Investigating the bilingual landscape of the Marshall Islands

Isabelle Buchstaller, Seraphim Alvanides

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

While research on linguistic landscapes (LL) is fast becoming a mainstay of social science research, little of this inquiry has been conducted in the Pacific region. The small Pacific island states are particularly interesting because many are involved in a struggle for their right to the landscape (to paraphrase Lefebvre, 1968). This chapter reports on interdisciplinary research in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), which has recently proposed a bilingual strategy for public signage. We report our empirical findings on language use in the LL of the RMI at the cusp of this new language policy, as well as our research methods, which aim to make our findings accessible to local stakeholders. By feeding our results back to the relevant authorities, we hope to inform language policy strategy in this ongoing struggle for ethnolinguistic identity construction.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationExpanding the Linguistic Landscape
Subtitle of host publicationLinguistic Diversity, Multimodality and the Use of Space as a Semiotic Resource
PublisherChannel View Publications
Pages203-228
Number of pages26
ISBN (Electronic)9781788922166
ISBN (Print)9781788922142
Publication statusPublished - 20 Dec 2018

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