The thesis concerns the linguistic landscape (LL) of two neighbourhoods, one in Pretoria, South Africa, and the other in Marseille, France. This is a longitudinal study whose data was collected over two years of site visits. LL are explored in terms of both space and place. In terms of place, they are seen to be constitutive of a sense of place, allowing insights into memory, aspiration, and familial and cultural networks. Spatially, they are seen to realise a politics where design and distribution of LL are markers of power and modality. Analysis takes its point of departure in geosemiotics. Artefacts of LL are interpreted as sites of encounter of four cycles of discourse: the interaction order, habitus, semiotics of place and visual semiotics. The focus is on understanding LL artefacts, their production and reception, as a nexus of practice. Methodologically, walking - as a creative practice, and as an actualisation of the place and space of the neighbourhood - is chosen for photographing LL, for observing interactions and for meeting participants to the research. In examining habitus, the discourses, literacy and narratives of the people who live, work and pass through the site are compared. Deep social and economic similarities are noted between the two sites. Exploration of the semiotics of place brings to light regularities in the features of formal and informal LL, the nature of participation with and subversion of these texts, but also disparities among producers and receivers in terms of literacy, access, the socio-cultural and the socio-economic. Visual semiotic analysis continues these findings and it is noted that global and local discourses of identification, aspiration and self-stylisation circulate transversally in the sites. LL are taken to realise a politics of space when multimodal analysis of composition and modality is extended to the streetscape, as LL ensemble. A key facet of the research is the interpretation of informal LL. Their inclusion challenges existing LL methodologies by flagging the necessity to ground quantitative findings ethnographically.

Exploring theoretical intersections of translation studies and linguistic landscape studies, this thesis both sums up existing research and presents new ideas, so as to show how the two disciplines can benefit from each other. The main focus of the first chapter is distinctive features of translations in linguistic landscape. The empirical part has several aims. The linguistic landscape of Prague's city centre is examined, above all the use of foreign languages and translations on signs, employing some of the theoretical concepts from the first chapter. The thesis also looks into translativity in linguistic landscape. A selection of translations from Czech to English is then assessed by language specialists who are native speakers of English, helping us identify flaws in the translations.

This study analyses the different social variables that conditioned the naming of schools during the colonial period in Zimbabwe (1890-1979). The study collects and analyses the names given to schools in Salisbury (including Chitungwiza), Umtali and Fort Victoria the colonial period in Zimbabwe. The study adopts Geosemiotics, a theory propounded by Scollon and Scollon (2003), together with insights from Semantics, Semiotics and Pragmatics in the analysis of school names. Critical Discourse Analysis is used a method of data analysis. One of the main findings of the study is that place names are discourses of power which are used to express and legitimise power because they are part of the symbolic emblems of power. It was possible to ‘read’ the politics during the colonial period in Zimbabwe through the place names used in the colonial society. Both Europeans and Africans made conscious efforts to imbue public places with meanings. Overally, people who have access to power have ultimate control over place naming in any society. In this case, they manipulate place naming system in order to inscribe their own meanings and versions of history in the toponomastic landscape. The second finding is that place names are critical place-making devices that can be used to create imagined boundaries between people living in the same environment. Place names are useful discourses that index sameness and differences of people in a nation-state. Place names exist in interaction and kinship with other discourses in making places and imposing an identity on the landscape. Semiotics, Semantics and Pragmatics are instrumental in the appreciation of the meaning conveyed by school names. This study makes an important contribution to onomastic research in the sense that its findings can be generalised to other place naming categories during the colonial period in Zimbabwe. This study provides background information on how place naming was done during thecolonial period in Zimbabwe. This makes it significant because it provides insights on place naming in other states that went through the colonial experience, in Africa or elsewhere in the world. / African Languages

This study analyses the different social variables that conditioned the naming of schools during the colonial period in Zimbabwe (1890-1979). The study collects and analyses the names given to schools in Salisbury (including Chitungwiza), Umtali and Fort Victoria the colonial period in Zimbabwe. The study adopts Geosemiotics, a theory propounded by Scollon and Scollon (2003), together with insights from Semantics, Semiotics and Pragmatics in the analysis of school names. Critical Discourse Analysis is used a method of data analysis. One of the main findings of the study is that place names are discourses of power which are used to express and legitimise power because they are part of the symbolic emblems of power. It was possible to ‘read’ the politics during the colonial period in Zimbabwe through the place names used in the colonial society. Both Europeans and Africans made conscious efforts to imbue public places with meanings. Overally, people who have access to power have ultimate control over place naming in any society. In this case, they manipulate place naming system in order to inscribe their own meanings and versions of history in the toponomastic landscape. The second finding is that place names are critical place-making devices that can be used to create imagined boundaries between people living in the same environment. Place names are useful discourses that index sameness and differences of people in a nation-state. Place names exist in interaction and kinship with other discourses in making places and imposing an identity on the landscape. Semiotics, Semantics and Pragmatics are instrumental in the appreciation of the meaning conveyed by school names. This study makes an important contribution to onomastic research in the sense that its findings can be generalised to other place naming categories during the colonial period in Zimbabwe. This study provides background information on how place naming was done during thecolonial period in Zimbabwe. This makes it significant because it provides insights on place naming in other states that went through the colonial experience, in Africa or elsewhere in the world. / African Languages / D. Lit. et Phil. (African Languages)

