Agency and structure in the linguistic landscape of the communities in Beijing, China: a discursive frame and geosemiotic analysis

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the linguistic landscapes (LL) of two communities in Beijing, China, to investigate the agency and structure embodied in them. A geosemiotic and discursive approach is employed to the collected data based on geosemiotics and discursive frame. It reveals the LL in the surveyed communities in Beijing can be mainly divided into three discursive frames: the civic frame, the promotional frame, and the livelihood frame, each with its own exclusive geosemiotic characteristics of agency and structure. A separate examination of each frame reveals the specific representations of and interactions between agency and structural factors within each one. Furthermore, a longitudinal analysis of these three frames indicates the existence of a concrete dynamic equilibrium relationship between agency and structure. It can be summarized that one of the existing landscape construction modes in the communities in Beijing is characterized by the balanced agency-structure dynamics, which can serve as a reference for LL construction and research in other regions.