Cover not available
Article published In:
Linguistic Landscape
Vol. 3:1 (2017) ► pp.25–55

“When size matters”

Multimodality, material ethnography and signage in Trump’s race to the White House

| Salisbury University

This paper examines the in-built message modality of Republican Party campaign yard signage in the 2016 U.S. Presidential race, and argues for a ‘reading’ in which known and unknown contender biographical details and idiolectal patterns form a key component in analyses using material ethnography. Examining the grammar of visuality in which typographic choice, toponymic-allusion, punctuational detail, as well as onomastics and embedded speech acts emerge ripe in literal and metaphoric meaning, the paper demonstrates how acts of intertextual chaining of political history and candidate biography re-affirm the need for interpretive frameworks which are dynamic – not static – and which are simultaneously incorporative of exophoric text-context accounts of witnessed signage. The in-built potential of campaign yard signage in triggering contagious and conspicuous acts of affective stance-taking particularly in neighborhoods of geospatial contiguity are examined both for how they fit into LL research, as well as for how they prod further innovation in its interdisciplinary-inspired and evolving frameworks of analysis.

Keywords: Political campaign signs, yard signs, U.S. Elections, Donald Trump, multimodality
Article outline
  • 1.Political yard signs and linguistic landscape research
  • 2.Yard signs: A brief history
    • 2.1Yard signs and LL research
  • 3.Yard signs in one neighborhood: Points vs. periods in time
  • 4.LL and expanding artifacts of study
  • 5.The man behind the signs
  • 6.The politics of onomastics: Names, not trees
  • 7.The sociolinguistics of “big”
  • 8.Enhancing bigness: The role of verbal intensification
  • 9.But, back to the empire and its signs
  • 10.Do font size, saliency and punctuation matter?
  • 11.Trump’s tagline: Examining etymology and effect
  • 12.Concluding remarks: Implications for LL
  • Acknowledgements
  • References


This article is currently available as a sample article.

