A study of the

Linguistic
Landscape of
Kissena and
Geranium

By: Courtnei Smalls and Fatimah Rahim

LCD 205 Sociolinguistics
For: Professor Michael Newman
 The linguistic mosaic that we
chose to evaluate is located on
Kissena Boulevard not far from
Queens college. Just before
Geranium many commuters pass
through a two block span which
provides the viewer with a
diversity of language displays.
The written language is available
in Chinese, Spanish and English,
providing the implication that the
speech and reading abilities of the
immediate community are as rich
and diverse as their linguistic
landscape.
• Courtnei and I surveyed the area, taking an abundance
of pictures for a three block length of Kissena
Boulevard. Starting at Kissena and Holly and heading
Paypho Conveni
Beauty Grocer Shangha Aquariu nes on ence
North until
Allstate: Salon: Kissena
y Store and Kalmia
Bakery Avenue.
i Noodle m Shop Street store
Top Bottom Bottom Outlet Shop Bottom Top Bottom
down up up Bottom Bottom Up down Up
Multiling Multilin Bilingu Up Up Bilingu Multilin Multiling
ual gual al Bilingua Monoling al gual ual
Although
ENG/SPA CHI/ENG CHI/EN l Chinese
ual CHI/EN Dominat
CHI/ENG CHI/ENG/
English
/CH /SP G CHI/ENG was
CHI the G e Lang:
/SP Spanish
SP
Dist.the
was of Dist. of
Chinese Dist. of Dist. of Dist. of
dominant Dist. of Dist. of
Chinese. Dist. of
was
Languag
most Languag
was the Langua Languag Languag
language Langua Langua
Subordin Languag
displayed
es
Dominant es
dominant ges es esdisplay.
of ges ges
ate es
with
e, language No Languag Dominanc
Chinese of Chinese Chinese speakers Chinese es were e due to
and display. was the was the of English was the English location
Spanish English dominan dominant were dominan and SP. next to
were was the t language employed t Larger bus stop.
displayed subordin languag of to order languag Spanish English
using ate e of display. we had to e of font was
same font language display. English look at display. indicates displayed
size with English was the menu English an with
indicating smaller was subordin and point. was attempt subordina
equal font. subordin ate with Menu subordin to te and
status as Spanish ate with smaller w/subordi ate with communi Chinese
subordina used the smaller font. nate smaller cate with was as
tes least font. English font. them well.
What languages are used
as means of
communication?
Owner said: “Well if you look around, we have a representative
for each language. So if someone comes in, they are fully
capable of being helped. And the reason we did that of course is
because of the make-up of the community.”
We said: “Of course that is understandable. Is there any reason
you chose to arrange the languages the way you did?”
Owner said: “Allstate is about name recognition. We deal
primarily in English because we are a global insurance company
and that is why we have English as the biggest displayed
language. People recognize the name Allstate regardless of their
native language. Like Mcdonalds’. Next is Chinese because the
population of the area is more than 50% Asian and 20%
Hispanic or Latino. But don’t get me wrong we have the forms
and the information available in all the languages that we
advertise outside.”
How do power and solidarity
influence languages
displayed for this shop
owner?
 The owner of the beauty salon had quite an explanation for the
languages she had selected to advertise on her sign. She proudly
informed us that the reason those languages were on the sign outside
was “because I speak all those ‘language.’
“Oh how impressive. You speak three languages?”
“No!” she answers indignantly. “I speak four.”
“Really? Which four do you speak?” we asked.
“Yes. English, Chinese, Spanish, and Portuguese. I learned
all of them.”

What is the shop owners

intention in relation to the
choice of signage?
What inference could you conclude using
the concepts of power and solidarity
here?