A Study of the Three Dimensions of Linguistic Landscape——A Case Study of Five Star Commercial Pedestrian Street in Liuzhou, China

Abstract

As a multi-national city with an international view, Liuzhou city reflects its social culture and development on the linguistic landscape. Based on the three-dimension space theory of linguistic landscape by Trumper-Hecht, this paper analyzes 178 pieces of the linguistic landscape of the Five Star Commercial Pedestrian Street in Liuzhou, Guangxi, China by methods of both quantity and quality to explore whether the linguistic landscape accords with the multi-nationality and internationality of Liuzhou. The results show that, in physical space, Liuzhou's preference code is Chinese, followed by a combination of Chinese and English. But there is no ethnic minority language found. In living space, people' attitude towards the linguistic landscape proves that there are some problems with improper translation, rare minority language, and a sense of disorder. And in conceived space, this study indicates three pieces of advice about policy management of linguistic landscape on translation, Zhuang language, and multimodality. To better highlight the international and ethnic characteristics, Liuzhou needs to improve its linguistic landscape.