Language attitudes and identity positioning toward bilingual smartphone brand naming in China: a Q-methodological perspective

Globalisation has encouraged multilingual naming strategies in smartphone branding in China, where language choice carries symbolic and identity-related meanings. Within this commercial linguistic landscape (LL), this study examines young Chinese consumers’ language attitudes toward bilingual brand naming through Q-methodology.Data collected from 27 young Chinese consumers revealed three distinct perspectives: an affective orientation emphasising local cultural pride alongside global connection; a strategic orientation highlighting bilingualism as a resource for cosmopolitan positioning; and a critical orientation reflecting concerns with modernity and prestige.Translanguaging is employed as an interpretive framework to explain how these language attitudes relate to identity positioning, extending its application from language use to language evaluation in commercial LLs.