Glocalization and the Spread of Unequal Englishes: Vernacular Signs in the Center of Beijing

Abstract

The spread of English across the world and the changes it has generated at different localities have been a focus of study for sociolinguists in recent decades. One of their perspectives is to analyze the various Englishes in relation to their regional and local linguistic varieties in context, and this is achieved by exploring the semiotic information that is available on linguistic signage (Backhaus 2007, 2009; Gorter 2006; Jaworski & Thurlow 2011; Shohamy & Gorter 2009; Shohamy et al. 2010). Indeed, in our societies, which are becoming more and more multilingual, the English language is used to an ever greater extent on signage in what Kachru (1990) defined as the Outer and Expanding Circles of the world. But in different localities and neighborhoods, the Englishes which have appeared on public signs exhibit fundamentally different characteristics with regard to their forms, their design, and their arrangements; as Tupas and Rubdy remark, ‘there is no one English, but many Englishes’ (see Introduction, this volume). These public signs, with their use of different forms of English, and their distinctive types of design and arrangement, are the concern of this chapter. I argue that public signs are a product of an unequal process of glocalization as the localized forms, functions, and values of Englishes illustrate people’s social aspiration, their differentiated access to social resources, and their places in the social hierarchy. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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