Durk Gorter (ed.), Linguistic landscape: A new approach to multilingualism

• Published in: Language in Society Vol. 37; no. 2; pp. 312 - 313
• Main Author: Mitchell, Thomas D.
• Format: Book Review Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.04.2008
• Subjects: Advertisements; Language; Linguistics; Literary translation; Multilingualism; Nonfiction; Public signs; Shohamy, Elana; Toponymy; Translation methods and strategies
• ISSN: 0047-4045; 1469-8013
• DOI: 10.1017/S0047404508080470

Durk Gorter (ed.), Linguistic landscape: A new approach to multilingualism. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, 2006. Pp. 1, 89. Hb $54.95. The four articles in this book adopt the definition of linguistic landscape (LL) offered by Rodrigue Landry & Richard Y. Bourhis (1997:25) as their authors investigate the visual makeup of cities worldwide: "The language of public road signs, advertising billboards, street names, place names, commercial shop signs, and public signs on government buildings combines to form the linguistic landscape of a given territory, region, or urban conglomeration." The authors categorize signs as either top-down (official signs issued by public bureaucracies) or bottom-up (non-official signs posted by individuals or businesses), and each article examines details such as where the signs appear, the order and relative prominence of languages on multilingual signs, and whether or not multilingual signs contain (full or partial) translations. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]