Humanities & Social Sciences, Vol 10, No 3 (2017)

Commercially Centred Public Linguistic Space of the Russian City through English Signage

Elena Grishaeva

Abstract


The paper contributes into urban sociolinguistics, problematizing a modern city’s signage as a field of sociolinguistic discourse. The aim of the study is to envisage commercially centered public linguistic space trough organized and implemented language management process, and to reflect language users’ preferences and visual perceptions of linguistic tokens. Assessment of the city linguistic image has evidenced a sample of linguistic landscape discursive power and its symbolic role. From the qualitative research perspective, the paper examines resident’s self-reported emotions and perceptions of the linguistic landscape, a micro context       of cultural, social and linguistic mixing. The research implies results from contributive efforts of multidisciplinary approach to analysis of urban settings: sociology of language, language policy and planning, applied linguistics, cognitive linguistics and cross-cultural studies.