Although research of bilingualism in a single aural-oral linguistic mode is common, this has yet to be extended to visual-gestural modes of language use. This is a significant research gap, as deaf people and signed languages are agentic forces that contribute to a diverse global linguistic and sociocultural landscape. In this article, we present…

The distinction between natural sign languages and sign-supported speech is a controversial topic and difficult to assess purely on structural terms because of language contact. Here, we consider British Sign Language (BSL) and Sign Supported English (SSE) with reference to Irvine and Gal's (2000. Language ideology and linguistic differentiation.…

As the first study addressing family language policy (FLP) in d/Deaf-parented families in China, the current research explores language ideologies, practices and management held by different members within the families. Children of d/Deaf adults (Codas) form an unusual bimodal bilingual group, and the study concerning this group prompts us to…

Linguistic landscape studies (LLS) involve analyzing public signs in specific areas (e.g., streets, entire cities) to reveal the socio-cultural and sociolinguistic structures present. Turkey has been influenced by various cultures, particularly following the refugee influx starting in 2011 and recent internationalization efforts. Such social…

Recent linguistic landscape (LL) research has witnessed a change in focus to untypical, peripheral and fluid signs. Compared to typical (or permanent, fixed, etc.) signs which tend to be subject to strong policy intervention, language use on untypical signs is often more autonomous, thus could better reflect the "de facto" language…

Recent work on linguistic landscapes at schools (schoolscapes) has highlighted the complex dialogic relationship between the semiotics of public signage in educational spaces and policies seeking to enforce dominant ideologies. In this paper, we discuss the results of research conducted in the Deep South of Thailand, a minority region in which the…

This paper examines recent lexical expansion in New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL) in the context of change in the status of the language and ongoing contact with other (spoken and signed) languages. We categorised 917 new signs documented in the past five years according to their source, semantic field, and sign formation mechanism(s), both…

This paper explores the presence of the Tibetan language in the linguistic landscape of Xining, the capital of Qinghai Province in Northwest China. Qinghai constitutes the main part of Amdo, one of the historical and cultural regions of greater Tibet. The majority of the inhabitants of Xining are Han Chinese (the major ethnic group in China), and…

This paper is an initial attempt to characterise the schoolscape of a four-century old higher education institution in the Philippines and the oldest existing university in Asia, The Royal, Catholic, and Pontifical University of Santo Tomas (UST). Through a systematic inventory of 2,410 visual signs, the analysis of the functional sign…

This paper proposes a concept of "campus vitality" of languages: the ability of a language to maintain its prestige, visibility and continuity on university campuses. A seven-factor framework is developed for on-the-ground investigation of the relevant languages in a given campus context. These indexical factors are the number,…

Taking a multi-level perspective on language-in-public-space policy, this study investigates the way Tunisia's dominant languages are dealt with in three independent but interrelated activities of language policy: official texts, public talk, and the actual practices of business actors in five commercial districts in metropolitan Tunis. Detailed…

Linguistic landscaping (LL) is an emerging field of Sociolinguistics exploring the language in its textual form in public sphere. This paper investigates the visibility and prominence of languages in the public space of Patna, the capital city of Bihar, India. A total of 10 city neighborhoods are chosen for the study. The corpus of the study is…

This article presents the results of a small-scale study on the linguistic landscape in the two terminals of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Thirty-one digital photos of non-identical signs out of a total of 368 'top-down' signs identified in the public space were collected, and questionnaires were administered to airport users to gauge…

This paper explores the linguistic landscape (LL) of a multi-ethnolinguistic city in China, namely Shangri-La City, where Tibetan, Han (Mandarin Chinese), English and several other minority languages are used. As one of the most well-known Chinese tourist cities by Western travellers, a city with rapid socioeconomic development, and a city that…

This article discusses the rationale for using language diaries as a method to evaluate language use and language choice in multilingual contexts, as well as the benefits and limitations of this approach vis-à-vis other research methods. This is illustrated using examples from two contexts: Flemish Sign Language/Dutch bilinguals in Flanders and…