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This case study draws on evidence gathered in a minority setting in north-eastern Italy where Ladin, the heritage language, is central to the construction of past and present narratives of heroism and resistance. The article aims to contribute to the development of new debates within this journal as facilitated by different disciplinary perspectives, and in line with recent discussions about the status of language as heritage, which question the problematic UNESCO definition of language as a vehicle to intangible cultural heritage. Adopting a Linguistic Landscape approach, which focuses on material aspects of language and spatial dimensions of identity-building, the article discusses local micro-narratives of heroism which are in turn encompassed in macro-narratives of major events with global repercussions, such as World War 1. Evidence of the symbiotic relationship between the natural landscape and these events is represented by linguistic resources interacting with the setting to render it a rich example of history being inscribed in geography, and of landscape as monument. The discussion foregrounds the centrality of the heritage language in the performance of heroism, and its role in engendering interconnections between self-perception, aesthetics and ethics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few decades, investigations into the linguistic landscape (LL) have sought to analyse written language practices as they are observable in public space. Whilst the LL analysis of language choice in given contexts has opened a host of possibilities for scientific enquiry in the field, the methodologies employed in the collection and categorisation of written signs is still controversial. This paper addresses a specific aspect of the question by discussing brand names in the urban space and seeking to identify a framework for a linguistic classification of brand names. The authors indicate a way forward for future research that draws upon work undertaken in disciplines such as marketing and social psychology, emphasising that brand names should not be excluded from the analysis of the LL as this would amount to denying the linguistic impact of trademarks on individuals and groups in our globalised world. (Contains 2 notes.)

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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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]