Transnational Linguistic Landscapes and the Transgression of Metadiscursive Regimes of Language

Abstract

In response to the limitations of the nation-state as a conceptual frame for the study of linguistic landscapes (LL), this article argues for a transnational approach that accounts for the material reconfigurations and symbolic reimaginations of space in the context of global flows and migrations (Appadurai, 1996). This approach enables one to recognize the fluidity of language practice that transgresses the metadiscursive regimes of language (Bauman & Briggs, 2003) upon which the ideological maintenance of native speaker idealization (Kachru, 2005) hinges. Drawing primarily on theories of language practice (Pennycook, 2010), language disinvention (Makoni & Pennycook, 2005, 2007), and language transgression (Pennycook, 2007), this article analyzes a variety of linguistic tactics in the transnational Korean LL, including those of the South Korean nation-state, and of ethnic Korean enclaves in the United States, including the Koreatowns of Los Angeles and New York. Language practice in the transnational Korean LL challenges the very boundaries of language that precede linguistic hierarchization (e.g., Inner Circle variety as superior to Outer and Expanding Circle varieties) and challenge the ideological commitment to native speaker idealization.

Acknowledgments

I owe much thanks to Peter I. DeCosta, Michigan State University; Linh Dich, Miami University Middletown; Christopher J. Jenks, City University of Hong Kong); Charles P. Norton, The University of Arizona; the editor of Critical Inquiry in Language Studies Miguel Mantero, University of Alabama; and the three anonymous reviewers for their help on earlier versions of this article. Remaining shortcomings/oversights are my own.

Notes

¹ “hangeul” is romanized using the McCune-Reischauer system (han'gŭl) in the original text. I have used the Revised Romanization system to maintain consistency within this essay.

² The sign itself uses the spelling of “아이 조아,” which is common colloquial spelling of “아이 좋아.”