Abstract
This paper analyzes signs and written messages aimed at regulating people's behavior in public spaces. Based on a collection of more than 700 verbal and pictographic signs, the paper focuses on how the formulation of the directives reflect and construct the authors' deontic authority, how they account for the social legitimacy of the directive and how they seek to evoke the addressee's goodwill and cooperativeness. The analysis shows that the author's entitlement to perform the directive may be grounded in references to institutional authority, or that it may be manifested in the linguistic or pictographic expression itself, such as use of imperative mode, exclamation marks, or threats of sanctions. Entitlement may also be established by providing accounts for the legitimacy of the directive. These take the form of reference to rules and norms or information about benefits of the requested action to the recipients or third parties. Finally, the analysis shows how signs may seek to evoke positive attitudes in the addressee by creating affiliation or by using humor and poetic devices. By comparing with previous research on directives in conversation, the paper identifies request practices that are specific to this form of written communication.
Highlights
Public spaces are full of signs and written notes telling the public what to do and what not to do, such as the omnipresent “No smoking”-signs or the post-it notes commonly found in lunch rooms saying “Clean up after yourself”
This study has identified some general practices used in the formulation of directives on signs in public spaces
The analysis shows that entitlement may be claimed by signatures indicating the institutional authority of the actor responsible for the sign
Summary
Public spaces are full of signs and written notes telling the public what to do and what not to do, such as the omnipresent “No smoking”-signs or the post-it notes commonly found in lunch rooms saying “Clean up after yourself”. Such signs are powerful indices of norms of propriety and social order. Do they provide insight into what sorts of actions are deemed mandatory or improper in which locations e and in need of explicit exhortation, they provide insight into the entitlement various actors claim in regulating the actions of others, and the methods they use to seek compliance. This article is a first attempt at identifying some common formats used on such signs and discussing how they display entitlement and seek compliance
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