Article In:
Linguistic Landscape: Online-First Articles

Voices in the Linguistic Landscape

Anthropomorphization of artifacts and the pronominal construction of speakerhood

 | Universität Heidelberg
 | University of Edinburgh
This paper contributes to the emerging analytical framework of anthropo­morphized artifacts as part of Linguistic Landscapes. It describes and analyzes cases where signage, objects, or related inanimate objects are inscribed with language that includes first-person pronoun usage and thus constructs the notion of speakerhood. We analyze a corpus of over 80 such items and provide qualitative analysis that includes structural aspects such as emerging syntactic regularities as well as the prevalence of graphematic and stylistic informality markers. We identify discursive and pragmatic functions that the construction of voice has in the analyzed material. We connect the phenomenon and our findings to theories of anthropo­morphization in general and to current developments in posthumanist linguistics and the uncertain epistemic status of speakerhood more specifically.
Keywords: anthropomorphization, voice, Linguistic Landscape, pronouns, speakerhood, posthumanist linguistics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
    • 2.1Linguistic anthropomorphization and the construction of voice
    • 2.2Voice in Linguistic Landscapes
  • 3.Data collection and analytical dimensions
  • 4.Linguistic features and discursive functions
    • 4.1Pronoun use
    • 4.2Constructing the voice: Graphematic and multimodal detail
    • 4.3Discursive effects of anthropomorphization in the Linguistic Landscape
      • 4.3.1Anthropomorphization as a means of achieving intended behavior
      • 4.3.2Anthropomorphization as a means of apologizing and diverting responsibility
      • 4.3.3Anthropomorphization for advertising purposes
      • 4.3.4Anthropomorphization as a warning
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
  • Author queries
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
References (43)
References
Airenti, Gabriella (2015). The Cognitive Bases of Anthropomorphism: From Relatedness to Empathy. International Journal of Social Robotics, 7 1, 117–127. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2018). The Development of Anthropomorphism in Interaction: Intersubjectivity, Imagination, and Theory of Mind. Frontiers in Psychology, 9 1, 1–13. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Auer, Peter (2009). Sprachliche Landschaften: Die Strukturierung des öffentlichen Raums durch die geschriebene Sprache. In Arnulf Deppermann & Angelika Linke (Eds.), Sprache intermedial. Stimme und Schrift, Bild und Ton (pp. 271–298). Berlin/New York: De Gruyter.Google Scholar
Brown, Roger & Albert Gilman (1960). The Pronouns of Power and Solidarity. In Thomas A. Sebeok (Ed.) Style in Language (pp. 252–281). Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Coeckelbergh, Mark (2011). You, Robot: On the linguistic construction of artificial others. AI & Society 26 1, 61–69. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cornips, Leonie & Marjo van Koppen (2024). Multimodal Dairy Cow: Human interaction in an intensive farming context. Language Sciences, 101 1, 1–14. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dacey, Mike (2017). Anthropomorphism as Cognitive Bias. Philosophy of Science, 85 1, 1152–1164. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Cock, Barbara & Andrea Pizarro Pedraza (2018). From Expressing Solidarity to Mocking on Twitter: Pragmatic functions of hashtags starting with# jesuis across languages. Language in Society, 47 (2), 197–217.Google Scholar
Delbaere, Marjorie, Edward F. McQuarrie & Barbara J. Phillips (2011). Personification in Advertising. Journal of Advertising, 40 (1), 121–130. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Epley, Nicholas, Adam Waytz & John T. Cacioppo (2007). On Seeing Human: A Three-Factor Theory of Anthropomorphism. Psychological Review, 114 (4), 864–886. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Flaherty, Mary (2001). How a Language Gender System Creeps into Perception. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 32 (1), 18–31. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goudey, Alain & Gaël Bonnin (2016). Must smart objects look human? Study of the impact of anthropomorphism on the acceptance of companion robots. Recherches et Applications en Marketing, 31 (2), 2–20. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Halonen, Mia & Petteri Laihonen (2021). From ‘No Dogs Here!’ to ‘Beware of the Dog!’: Restricting dog signs as a reflection of social norms. Visual Communication, 20 (4), 501–526. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heyd, Theresa & Cornelius Puschmann (2017). Hashtagging and Functional Shift: Adaptation and appropriation of the #. Journal of Pragmatics, 116 1, 51–63. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heyd, Theresa (2014). Folk-linguistic Landscapes: The visual semiotics of digital enregisterment. Language in Society, 43 (5), 489–514. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jaworski, Adam & Crispin Thurlow (Eds.) (2010). Semiotic Landscapes: Language, image, space. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Johansson, Marjut & Veronica Laippala (2020). Affectivity in the #jesuisCharlie Twitter discussion. Pragmatics, 30 (2), 179–200. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Koch, Peter & Wulf Oesterreicher (1985). Sprache der Nähe–Sprache der Distanz. Romanistisches Jahrbuch, 36 (85), 15–43. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kress, Gunther (2010). Multimodality: A social semiotic approach to communication. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Magee, Richard M. (2007). Food Puritanism and Food Pornography: The Gourmet Semiotics of Martha and Nigella. Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture 6 (2).Google Scholar
Mair, Christian (2024). Colloquialisation: Twenty-five years on. Journal of Historical Pragmatics, 25 (2), 193–214. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Malinowski, David (2008). Authorship in the linguistic landscape: A multimodal-performative view. In Elana Shohamy & Durk Gorter (Eds.), Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the Scenery (pp. 147–165). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mecit, Alican, Tina M. Lowrey & L. J. Shrum (2018). Linguistic Antecedents of Anthropomorphism. NA-Advances in Consumer Research, 46 1, 698–699.Google Scholar
Mendoza-Denton, Norma, Scarlett Eisenhauer, Wesley Wilson & Cory Flores (2017). Gender, electrodermal activity, and videogames: Adding a psychophysiological dimension to sociolinguistic methods. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 21 (4), 547–575. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mori, Masahiro (1970). The uncanny valley: the original essay by Masahiro Mori. (Karl F. MacDorman, Norri Kageki, Trans.) IEEE Spectrum 6 1, 1–6.Google Scholar
Papen, Uta (2012). Commercial Discourses, Gentrification and Citizens’ Protest: The Linguistic Landscape of Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 16 (1), 56–80. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pennycook, Alastair (2017). Posthumanist Applied Linguistics. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Piaget, Jean (1997). The Child’s Conception of the World. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Riva, Paolo, Simona Sacchi, & Marco Brambilla (2015). Humanizing Machines: Anthropomorphization of Slot Machines Increases Gambling. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 21 (4), 313–325.Google Scholar
Schneider, Britta (2022). Multilingualism and AI: The regimentation of language in the age of digital capitalism. Signs and Society, 10 (3), 362–387. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schneider, Britta & Theresa Heyd (Eds.). (2024). Posthumanist Sociolinguistics. Special Issue, Signs and Society, 12 (4).Google Scholar
Schulte, Marion & Arne Schröder (2021). The Linguistic Landscape and Soundscape of Windhoek. In Arne Schröder (Eds.) The Dynamics of English in Namibia: Perspectives on an emerging variety (pp. 83–107). Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Smith, Emma (2023). Self-Reading Books: Marginalia, Prosopopoeia, and Book History. In Adam Smyth (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the History of the Book in Early Modern England (pp. 569–584). Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sontag, Susan (2019). Regarding the Pain of Others. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Spitzmüller, Jürgen (2013). Graphische Variation als soziale Praxis: Eine soziolinguistische Theorie skripturaler ›Sichtbarkeit‹ (Vol. 561). Berlin: de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Strange, Louis (2022). The Discursive Construction of Gender and Agency in the Linguistic Landscape of Ireland’s 2018 Abortion Referendum Campaign. Critical Discourse Studies, 21 (3), 293–321. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thurlow, Crispin (2024). Staging a Tomatoscape: A case study in place branding and/as semiotic reflexivity. Linguistic Landscape, 10 (1), 1–21. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vaisman, Carmel (2011). Performing Girlhood Through Typographic Play in Hebrew Blogs. In Crispin Thurlow & Kristine Mroczek (Eds.) Digital Discourse: Language in the new media (pp. 177–196). Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Waytz, Adam, Nicholas Epley & John T. Cacioppo (2010). Social Cognition Unbound: Insights Into Anthropomorphism and Dehumanization. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 19 (1), 58–62. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wee, Lionel (2021). Posthumanist World Englishes. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weidman, Amanda (2015). Voice. In David Novak & Matt Sakakeeny (Eds.) Keywords in Sound (pp. 232–45). Durham, NC: Duke University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wen Wan, Echo & Rocky Peng Chen (2021). Anthropomorphism and Object Attachment. Current Opinion in Psychology, 39 1, 88–93. DOI logoGoogle Scholar