Published online: 29 June 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/ll.3.1.02pan
References
Alim, H. S, Rickford J. R, & Ball A. F.
(2016) Raciolinguistics: How language shapes our ideas about race. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Altman, A. Miller, Z. J. & Newton-Small, J.
(2016) The first task for Donald Trump’s new campaign chief: Manage the candidate. Time, August 17, p.11.Google Scholar
Bailey, R. W.
(2012) Speaking American: A history of English in the United States. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Baldwin-Philippi, J.
(2015) Using technology, Building democracy. New York: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Barni, M. & Bagna, C.
(2015) The critical turn in LL: New methodologies and new items in LL. Linguistic Landscape, 1(1/2), 6–18. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Barron, J.
(1991) The Donald is to marry!” And darlings, It’s Marla! New York Times, (late Ed.) July 4, B.1.Google Scholar
Ben-Rafael, E. & Ben-Rafael, M.
(2015) Linguistic landscapes in an era of multiple globalizations. Linguistic Landscape, 1(1/2),19–37. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bethea, C.
(2016) Word of the day: Stumped. The New Yorker. April 11, 20–21.Google Scholar
Billig, M.
(1995) Banal Nationalism. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Blair, G.
(2000) The Trumps: Three generations of builders and a presidential candidate. New York; Simon & Shuster.Google Scholar
Block, D., Gray, J. & Holborow, M.
(2012) Neoliberalism and Applied Linguistics. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Blommaert, J.
(2013) Ethnography, superdiversity and linguistic landscape. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Burridge, J.
(2008) Hunting is not just for blood-thirsty toffs: The Countryside Alliance and the visual rhetoric of a poster campaign. Text &Talk, 28(1), 31–53. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Carter, G.
(2015) Steel traps and short fingers. Vanity Fair, November 2015 retrieved on 22 September, from [URL]
Cartwright, L. & Mandiberg, S.
(2009) Obama and Shepard Fairey: The copy and political iconography in the age of demake. Journal of Visual Culture, 8 (2), 172–176. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Celce-Murcia, M. & Larsen-Freeman, D.
(1999) The grammar book: An ESL/EFL teacher’s course. Boston: Heinle & Heinle.Google Scholar
Cook, V.
(2015) Meaning and material in the language of the street. Social Semiotics, 25(1), 81–109. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Crystal, D.
(2015) Making a point: The persnickety story of English punctuation. New York: St. Martin’s Press.Google Scholar
Donahower, B.
(2015) Don’t give up on yard signs. Campaigns & Elections, March/April, 12–13.Google Scholar
Dray, S.
(2010) Ideological struggles on signage in Jamaica. In A. Jaworski and C. Thurlow (Eds.), Semiotic Landscapes: Language, image, space (pp.102–122). London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Giroux, H.
(2015) Dangerous thinking in the age of new authoritarianism. New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Good, C.
(2011) The evolution of the campaign poster. The Atlantic, Aug 17, retrieved on 12 September, from [URL]
I’ll be back, says Trump
. Stornoway Gazzette, June 12 2008, retrieved on 7 September, 2016, from [URL]
Jaworski, A.
(2015) Word cities and language objects. Love sculptures and signs as shifters. Linguistic Landscape, 1(1/2), 75–94. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Johnston, D. C.
(2016) The making of Donald Trump. Brooklyn: Melville House.Google Scholar
Kam, C. D. & Zechmeister, E. J.
(2013) Name recognition and candidate support. American Journal of Political Science, 57(4), 971–986.Google Scholar
Klemesrud, J.
(1976) Donald Trump, real estate promoter, builds image as he buys buildings. New York Times, November 1, p.41.Google Scholar
Kranish, M. & Fisher. M.
(2016) Trump revealed: An American journey of ambition, ego, money and power. New York: Scribner.Google Scholar
Laihonen, P.
(2015) Beware the dog: Private linguistic landscapes in two Hungarian villages in South-West Slovakia. Language Policy, 15(4), 373–391. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, G.
(2016) Embedded narratives and cognitive linguistics explain Trump’s followers. Truthout.org, March 3, retrieved on 13 September, from [URL]
Landler, M.
(2016) Alter egos: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and the twilight struggle over American power. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Lawler, D. & Allen, N.
(2016) Donald Trump health summary on Dr. Oz chat show: High testosterone and a good golf swing. The Telegraph. September 15, retrieved on 15 September, from [URL]
Lee, B. & Campbell, V.
(2016) Looking out or turning in? Organizational ramifications of online political posters on Facebook . The International Journal of Press/Politics, 21(3), 313–337. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lincoln, B. W.
(1976) Soviet political posters: Art and ideas for the masses. History Today, 26(5), 302–309.Google Scholar
Machin, D. & van Leeuwen, T.
(2007) Global media discourse: A critical introduction. New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Makse, T. & Sokhey, A. E.
(2014) The displaying of yard signs as a form of political participation. Political Behavior, 361, 189–213. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Milani, T. M.
(2015) Sexual cityzenship: Discourses, spaces and bodies at Joburg Pride 2012. Journal of Language and Politics, 14(3), 431–454. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Milani, T. M. & Levon, E.
