Linguistic landscape as an arena of conflict : language removal, exclusion, and ethnic identity construction in Lithuania (Vilnius)

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Etninio identiteto kūrimas Lietuvoje (Vilniuje), diachroninis tyrimas; Lingvistinis peizažas; Socialinis-semiotinis kraštovaizdis; Tautinė mažuma; Tautinė tapatybė; Viešieji ženklai; Vilniaus kalbinis kraštovaizdis; Diachronic approach; Ethnic; Identity construction in Lithuania (Vilnius); Linguistic landscape; National identity; National minority; Public signs; Socio-semiotic landscape; Vilnius' linguistic landscape.

EN[...] The aim of this chapter has been to illustrate how written languages and physical features of the cityscape emphasise the importance of Linguistic Landscape (LL) in a socio-historical context and enable us to understand that language is key to expressing, managing and resolving conflicts concerning the identity and language rights of national minorities. The analysis incorporated a historical diachronic dimension in observing the changing national face of Vilnius through discourses of different powers via symbolic appropriation of the city in the 19th and 20th centuries. This has demonstrated Week’s point that "The Russian, Polish, Soviet, and Lithuanian states all conceived and implemented a very specific type of national-symbolic politics". The analysis has also looked at how these historical conflicts, strengthened by modem social-political processes, impact on present-day relations between the Lithuanian state and its minorities and reflect the status of different ethnic groups via exclusion of their languages from the public sphere. At the same time, the discussion analysed modem transient landscapes of demonstrations as a public sphere, where the temporary re-appropriation of space by minorities can lead to discussions and potential conflict resolutions. Front the above, we can conclude that LL is not only an arena of conflict representation but also a tool that aids the struggle of ethnic minorities against dominant language policies and practices. Thus, LL does not only "privilege powerful or majority languages over minority ones", but also acts as a "representation of spaces that privilege subject positions and points of view".LL is a polyhedral tool of analysis in post-Soviet space: synchronic-diagnostic analysis can be combined with historical diachronic analysis to establish the surface picture, and extra-linguistic semiotic analysis can be used to investigate the deeper implications of language policies and power relations. [Extract, p. 393]

• Sociologija / Sociology
• Kalbotyra / Linguistics