A Study on the Linguistic Landscape in Beijing Zoo under the SPEAKING Model

Abstract

At present, many studies have examined the linguistic landscape (LL). The majority of them target street signs or billboards which usually present only a limited number words; however, fewer studies focus on information boards with more text in public areas. Beijing Zoo not only functions as a tool for popularizing knowledge about animals to the public, but also plays a role in showing the national image of China to the world. This paper takes Chinese-English bilingual LLs in Beijing Zoo as the research object and chooses three elements of the SPEAKING Model, “Genres,” “Norms,” and “Instrumentalities” to analyze these LLs. Field photography, transcription, and comparison are used during the analysis process.

Based on “Genres,” this paper classifies LLs in Beijing Zoo into five categories, including Linguistic Landscapes for Basic Information, Interactive Linguistic Landscapes for Science Popularization, Joint Linguistic Landscapes for Science Popularization, Featured Linguistic Landscapes for Science Popularization, and Other Linguistic Landscapes. Based on “Norms,” this paper looks for errors on LLs, makes corrections, and tries to explore some “hidden norms” embedded in their content. Based on “Instrumentalities,” this paper provides suggestions for the further improvement of LLs in Beijing Zoo by referring to related content of Toronto Zoo and Columbus Zoo.

This research not only widens the research scope of SPEAKING Model, but also attempts to expand the meaning of “Norms” because this paper applies it to both real social scenes and “communities” constructed by different LLs, the latter of which can help to discover the communicative norms in them. This research can help to correct errors on LLs in Beijing Zoo, give guidelines for the further improvement of these LLs, and provide reference value for the quality control of LLs in other zoos.