A SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE STUDY OF LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPES

This chapter focuses on the theoretical importance of the study of linguistic landscapes from the viewpoint of the social sciences. The notion of “linguistic landscape” (LL) refers to linguistic objects that mark the public space, i.e. inscriptions-LL items-that may refer to any written sign one finds outside private homes, from road signs to private names to names of streets, shops or schools. The study of LL focuses on analyzing these items according to the languages utilized, their relative saliency, syntactical or semantic aspects. From sociology-of-language premise, language facts that landmark the public space are to be seen as social facts the variations of which should relate to more general social phenomena. It is under this light that the sociological study of LLs is to focus on the articulation of linguistic symbols in the public space, and the forces at work in their molding.