Culture on wheels: a social semiotic insight into Bangladeshi vehicles

Abstract

Vehicular art is a phenomena found in many parts of the world. Like many South Asian nations, Bangladeshi vehicles too have phrases and drawings painted on them. In the capital of Dhaka, millions of commuters make their way daily in these expressive modes of transportation. Being incredibly visible in the public space, these vehicles provide a multimodal presentation wherever they go. This study uses Kress and van Leeuwen’s framework of Visual Grammar (2006) to make a social semiotic analysis of this phenomenon. The objective of this paper is to discuss the features and functions of the semiotic resources found in the writings and drawings on Bangladeshi vehicles, and with it to see what insights they provide into the linguistic, cultural, and social dimensions of Bangladeshi society. Moreover, since no previous research on the social semiotics of Bangladeshi transportations has been found while conducting this research, an attempt to address this gap in research is also made.