Resemiotising globalisation and elitism: English-written neon signs in Kazakhstani coffee shops and on social media

Abstract This study examines the growing presence of English-written neon signs in Almaty’s upscale coffee shops, analysing their role as both markers of global Englishness and carriers of neoliberal ideology. In post-Soviet Kazakhstan, where national identity is being reasserted through Kazakh language revival and a distancing from Russian legacies, the prominence of English signage reflects the country’s integration into global cultural and economic networks. Drawing on linguistic landscape research, semiotics, and sociolinguistics, the paper argues that these neon signs function not merely as aesthetic elements but as symbols of elite identity, consumer cosmopolitanism, and entrepreneurial subjectivity. Drawing on a qualitative, multimodal discourse analysis of 43 neon signs and 45 related Instagram posts collected between 2020 and 2023 and exploring neon signs as “language objects” in semiotic landscapes, the research highlights how English is resemiotised in both physical and digital spaces. The deliberate use of English over Kazakh or Russian in decor and branding indexes modernity, entrepreneurial selfhood, and aesthetic elitism. In the context of Kazakhstan’s trilingual policy, the dominance of English signage suggests a shift in linguistic hierarchies that may undermine the symbolic and practical roles of Kazakh and Russian. Ultimately, by conceptualising neon signs as ideologically charged and semantically indeterminate resources, the study contributes to broader debates on language commodification, linguistic hierarchies, and the socio-political consequences of globalisation in post-Soviet spaces.