Language Attitudes and Identity Building in the Linguistic Landscape of Montreal

Type of resource
Authors/collaborators
Title
Language Attitudes and Identity Building in the Linguistic Landscape of Montreal
Abstract
The authors note that few studies to date have considered the agency of readers in reinterpreting the cultural, historical, political, and social background of the linguistic landscape (LL; visible language in public space) and the ways in which individual and collective identities are discursively conceptualised through the LL. The authors present results from a study involving participants from three self-described sociolinguistic identities (Francophone, Anglophone, and Bilingual), reading signs found in the LL of Montreal. Using photographic prompts, they questioned participants about the probable location of signs, their languages, and the languages’ placement on monolingual (French or English) and bilingual (French–English) signs emanating from both governmental and private entities. The authors conclude that further discussions about participants' emotive responses to the signs and the possible responses of “Others” reveal the relative degrees of importance attached to these linguistic elements in constructing, negotiating, and communicating various and (more) fluid sociolinguistic identities.
Publication
Open Linguistics
Volume
Vol. 7
Issue
no. 1
Pages
406-422
Date
2021
Language
en
URL
Citation
Leimgruber, Jakob R.E., and Victor Fernández-Mallat. “Language Attitudes and Identity Building in the Linguistic Landscape of Montreal.” Open Linguistics Vol. 7, no. 1 (2021): 406–422. https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/opli-2021-0021/html.
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