Práce se věnuje managementu bilingvismu v situaci jazykového posunu, tj. tomu, jak se jednotlivci a organizace chovají vůči dvojjazyčnosti, jak s ní zacházejí, a to v situaci, kdy společnost přechází od užívání jednoho jazyka k jazyku jinému. Práce se konkrétně zaměřuje na vybrané, dosud méně zkoumané aspekty současné jazykové situace v Bělorusku. Analyzované aspekty zahrnují: 1) geosémiotiku a management jazykového posunu na nápisech ve veřejném prostoru, 2) management jazykových problémů se zaměřením na školství a 3) snahy o obrácený jazykový posun k běloruštině. Pozornost se přitom věnuje korespondencím mezi jazykovým managementem občanů a státních nebo jiných veřejných organizací. Cílem práce je přispět jak k lepšímu poznání jazykové situace v Bělorusku, tak k rozpracování některých sociolingvistických konceptů, jako je zejména jazykový posun a jazykový problém. Práce aplikuje teorii jazykového managementu jako obecný model jazykového posunu a jako instrument k diagnostikaci jazykových problémů. Při aplikaci teorie v uvedených kontextech se ukázalo jako užitečné rozšířit ji o koncept diskurzu a kolektivního jednání, které pomůžou konceptualizovat propojení mezi jednoduchým a organizovaným jazykovým managementem, respektive mezi mikrosociální a makrosociální rovinou. Klíčová slova bilingvismus,...

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Text in English / This qualitative study presents an onomastic perspective on the changing linguistic landscape of Zimbabwe which resulted from the post-2000 land reforms (also known as the Third Chimurenga). When veterans of Zimbabwe’s War of Liberation assumed occupancy of former white-owned farms, they immediately pronounced their take-over of the land through changes in place names. The resultant toponymic landscape is anchored in the discourses of the First and Second Chimurenga. Through recasting the Chimurenga (war of liberation) narrative, the proponents of the post-2000 land reforms endeavoured to create a historical continuum from the colonisation of Zimbabwe in 1890 to the post-2000 reforms, which were perceived as an attempt to redress the historical anomaly of land inequality. The aim of this study is to examine toponymic changes on the geo-linguistic landscape, and establish the extent of the changes and the post-colonial identity portrayed by these place names. Within the case study design, research methods included in-depth interviews, document study and observations as means of data generation. Through the application of critical and sociolinguistic theories in the form of post-colonial theory, complemented by geo-semiotics, political semiotics and language ecology, this study uncovers the richness of toponymy in exposing a cryptic social narrative reflective of, among others, contestations of power. The findings indicate that post-2000 toponymy is a complex mixture of pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial place names. These names recast the various narratives in respect of the history of Zimbabwe through the erasure of colonial toponyms and resuscitation older Chimurenga names. The resultant picture portrayed by post-2000 toponymy communicates a complex message of contested land ownership in Zimbabwe. There is a pronounced legacy of colonial toponymy that testifies to the British Imperial occupation of the land and the ideologies behind colonisation. This presence of colonial toponymy many years after independence is an ironic confirmation of the indelible legacy of British colonialism in Zimbabwe. The findings show a clear recasting of the discourses of violence and racial hostility, but also reveal an interesting trend of toponymic syncretism where colonial names are retained and used together with new names. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)

This thesis explores the ongoing regeneration of Raploch council housing estate, in Stirling, focusing on the lived experiences of the established residents who reside in the pre-regeneration council housing estate, or had family or historical links with the area, as well as new residents, who have moved into the new owner occupied houses that were built in the regeneration. Key informants who have worked in a professional capacity in the area were also consulted to broaden the perspective. The regeneration was a response to a long history of deprivation, segregation and stigmatisation, which led to the demolition of council housing on one side of a main road within the area. The demolition site was redeveloped by a partnership of private developers and a social housing provider. As a consequence of the regeneration there were various physical and social changes in the area, caused by the construction of new homes, as well as other changes to the built environment, and the influx of owner occupiers into the new housing. A visual research method, 'auto-driven photo elicitation', was utilised, which allowed an insight into these changes from a unique perspective. Participants made photos of the area, of places they wanted to discuss, which became the starting point of a subsequent interview process; allowing participants to focus on issues relevant to them. The findings showed that the participants attached a great importance to the history of this specific place, but also that there was segregation between the new residents and the established community. Further fragmentations, religious and historic territorial divisions, within the communities were visually reinforced by the regeneration process. The participants also attached great significance to the linguistic and semiotic landscape, which they interpreted in the context of this place.