ENGLISH IN THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE OF GOTHENBURG

Abstract

Linguistic landscape is a discipline that studies signage in a landscape. It is a growing field within linguistics and numerous studies have been made worldwide on the prevalence of signs. Both the language used on signs and the actors behind the signs are of interest for the study of linguistic landscape. The actors are divided between institutional ones, i.e., top-down signs and private ones, i.e. bottom-up signs. Here I present a study of the prevalence of English signs in the city center of Gothenburg. The study focuses on the prevalence of English including English mixed with other languages on top-down signs and bottom-up signs. By photographing signs, mapping and then dividing them into different categories this study shows both the spread of English signs and which domains of society that use English the most. Previous studies show that English is one of the most used languages on signs within the commercial realm in different countries of the world, the category known as bottom-up signage. This study agrees with previous research that English is the most prevalent in the commercial domain. The distribution is visualized on a map, which highlights the different regions and the density of signage in these areas. The results show that English is the most prevalent in the sphere of commerce in the city center of Gothenburg.