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Exploring ‘psychoscapes’

Linguistic Landscape studies and critical discourse studies in dialogue

ORCiD logo with link | Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University
Published online: 13 August 2026
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.25007.kit
Abstract
This article introduces the concept of psychoscapes into Linguistic Landscape studies, extending its analytical scope to the socio-cognitive and discursive construction of urban space. Integrating Cognitive Linguistic Critical Discourse Studies (CL-CDS) with Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies (CADS), the study examines representations of two contrasting Johannesburg districts, Hillbrow and Sandton, in a 141-million-word corpus of South African broadsheet newspapers. Through collocation analysis, semantic framing, conceptual blending, and perspectivisation, it shows how Hillbrow is constructed through discourses of crime, decay, and precarity, while Sandton is associated with wealth, consumption, and corporate power. These representations reproduce ideological spatial imaginaries and socio-economic inequalities. The article argues that discourse plays a constitutive role in shaping psychoscapes, socially shared, affectively charged mental representations of place that mediate perception and action. It proposes a triangulated framework for analysing urban space as simultaneously cognitive, semiotic, and material.
Περίληψη
Το άρθρο εισάγει την έννοια των ψυχοτοπίων (psychoscapes) στις Σπουδές Γλωσσικού Τοπίου, διευρύνοντας την αναλυτική τους εμβέλεια προς την κοινωνιογνωσιακή και δια του λόγου κατασκευή του αστικού χώρου. Συνδυάζοντας την Κριτική Ανάλυση Λόγου με γνωσιακές γλωσσολογικές προσεγγίσεις και μεθόδους Ανάλυσης Λόγου με τη βοήθεια σωμάτων κειμένων, η μελέτη εξετάζει τις αναπαραστάσεις δύο αντιθετικών περιοχών του Γιοχάνεσμπουργκ, του Hillbrow και του Sandton, σε σώμα κειμένων νοτιοαφρικανικών εφημερίδων. Η ανάλυση δείχνει ότι το Hillbrow κατασκευάζεται κυρίως μέσα από λόγους εγκληματικότητας, αστικής παρακμής και επισφάλειας, ενώ το Sandton συνδέεται με τον πλούτο, την κατανάλωση και την εταιρική ισχύ. Το άρθρο υποστηρίζει ότι ο λόγος συμβάλλει στη συγκρότηση κοινωνικά διαμοιρασμένων και συναισθηματικά φορτισμένων νοητικών αναπαραστάσεων του τόπου, οι οποίες διαμεσολαβούν την αντίληψη και τη δράση στον χώρο και, εν τέλει, τον συνδιαμορφώνουν.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Psychoscapes: Integrating elements of CDS with LLS
  • 3.Data and methodology
  • 4.Conceptualisations of Hillbrow and Sandton
    • 4.1Overview of SA broadsheet corpus findings
      • 4.1.1Hillbrow
      • 4.1.2Sandton
      • 4.1.3Microspective cues encoding microsensations in the corpus
    • 4.2Discourse itineraries or recontextualisation chains
      • 4.2.1Media and cultural production
      • 4.2.2The place-brand
      • 4.2.3Transgressive semiotics generating conflictual psychoscapes
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Declaration of generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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