The salience and visibility of toponymic changes in Makhanda & Gqeberha: A social semiotic perspective
type: CreativeWork
description: Due to South Africa’s colonial history, an excessive number of colonial toponyms (place names) can be found across the country. The democratic government of South Africa has taken the somewhat controversial step of correcting these colonial names through the process of renaming places and street names. In this study, I explore name changes in the Eastern Cape Province, previously known as Port Elizabeth (now renamed Gqeberha), and the city of Grahamstown (now renamed Makhanda). Drawing on social semiotics theory, these name changes are examined through an analysis of how they are made visible on billboards, shopfronts, and road signs, as well as through interviews with residents living in these areas. This study draws on Van Leeuwen (2005) and the concepts of salience and visibility as key building blocks to understanding the changing linguistic landscapes of these two sites. Fundamentally, this thesis explores the material effects of the new place names and the ways they are made salient or invisible in the semiotic landscapes of Gqeberha and Makhanda.
abstract: Due to South Africa’s colonial history, an excessive number of colonial toponyms (place names) can be found across the country. The democratic government of South Africa has taken the somewhat controversial step of correcting these colonial names through the process of renaming places and street names. In this study, I explore name changes in the Eastern Cape Province, previously known as Port Elizabeth (now renamed Gqeberha), and the city of Grahamstown (now renamed Makhanda). Drawing on social semiotics theory, these name changes are examined through an analysis of how they are made visible on billboards, shopfronts, and road signs, as well as through interviews with residents living in these areas. This study draws on Van Leeuwen (2005) and the concepts of salience and visibility as key building blocks to understanding the changing linguistic landscapes of these two sites. Fundamentally, this thesis explores the material effects of the new place names and the ways they are made salient or invisible in the semiotic landscapes of Gqeberha and Makhanda.
author: Maduna, Nokuthula
keywords: Linguistic landscape, Social semiotics theory, Toponyms, Salience, Multimodality
license: https://uwcscholar.uwc.ac.za/bitstreams/1e35e144-1c12-4538-a76c-bb35345fa959/download
date published: 2023
date modified: 2026-07-24T06:00:46Z
provider: University of the Western Cape
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Univeristy of the Western Cape