affect in the semiotic landscape. Cambridge University Press.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ziegler, E., Schmitz, U., & Uslucan, H. H.
Ziegler, E., Schmitz, U., & Uslucan, H. H.
(
2018)
Attitudes toward visual multilingualism in the linguistic landscape of the Ruhr Areas.
Pütz, M. &
Mundt, N. (eds.).
Expanding the linguistic landscape: Linguistic diversity, multimodality and the use of space as a semiotic resource. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, 264–299.
![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
Kajszczarek, Dawid
2023.
Linguistic landscape in film works and video games.
Homo Ludens :1(15)
► pp. 65 ff.
![DOI logo](//benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
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.