![]() ![]() Thus, firstly, the analysis presented here makes a contribution to the broader study of the social functions assumed by typographic variation, especially with respect to the questions of how it influences readers’ perception of texts, how it can be used to express, ascribe, and negotiate values and attitudes, and how it is instrumentalised by users to position themselves socially with respect to other (groups of) people (cf. beliefs and attitudes distilled from the articulated perceptions and reactions of producers and recipients. Accordingly, the focus is on a sociosemiotic investigation of ideologies associated with typographic mimicry, i.e. The main research question is how this typographic practice is discursively negotiated. Chinese script) with the intent of evoking associations with a corresponding “foreign” culture. Latin script) 2 emulates visual features of a different script (e.g. the use of typefaces in which one’s “own” script (e.g. This paper deals with so-called typographic mimicry, the designing of type in a “foreign dress,” i.e. The latter include ideas and attitudes about recipients and assumptions about what is typographically appropriate in a given cultural context, at a certain time, and for the intended (communicative) purpose and thus represent the crux of conceptualising typography as social practice (for the seminal work on the topic, cf. Notably, writing does not dress itself – it is dressed by the producers of texts who make typographic decisions based on their typographic knowledge and influenced by their so-called typographic ideologies. ![]() 1 As dress, it is by no means a material irrelevancy but often rather significant as it invites perceivers to interpret its meaning. Typography is often figuratively understood as the “body and dress” of writing (cf. It shows that central aspects being debated are the (re)appropriation of cultural stereotypes by users both outside and within the respective cultures and the related question of whether using typographic mimicry is generally (in)appropriate (or even racist). An exemplary metapragmatic discourse analysis of online reactions to a food ad and comments to two articles covering the topic catered at readers with different knowledge backgrounds highlights that typographic mimicry is not a “neutral” practice. The central question being investigated is how typographic mimicry is discursively negotiated. beliefs and attitudes) these actors hold. ![]() The core part then focuses on typographic mimicry as a social practice and includes a discussion of both the typographic knowledge that different actors – both lay and expert producers and recipients – must apply to establish and recognise the associated cultural indexicality and the typographic ideologies (i.e. First, this paper addresses the formal aspects of this practice, specifically the choice of visual features to be mimicked. Chinese) with the goal of evoking associations with a “foreign” culture. Latin) is made to visually resemble a different script (e.g. the use of typefaces in which one’s script (e.g. Digraphic texts are bivalent, seen as part of multiple languages simultaneously.Typographic mimicry is the wrapping of writing in a “foreign dress,” i.e. The analysis demonstrates that hybrid combinations of Hebrew and English writing serve four functions: 1) Translanguaging: Enabling people who have access to (elements of) English and a traditionally Hebrew-script language (Yiddish, Ladino, Modern Hebrew, Textual Hebrew, Textual Jewish Aramaic) to represent both languages in the same text 2) Symbolism: Highlighting English-speaking Jews’ Jewish and other identities simultaneously 3) Code: Communicating coded messages to other Jews and 4) Pedagogy: Teaching Hebrew decoding to English speakers or teaching English to readers of Yiddish or Ladino. ![]() This paper demonstrates those uses, giving examples from rabbinic literature, Yiddish and Ladino newspapers, handwritten notes, pedagogical materials, organizations’ and restaurants’ logos, and regalia advertising sports teams, universities, and political candidates. Jewish English writing uses multiple combinations of the Hebrew and English alphabets. ![]()
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