TEXTS OF SIGNBOARDS AS A FRAGMENT OF SEMIOTIC LANDSCAPE OF А MODERN CHINESE CITY: LINGUOCULTURAL FEATURES

From the perspective of urban communication studies, that explore various aspects of human communication in an urban environment, the city is interpreted as a complex communicative formation, which is reflected in the signs of various semiotic systems. One of such systems forming the semiotic landscape of a city is signboards representing the names of urban infrastructure facilities.
The article reflects the results of linguistic analysis of signboards texts of five China megacities: Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Guangzhou. A brief retrospective review of the development of the urban signboards language as a part of Chinese cities’ linguistic appearance is given. The structure of Chinese signboards’ texts is considered and the main features of its identifying (the general name of an urban object that determines the type of an enterprise), qualifying (the component that clarifies the profile of an urban object, as well as the range of products and services offered) and differentiating (the individual name of an object) components are determined.
The article shows how the technique of foreign graphics, inclusion of toponyms and anthroponyms in the text, advantages of Chinese ideographic writing system are used in signboards texts’ creation. Using the owners’ names, surnames and even nicknames, based on their appearance, can be considered as a traditional way of commercial objects’ nominating in China. The creators of signboards texts, taking into account the peculiarities of Chinese language as one of the most homonymous languages, actively use the language game technique that is based on the words with the same pronunciation, but different meaning and writing. The use of phrases from ancient Chinese poetry as a differentiating component is pointed out as one of specific features of Chinese urban signboards texts.
The author emphasizes that the urban signboards texts are a valuable source of information, that shows not only how the globalization processes influence the urban discourse of Chinese cities, but above all, clearly accentuates their unique characteristics, originality and identity of the language portrait of these cities.