Situated spatialities and the linguistic landscape: a diachronic account of an emblematic square in Naples

Abstract

ABSTRACT This longitudinal study investigates the linguistic construction of place and belonging (i.e. of situated spatialities) in Piazza Garibaldi, Naples, a square populated by both local and migrant groups who have experienced continuous displacement and relocation due to urban regeneration projects. The observation of the locality over 10 years has allowed the identification of changes that point to a dynamic role of the linguistic landscape (LL) as a process investing social relations, rather than a display of identity based on shared ethnic characteristics. The data consists both of verbal signs and other semiotic artefacts, and of discursive material collected via conversations with locals following an informant-directed methodology. Evidence points to a pattern of linguistic construction of place that challenges assumptions of migrant settlement as a process of ethnic community formation and highlights the place-specific character of migrant networks. Space, therefore, emerges as a key semiotic actor in facilitating local sociabilities, which are in turn engendered through the deployment of translocal literacies, the visual re-arrangement of private and public space, and the verbal and social crossing of ethno-linguistic boundaries.