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Phoenix in transformation

A social semiotic model of indexical change

ORCiD logo with link | Loyola Marymount University
Published online: 8 July 2026
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.25078.li
Abstract
This study develops a framework for analyzing historically layered meaning-making in semiotic landscapes. It integrates indexical order, enregisterment, reindexicalization, and reenregisterment to explain how social semiotic resources acquire and transform meanings over time. The framework is illustrated through a longitudinal analysis of the ‘chop suey’ letterform in the visual branding of Phoenix Food, a Southern California Chinese restaurant chain operating since 1965. Drawing on photographs, interviews, and secondary sources, the analysis traces the lettering style’s shift from marking exoticized Chineseness to indexing family and cultural legacy. It shows how expansion beyond Chinatown enables reflexive heritage indexicality, how changes in the social positioning of Chinese Americans alter the value of ethnic marking, and how shifts in design media facilitate new indexical associations. The model conceptualizes meaning-making as a temporally layered process in which semiotic resources acquire higher-order indexicalities and become reenregistered through changing spatial, social, and material affordances.
摘要
本研究构建了一个社会符号学的理论框架，用以分析符号景观中多层次的、历史性的意义建构过程。该框架整合了指示次序（indexical order）、语域化（enregisterment）、再指示化（reindexicalization）及再语域化（reenregisterment）等理论概念，旨在阐释社会符号资源是如何随着时间推移获得并转化意义的。研究以美国南加州的中餐连锁品牌‘凤凰美食’（Phoenix Food，自1965年开始运营）为例，对其视觉品牌形象中使用的‘杂碎’（chop suey）字体进行了纵向分析。通过结合照片、访谈及二手资料，该分析追溯了这种字体的社会意义演变：从最初标示一种被异国情调化了的‘中国性’（Chineseness），转变为指示一种对家族事业与民族文化的传承。具体而言，本研究揭示了凤凰美食走出唐人街这一社会现实如何为其使用的杂碎体赋予了带有反身性的（reflexive）、更高层级的指示意义（higher-order indexicalities）；研究也揭示了美籍华人社会定位的提升如何改变了杂碎体作为其族裔标识的具体社会意义；研究还揭示了设计媒介的更迭如何赋予了杂碎体新的指示意义。该理论模型将社会意义的建构理解为一个具有时间分层特征的过程。在此过程中，社会符号资源随着空间、社会及物质赋能（affordances）的不断变化而获得更高层级的指示意义，并随着时间的推移经历再语域化（re-enregisterment）。
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The chop suey letterform
  • 3.A social semiotic model of indexical change
    • 3.1Indexicality, iconization, and erasure
    • 3.2Indexical order
    • 3.3Enregisterment
    • 3.4A social semiotic model of indexical change
  • 4.Phoenix in transformation: Reindexicalization and reenregisterment
    • 4.1Overview of data and methods
    • 4.2Phoenix Inn in Chinatown: First- and second-order indexicalities
    • 4.3Phoenix Inn in Alhambra: Third-order indexicality
    • 4.4Phoenix Food Boutiques in San Gabriel Valley: Further reindexicalization
    • 4.5Phoenix Dessert in San Diego: Potential for reenregisterment
  • 5.Conclusions
  • References
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