Chinatown in Washington, DC: The bilingual landscape

ABSTRACT: Originated as a new approach to multilingualism, research on linguistic landscapes has typically focused on the varieties of language inscribed on the surface of a particular place. As this original conceptualization and its associated methodology have not always sufficed to capture the sociolinguistic complexities of contemporary urban environments, recent researchers have called for a more contextualized approach to linguistic landscapes. Drawing on Lefebvre and Scollon and Scollon, this paper suggests that the linguistic landscapes might be considered with reference to a triadic model of place and spatial representation. This model is applied to reevaluate the bilingual landscape of Washington DC's Chinatown, with a particular focus on the multiple roles played by the English language in shaping and navigating the multilingual environment. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.