| As one of the burgeoning areas of research in the fields of sociolinguistics and applied linguistics,linguistic landscape(LL)has developed significantly in the past decade,and there has been a huge body of research focusing on language use in public places,language policy,the complex relationships in the LL between language,place,and people.In recent years,the scope of enquiry has expanded to analyze peripheral texts such as T-shirts,product labels and non-stationary signs such as mobile train graffiti.Despite this,little has been done to explore the peripheral printed T-shirts from the perspectives of multimodality and social semiotics in China.To fill this gap,this study aimed to unravel the linguistic and semiotic meaning conveyed by printed T-shirts as peripheral linguistic landscape,and examine how they are produced,consumed and commodified as well as how they are invested with meaning by those who experience it.To this end,this study adopted both quantitative and qualitative methods.To be specific,the quantitative data were collected by photographs taken by the mobile phone while the qualitative data were collected from interviews with shop assistants and customers.3 shop assistants and 5 customers were involved in the face-to-face semi-structured interviews.All the interviews were recorded and transcribed.In total,there were 157 units of analysis.Cenoz and Gorter‘s(2006)frameworks of units of analysis were employed to analyze the quantitative data,while the qualitative data analysis aimed to unravel the printed T-shirts authorship,consumption and commodification.Based on the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data,the results revealed that:(1)The number of multimodal T-shirts and mono-modal T-shirts was nearly similar.Text,image,color and non-letter forms were main semiotic modes included in investigated printed T-shirts.The visual image was prominent in the printed T-shirts with a single mode.Meanwhile,the interplay between text and image was more frequent in the combinations of various modes on printed T-shirts.The top position of text and the color contrast between white T-shirts and red texts exposed that the interaction of multiple modes embodied individuality and sense of identity with different social groups.(2)The printed T-shirts text could be classified as projections,labels and icons among which the projections were in majority position.With the analysis of these three categories,it was found that the declarative mood of projections,positive attitude in labels and proper nouns of things and events in icons were dominant in the printed T-shirt text.Based on process type in the transitivity configuration between wearer and text,the meaning-making potential of printed T-shirts text emblematized the unique self-hood and self-image.(3)The authorship of printed T-shirts was mainly reliant on different options of modes by shop assistants and customers.The texts of printed T-shirts were designed by shop assistants who intended to look for the social identity or the identification with specific groups.The dominant position of Chinese in the text design revealed its culture power.In addition,some designs were authored for reminding and persuasion,whereas some customized or client-tailored images represented customers‘ self-identity and identity of local culture.(4)When the printed T-shirt acted as a commodity,the multimodal inscriptions could help build social rapport between shop assistants and customers,thereby evoking the intimacy with each other.This study makes a contribution to the linguistic landscape research by expanding its enquiry to the multimodality and text taxonomy as well as authorship of peripheral linguistic landscape such as printed T-shirts.The thesis closes with the limitations of the study and suggestions for future research. |
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