The communicative functions of epitaphs in the linguistic landscape of Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes’ Cemetery), Philippines

ABSTRACT

The study of Philippine cemeteries has been traditionally placed within the purview of archaeology, which, broadly speaking, places importance in its material cultures. To further broaden our knowledge about these sites, this paper explores how Philippine cemeteries, particularly Libingan ng mga Bayani (LNMB), generate meaning through their linguistic landscape (LL). Using place semiotics approach and indexicality, this study identifies seven communicative functions used in LNMB epitaphs: (1) affective, (2) associative, (3) celebrative, (4) memorative, (6) desiderative, and (7) summative. In doing so, this study not only treats public signs as communicative ‘actors’ which convey meaning and pragmatic function but it also analyzes the act of ‘engaging’ with epitaphs as a highly contextualised speech event. Finally, this study argues that epitaphs signify discourses of memory, remembrance, and patriotism and index sociocultural and political realities, all of which contribute to the creation of LNMB not only as a cemetery per se but also as a place of experience and embodiment.

KEYWORDS:

• Communicative functions
• geosemiotics
• linguistic landscape
• Libingan ng mga Bayani
• indexicality

Acknowledgement

I would like to express my gratitude to Marie Cecilia L. Manalastas for assisting me during the data collection and fieldwork trips to the Libingan. Without her, this study would not have been possible. I would also like to thank those who shared their wonderful insights and comments on an earlier draft of this paper during the 15th Philippine Linguistics Congress held at the University of the Philippines in Diliman.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nicko Enrique L. Manalastas

Nicko Enrique L. Manalastas is a Graduate Teaching Associate in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. He has published a chapter of his undergraduate thesis entitled “(De-)Monstering COVID-19: a diachronic studyof COVID-19 virus multimodal metaphors in Philippine editorial cartoons, 2019–2022” in Multimodal Communication. His research interests include multimodal metaphors in Philippine media, LGBTQ+ linguistics, and Philippine semiotic and linguistic landscapes. He may be reached by email at [email protected]