2025/12/25 by Eryk Hajndrych, Hajndrych, Eryk
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies #Linguistic Variation and Morphology #Multilingual Education and Policy
paper · doi:10.34616/ajmp.2025.27.10
openalex publication_date 2025/12/25 · openalex created_date 2025/12/26 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/01
This study explores the humorous street signage that goes beyond homophony by investigating Tainan, a city in southern Taiwan. Drawing on a linguistic landscape approach, a total of 173 images were analysed to explore the functions of humour in Tainan’s street signage. Findings suggest that while most of the humorous street signage is created based on homophones, there are still other types of humorous street signage created via the use of certain characters, compounding, classifiers, denominalisation, allusion, analogy, speech acts, onomatopoeias, and selfdeprecation. It is concluded that humour in Tainan can be conceived of as a challenge to established systems of power, fostering a sense of personal liberty among the populace.