The Resemiotisation and Intertextuality of Multimodal Discourses in Linguistic Landscape of Public Service Vehicles in Lusaka, Zambia
Keywords:
Mobilescapes, Textual, Sociocultural, Resemiotisation, Public Service Vehicles
Abstract
Using resemiotisation and intertextuality as analytical tools in the broader theoretical conexts of linguistic landscapes and semiotic studies, this article accounts for the diverse and heavily saturated multimodal discourses emplaced on public service vehicles in Lusaka, Zambia (South-Central Africa). As its locus, the study wishes to to unearth the textual and sociocultural sources of emplaced discourses privileging local materialities, agency, and voice. To this end, the article reveals that the multimodal discourses on public service vehicles bring religion into the spotlight, particularly Christianity, as a sociocultural reality of social actors. It is shown that the emplaced multimodal discourses are inescapably related to other texts and narratives predominantly associated with Zambias’ christian religious underpinnings. In this way, the article concludes that resemiotisation and intertextuality are at play in the textual trajectory of discourses seen on public service vehicles in Lusaka, Zambia.References
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39. Tembo, P. (2020). A Semiotic Analysis of Emplaced Materialities on Public Service Vehicles in Lusaka Zambia. Unpublished Masters Dissertation. University of Zambia, Zambia.
40. Thabela, T. M. (2011). Resemiotisation and Discourse Practices in Selected Television Advertisements in South Africa. Unpublished Honors Thesis. Department of Linguistics. Bellville: University of Western Cape.
41. Wakumelo, M. N. (2010). The Discourse of “Call Boys” and Minibus Conductors in Zambia: A Hybrid Sociolect of Identity. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 5(2), 131-156.
42. Wakumelo, M. N. (2013). A Critical Analysis of Zambia’s Language In Education Policy: Challenges and Lessons Learned. In H. Mcllwraith (ed). Multilingual Education in Africa: Lessons from the Juba Language Conference. 127–146. London: British Council.
43. Zhang, Y., and Gelb, B. D. (1996). Marketing Advertising to Culture: The Influence of Products Use Condition. Journal of Advertising, 23(3), 29-46.
2. Banda, F. and Jimaima, H. (2015). The Semiotic Ecology of Linguistic Landscapes in Rural Zambia. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 19(5), 643-670.
3. Banda, F., Jimaima, H., and Mokwena, L. (2019). Semiotic Remediation of Chinese Signage in Linguistic Landscapes of Two Rural Areas of Zambia. In Ari Sherris and Elisabetta Adami (eds.). Making Signs, Translanguaging Ethnographies: Exploring urban, rural and educational spaces, 74-90. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
4. Ben-Rafael, E., Shohamy, E., Amara, M.H., and Trumper-Hecht, N. (2006). Linguistic Landscape as Symbolic Construction of the Public Space: The Case of Israel. International Journal of Multilingualism, 3(1), 7–30.
5. Ben-Rafael, E. (2009). A Sociological Approach to the Study of Linguistic Landscapes. In Shohamy, E. and Gorter, D. (eds.), Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the Scenery, 40-54. New York, NY and London: Routledge.
6. Blommaert, J., & Huang, A. (2010). Semiotic and Spatial Scope: Towards a Materialist Semiotics. Working Papers in Urban Language & Literacies, Paper 62. http://www.kcl.ac.uk/ldc
7. Cole, N. L. (2018). Introduction to Discourse in Sociology. See https://www.thoughtco.com/discourse-definition-3026070 retrieved on 19th September, 2018
8. El-nasher, M. and Nayef, H. (2016). ‘Discourse on the Go’: Thematic Analysis of Vehicle Graffiti on the Roads of Egypt. Advances in Language and Literacy Studies, 7(5), 227-239.
9. Gifford, P. (1998). Chiluba’s Christian Nation: Christianity as a Factor in Zambian Politics 1991–1996. Journal of Contemporary Religion, 13(3), 363-381.
10. Graham, A. (2000). Intertextuality (Microsoft Reading Desktop) e-book. New York: Routledge.
11. Haneef, S. (1995). What Everyone Should Know About Islam and Muslims. Chicago: Kazi Publications Inc.
12. Haynes, N. (2021). Concretising the Christian Nation: Negotiating Zambia’s National House of Prayer. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 41(2), 166-174.
13. Hult, F. (2009). Language Ecology and Linguistic Landscape Analysis. In E. Shahomy and D. Gorter (eds.), Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the Scenery, 88–104. London: Routledge.
14. Iedema, R. (2003). Multimodality, Resemiotisation: Extending the Analysis of Discourse as Multi-semiotic Practice. Visual Communication, 2(1), 29–57.
15. Jaworski, A. and Thurlow, C. (2010). “Introducing Semiotic Landscapes.” In A. Jaworski and C. Thurlow (eds.) Semiotic Landscapes: Language, Image, Space, 1-40. London: Continuum.
16. Jewitt, C. (2009). The Routledge Handbook of Multimodal Discourse Analysis. London: Routledge Chapman & Hall.
17. Jimaima, H. (2016). Social Structuring of Language and the Transfer of Semiotic Resources Across Linguistic Landscapes in Zambia. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, University of the Western Cape, South Africa.
