R. Landry et Ry. Bourhis, LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE AND ETHNOLINGUISTIC VITALITY - AN EMPIRICAL-STUDY, Journal of language and social psychology, 16(1), 1997, pp. 23-49
Linguistic landscape refers to the visibility and salience of language
s on public and commercial signs in a given territory or region. It is
proposed that the linguistic landscape may serve important informatio
nal and symbolic functions as a marker of the relative power and statu
s of the linguistic communities inhabiting the territory. Using the th
eoretical framework of ethnolinguistic vitality, it was hypothesized t
hat the experience of the linguistic landscape by members of a languag
e group may contribute to social psychological aspects of bilingual de
velopment. Factor analysis results show that the linguistic landscape
emerges as a distinct factor separate from other measures of linguisti
c contacts. This factor was an important correlate of subjective ethno
linguistic vitality representing perceptions of the vitality of the in
-group language in various domains. The study also found relations bet
ween the Linguistic Landscape factor and degree of in-group language u
se, especially in institutional settings, suggesting a ''carryover eff
ect'' of the linguistic landscape on language behavior.