Linguistic landscape in Nanchang: A look into the biliterate street name sign
Abstract
Street name sign is a part of linguistic landscape in cities. The previous studies mainly focused in multilingual cities or multilingual (or colonized) communities rather than monolingual cities where globalization is progressing. This study took field photographing survey method and selected three typical areas in Nanchang, a developing city in China as the target for further study to explore the biliterate phenomenon. The result reveals that the linguistic situation is biliterate with Chinese language as the dominance. The underlying reasons for such phenomenon are explored either from the political or practical perspectives: to abide the law and regulations or to create a potential internationalized atmosphere.