18. Jimaima, H., and Banda, F. (2019). Selling a Presidential Candidate: Linguistic Landscapes in Time of Presidential Elections in Zambia. Social Semiotics, 36(1), 1–18.
19. Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. (2006). Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design, (2nd Edition), London: Routledge.
20. Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication, New York: Routledge.
21. Kristeva, J. (1986). The Kristeva Reader. New York: Columbia University Press.
22. Kula, N.C. (2006). Zambia Language Situation. In K. Brown (ed.) Encyclopaedia for Language and Linguistics, 13, 744-745.
23. Landry, R. and Bourhis, R. (1997). Linguistic Landscape and Ethnolinguistic Vitality: An Empirical Study. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 16(1), 23-49.
24. Malinowski, D. (2009). Authorship in the Linguistics Landscape: A Multimodal-Performative View. In Elana Shohamy and Durk Gorter (eds.) Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the Scenery. New York: Routledge, 107–125.
25. Mambwe, K. (2014). Mobility, Transformation and Localisation of Language in Multilingual Contexts of Urban Lusaka. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of Western Cape, South Africa.
26. Orr, M. (2010). Intertextuality. In M. Ryan (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Literary and Cultural Theory. Oxford: John Wiley and Sons, Ltd.
27. Peck, A. and Banda, F. (2014). Observatory’s Linguistic Landscape: Semiotic Appropriation and the Reinvention of Space. Social Semiotics, 24(3), 302–323.
28. Prior, P. and Hengst, J. (2010). Exploring Semiotic Remediation as Discourse Practice. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
29. Roux, S. D. (2015). A Multisemiotic Analysis of ‘Skinscapes’ of Female Students at Three Western Cape Universities. Unpublished Masters Dissertation. University of Western Cape, South Africa.
30. Scollon, R. and Scollon, S.W. (2003). Discourse in Place: Language in the Material World, New York: Routledge.
31. Simungala, G., & Jimaima, H. (2023). Legitimisation and Recontextualisation of Languages: The Imbalance of Powers in a Multilingual Landscape. Linguistic Landscape, 9(1), 36-58.
32. Simungala, G., Jimaima, H., & Chikuta, P. (2022a). Indigenous Languages in an Online Space: Translanguaging for Visibilisation of Multilingualism and Multisemiotic Modes. Language Matters: Studies in the Languages of Southern Africa, 53(2), 85-109.
33. Simungala, G., Ndalama, D., and Jimaima, H. (2022b). Communicative Practices from the Margins: The Multilingual and Multicultural Repertoires on University Spaces. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 57(4), 712-724.
34. Simungala, G., Katundu, B., & Jimaima, H. (2023). Translanguaged Discourses of Bemba and English: The Mobility and Mixing of Languages in Multilingual Space. Language in Africa, 3(3), 67–86.
35. Banda, F., & Simungala, G. Multilingualism and Linguistic Landscapes. In The Routledge Handbook of Multilingualism (pp. 428-442). Routledge.
36. Shohamy, E. (2019). Linguistic Landscape After a Decade: An Overview of Themes, Debates and Future Directions. Expanding the Linguistic Landscape: Linguistic Diversity, Multimodality and the Use of Space as a Semiotic Resource, pp. 25-37.
37. Shohamy, E., and Gorter, D. (2009). Language Economy and Linguistic Landscape. In E. Shohamy and D. Gorter (eds.), Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the Scenery.
38. Stroud, C., and Mpendukana, S. (2009). Towards a Material Ethnography of Linguistic Landscape: Multilingualism, Mobility and Space in a South African Township. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 13(3), 363-386.
39. Tembo, P. (2020). A Semiotic Analysis of Emplaced Materialities on Public Service Vehicles in Lusaka Zambia. Unpublished Masters Dissertation. University of Zambia, Zambia.
40. Thabela, T. M. (2011). Resemiotisation and Discourse Practices in Selected Television Advertisements in South Africa. Unpublished Honors Thesis. Department of Linguistics. Bellville: University of Western Cape.
41. Wakumelo, M. N. (2010). The Discourse of “Call Boys” and Minibus Conductors in Zambia: A Hybrid Sociolect of Identity. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 5(2), 131-156.
42. Wakumelo, M. N. (2013). A Critical Analysis of Zambia’s Language In Education Policy: Challenges and Lessons Learned. In H. Mcllwraith (ed). Multilingual Education in Africa: Lessons from the Juba Language Conference. 127–146. London: British Council.
43. Zhang, Y., and Gelb, B. D. (1996). Marketing Advertising to Culture: The Influence of Products Use Condition. Journal of Advertising, 23(3), 29-46.
Published
2025-01-10
How to Cite
Tembo, P., Simungala, G. and Jimaima, H. (2025) “The Resemiotisation and Intertextuality of Multimodal Discourses in Linguistic Landscape of Public Service Vehicles in Lusaka, Zambia”, Journal of Law and Social Sciences, 6(2), pp. 74-85. doi: https://doi.org/10.53974/unza.jlss.6.2.1313.
Section
Articles