Municipal regulatory discourse in the natural environment

Abstract This paper investigates the Linguistic Landscape in the Qinling Mountains, a range which possess significant ecological and economic importance which has led to the formulation of multilevel laws and policies governing them. Within the mountains, LL signs are erected to promulgate and enforce pertinent laws and policies. In this paper, I present five examples of an ethnography of LL in the mountains. The results indicate that human beings and non-human beings co-shape LL signs which exhibit heterogeneity in terms of their style, contents, and history. They index multiple institutions contributing to the ‘polycentricity’ of the LL in terms of their contents and give rise to the formation of ‘municipal regulatory discourse’ specific to the Qinling Mountains. These signs also demarcate the natural environment and assign varying levels of importance to the divided areas, thereby underscoring the legal and economic status of the mountains and facilitating official institutions’ ‘human management’.