Sightseeing English in Beijing
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Sightseeing English in Beijing An ethnographic study of Chinese-English public order notices in the linguistic landscape of Beijing Laura van Bochove 1 Sightseeing English in Beijing An ethnographic study of Chinese-English public order notices in the linguistic landscape of Beijing Master thesis Communication and Information Sciences Specialization Intercultural Communication School of Humanities, Tilburg University September 2011 Laura van Bochove ANR: 666975 Supervision : Prof. dr. Sjaak Kroon : Dr. Dong Jie External Examiner : Prof. dr. Jan Blommaert 2 Abstract Globalization indicates that the world becomes smaller because techniques have developed to travel fast and easy. With people traveling, they also travel with the language they speak. Therefore languages all over the world meet each other and with English being a „world language‟ it can be expected that English arrives in every country of the world. This thesis shows that English also reached Beijing, the capital of P.R. China and that English displayed in Beijing is not the same as English used in England. The general research question I focused on is also: “What happens to English when it is used in Beijing?” To investigate this I have photographed a total number of 128 signs of public order notices in the linguistic landscape of Beijing. I have analyzed those signs and found that I could categorize them into three groups, respectively spelling deviations; structures in English that refer to Chinese cultural modes of speech, and English where different kind of deviations are all combined. Chapter 6 discusses the signs that belong to the first group, chapter 7 shows the signs I have found that belong to the second group and chapter 8 contains examples of the third group. It seems that although the authorities have prescribed rules for signs in the linguistic landscape, the people that have to construct signs according to those orders vary enormously in education background and level of literacy which is a reason why so many different „mistakes‟ are made. Not all people that are responsible for translating the sings into English have access to the necessary level of English to do it successfully. 3 Content Abstract 3 Preface 6 Chapter 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 7 1.1 A study of English in China ............................................................................................................ 7 1.2 A linguistic landscaping study ........................................................................................................ 8 1.3 Ethnography .................................................................................................................................. 9 1.4 Summary........................................................................................................................................ 9 Chapter 2 Linguistic Landscape ......................................................................................................... 11 2.1 Categorization of signs ................................................................................................................ 11 2.2 Globalization visible through the linguistic landscape ................................................................ 12 2.3 Linguistic landscape and language policy .................................................................................... 13 2.4 Ethnographic research method ................................................................................................... 14 2.5 Fieldwork and research questions .............................................................................................. 14 2.5.1 The Forbidden City ............................................................................................................... 15 2.5.2 The Great Wall ...................................................................................................................... 16 2.5.3 Bell and Drum Tower ............................................................................................................ 18 2.5.4 The Summer Palace .............................................................................................................. 18 2.5.5 Gate of heavenly peace (or better known as Tian’anmen Square) ...................................... 19 2.5.6 Signs ...................................................................................................................................... 19 2.5.7 Research questions............................................................................................................... 20 2.5.8 Interviews ............................................................................................................................. 21 Chapter 3 English in China ................................................................................................................ 23 3.1 Language situation and position of Putonghua........................................................................... 23 3.2 Changing ideology ....................................................................................................................... 24 3.3 Reactions ............................................................................................................................... 26 Chapter 4 Concepts applied to the linguistic landscape ................................................................... 28 4.1 Space, sociolinguistic scales and indexicality .............................................................................. 28 4.2 Emplacement ............................................................................................................................... 29 4.3 Contextualisation, habitus and intertextuality ............................................................................ 29 4.4 Grassroots literacy ....................................................................................................................... 30 4.5 Communicative problems ........................................................................................................... 30 4 Chapter 5 General results ...................................................................................................................... 32 Chapter 6 Results ‘Unstable English’ ..................................................................................................... 34 6.1 Description of signs ..................................................................................................................... 34 6.2 Analysis ........................................................................................................................................ 38 6.3 Reactions of the intended audience. .......................................................................................... 41 Chapter 7 Results ‘Chinesed English’ .................................................................................................... 44 7.1 Warning in the form of a Chinese poem ..................................................................................... 44 7.2 Sign with metaphor ..................................................................................................................... 46 7.3 Sign with poetical language ......................................................................................................... 49 7.4 A Chinese habit ............................................................................................................................ 52 Chapter 8 Results ‘Incomprehensible English’ ...................................................................................... 54 8.1 Slippery floor ............................................................................................................................... 54 8.2 Warning not to open the door .................................................................................................... 55 8.3 Warning in subway station .......................................................................................................... 56 8.3 Fire extinguisher .......................................................................................................................... 59 Chapter 9 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 65 9.1 Summary of results ...................................................................................................................... 65 9.2 Final interpretations .................................................................................................................... 66 9.3 Discussion .................................................................................................................................... 67 References 68 Appendix 1 Overview of signs ............................................................................................................... 72 Appendix 2 Interview questions ............................................................................................................ 83 5 Preface The present study is an ethnographic investigation of language problems that appear in Chinese-English public order notices. To collect research material to analyze these signs I have spend three months in Beijing, P.R. China. This thesis was a great adventure that started with a coincidental talk on