Speech acts in institutional communication on fire prevention

This paper investigates how institutional discourse on “fire prevention” is communicated through speech acts in the linguistic landscape of the Qinling Mountains, China. The Chinese government has issued multiple laws and regulations on forest fire prevention, and signs making up the linguistic landscape have become a crucial medium for publicizing legal norms and encouraging public compliance. Drawing on linguistic landscape data and utilizing Searle’s taxonomy of illocutionary speech acts, this paper analyzes the pragmatic functions of public signage produced by various administrative bodies. The results show that “fire prevention” signs primarily perform representatives, directives, and mixed speech acts. The grassroots institutions rely on directives for immediate behavioral control, whereas higher-level authorities use representatives and mixed speech acts to legitimize policies and promote ecological awareness. These signs function as a material extension of state authority, transforming legal texts into visible, spatially anchored slogans that mediate institutional governance in the natural environment.