Social class and ethnic disparities in the semiotic landscape of an American “camp town”

Abstract

The article explores the linguistic landscape (LL) of Itaewon, a former American military “camp town” in Seoul, by providing a snapshot of its conflicting portrayals. With the LL serving as a critical index of language-, class-, and ethnicity-related social disparities, this study examines, through the notion of “framing” semiotic resources, (1) the state’s and district’s positions towards gentrification and multiculturalism in Itaewon and (2) how the underlying social class and ethnic disparities pertaining to gentrification are reflected. The framing of signs raises, at the macro and latent levels, questions regarding hierarchy among languages, classes and ethnic groups, and the coexistence of a binary internationalized population. It turns one’s attention towards not only what is seen/foreseen but also what is unseen/ignored. The study presents an informed means of revealing contextualized sociolinguistic voices in an area with a complex and unsettled history.