(2016) Sexing diversity: Linguistic landscapes of homonationalism. Language and Communication, 511, 69–86. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Miller, C. B.
(2009) Yes we did!” Basking in the glory and cutting off reflected failure in the 2008 presidential election. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 9(1), 283–296. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Miller, C. M.
(2016) Measuring Trump’s language: Bluster but also words that appeal to women. New York Times, March 14, retrieved on 21 September, from [URL]
Moriarty, M.
(2014) Languages in motion: Multilingualism and mobility in the linguistic landscape. International Journal of Bilingualism, 18(5), 457–463. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Myers, R.
(2016) Donald Trump vs. Hillary Clinton is going to be huge. Gentleman’s Quarterly (GQ), June 8, retrieved on 8 September, from [URL]
Nguyen, T.
(2016) Melania Trump steps into the spotlight. Vanity Fair, January 6. retrieved on 8 September, from [URL]
Pandey, A.
(2014a) Picturizing narrative innovation: A bird’s eye view of hypervisual intertextuality in Stephen Kelman’s Pigeon English. Journal of Visual Communication, 13(1), 50–73.Google Scholar
(2014b) Mining multilingualism’s materiality: Re-representing linguistic diversity in presidential biography. Critical Studies in Multilingualism, 2(1), 38–73.Google Scholar
(2015) Mapping Yamunaji’s linguistic landscape research: Cartographies in context, culture and class, Special symposium on late Yamuna Kachru’s contributions to linguistics, Journal of World Englishes, 34(1), 94–111.Google Scholar
(2016) Monolingualism and Linguistic Exhibitionism in Fiction. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Peck, A. & Banda, F.
(2014) Observatory’s linguistic landscape: semiotic appropriation and the reinvention of space. Social Semiotics, 24(3), 302–323. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Peterson, K.
(2016) Writer Meredith McIver apologizes for copied phrases in Melania Trump’s Speech. Wall Street Journal, August 21, p.1.Google Scholar
Pluta, R.
(2015) Trump says he would impose 35 percent tax on imported vehicles and parts. Michigan Radio (WGVU), December 22, retrieved on 7 September, 2016, from [URL]
Purnick, J.
(1986) Trump offers to rebuild skating rink. New York Times, May 31,Google Scholar
Roberts, M. S.
(1985)  Translator, Plastic space and political space. Boundary 2, 14(1/2), 211–223. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Scollon, R. & Scollon, S. W.
(2003) Discourses in place: Language in the material world. Abingdon: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Seidman, S.
(2008) Posters, propaganda and persuasion in election campaigns around the world and through history. New York: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Seltzer, L. F.
(2016) Outrage meets outrageousness: The populist logic behind Trump’s surprising popularity. The Journal of Psychohistory, 44(1), 73–84.Google Scholar
Serafini, F.
(2014) Reading the visual: An Introduction to teaching multimodal literacy. New York: Teachers College Press.Google Scholar
Seyej, N.
(2016) Trump vs. Clinton: A designer’s perspective on 2016 election logos. Print Magazine, August 5, retrieved on 12 September, from [URL]
Shohamy, E.
(2015) LL research as expanding language and language policy. Linguistic Landscape, 1(1/2), 152–171. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Smith, M. R.
(2016) New Trump-Pence logo gives some people the giggles. Associated Press (AP), July 15. retrieved on 14 September, from [URL]
Stroud, C. & Mpendukana, S.
(2010) Multilingual signage: A multimodal approach to discourses of consumption in a South African Township. Social Semiotics, 20(5), 469–493. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Synder, K.
(2016) How do Presidents sound? Textio, March 13, retrieved on 13 September, from [URL]
Trump, D. J. & Schwartz, T.
(1987) Art of the deal. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
van Leeuwen, T.
(2005) Typographic meaning. Visual Communication, 4(2), 137–142. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2006) Towards a semiotics of typography. Information Design Journal, 14(2), 139–155. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
(2011) The language of color: An introduction. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Varoga, C.
(2012) Campaign signs to ease the mind. Campaigns & Elections, November/December, 59.Google Scholar
Wade, P.
(2016) Marco Rubio is sorry that he mocked the size of Trump’s…small hands, but he’s mostly sorry that it didn’t work. Esquire, May 29, retrieved on 14 September, from [URL]
Wee, L.
(2014) Language politics and global city. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 35(5), 649–660.Google Scholar
(2016) Situating affect in linguistic landscapes. Linguistic Landscape, 2(2), 105–126. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 4 other publications

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 ► pp. 501 ff. DOI logo
Raish, Michael
2019. YaskoT 7OKM EL3aSKaR. Linguistic Landscape. An international journal 5:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Wroblewski, Michael
2020. Inscribing indigeneity: Ethnolinguistic authority in the linguistic landscape of Amazonian Ecuador . Multilingua 39:2 ► pp. 139 ff. DOI logo
Yao, Xiaofang & Peng Nie
2024. Implicit language policy in ethnic minority migrant community in urban China: a study of the linguistic landscape of “Little Lhasa”. Language Policy DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 3 april 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.