| Abstract (about 50 words): | Expressing third space identity
Language is one of the resources available by which people can ‘present’ and ‘represent’ themselves, language has been offered as the most significant aspect of individual identity, it is a more typical representative of ethnicity and identity than ancestry, religion or residence. By mixing codes intentionally in their printed media, i.e. their community newspapers, bilinguals can construct and reconstruct a separate third space identity which relies upon the dissimilar cultural environment. For the study of language alternation in written discourse, Sebba (2014: 14) proposes the application of the methods and analyses of linguistic landscape researchers, and he names two techniques which can be a sign of “the degrees of integration or separation of languages a multilingual mixed-language text can include”. Moriarty (2014: 461) is of the opinion that “linguistic communities that are peripheral in nature or in some way marginalized offer a rich source for LL data”, since diasporic communities can express their sense of national and ethnic identity this way. Written discourse found in space can indicate special localities, for instance identity claims, which can comprise “the categorization of social actors into ingroup and outgroup members, into Self and Other” (Jaworski and Thurlow 2011: 9). The aim of this paper is to show that linguistic landscape research can provide valuable insight into some aspects of the linguistic situation of the Hungarian communities in countries where English is the dominant language by analyzing the semiotic landscapes via language contact manifestations found in the newspapers of these communities.
Jaworski, A and C. Thurlow. “Introducing Semiotic Landscapes”. Semiotic Landscapes – Language, Image, Space. Eds. Jaworski, A and C. Thurlow. Continuum International Publishing Group: London, New York. 2011. 1-40.
Moriarty, Máiréad. “Languages in motion: Multilingualism and mobility in the linguistic landscape.” International Journal of Bilingualism. 18.5 (2014): 457-463.
Sebba, Mark. “Researching and Theorising Multilingual Texts.” Language Mixing and Code-Switching in Writing. Approaches to Mixed-Language Written Discourse. Eds. Mark Sebba, Shahrzad Mahootian and Carla Jonsson. New York: Routledge. 2014. 1-27.
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