A Chinese Language Linguistic Landscape Study Within Downtown Bangkok’s Three Commercial Districts

Abstract

The study of linguistic landscapes is a research perspective that seeks to understand language policies, multilingual phenomena, and sociocultural characteristics by describing the linguistic conditions of a particular area. This article investigates and collects data on the Chinese language landscape within downtown Bangkok's three major commercial districts. It employs the framework of Geosemiotics to analyze the samples in terms of language code type, function type, and font type. The research reveals that Chinese is the most commonly used foreign language after English is used as lingua franca in this area and that the most prevalent language code combinations are Chinese-English and Chinese-English-Thai trilingual. The standardized expression of the Chinese linguistic landscape in Bangkok's commercial districts functions as a cultural and identity symbol and plays a pivotal role in information dissemination.