TRANSIT SPACE AS SEMIOTIC LANDSCAPE: CROSS-CULTURAL INVESTIGATION INTO TRANSIT SIGNAGE IN THE US AND JAPAN

Abstract

This research investigates how transit signage (i.e., signage on public transit) reflects and creates culture within transit space, an understudied linguistic landscape. The study posits the existence of transit literacy, a situated literacy which fits within the framework of multiliteracies (The New London Group, 1996). Data collection took place on public transit in Japan and the United States and comprised three parts: an examination of visual semiotics of signage in a BART station in Oakland, CA; an analysis of multilingualism and social semiotics on interior bus signage in Oakland, CA; a chronicle of a bus ride in Oakland, CA; and an analysis of a manner poster from a subway station in Tokyo. Data were interpreted through the lenses of multimodal mediated discourse analysis (MMDA) and geosemiotics (Scollon & Scollon, 2003). Findings revealed that culture informs semiotic usage in transit signage and supported the existence of transit literacy.