期刊名称：International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences
电子版ISSN：2222-6990
出版年度：2021
卷号：11
期号：10
页码：939-948
DOI：10.6007/IJARBSS/v11-i10/10744
语种：English
出版社：Human Resource Management Academic Research Society
摘要：The linguistic landscape of a territory may disclose information on the power and vitality of certain languages within the community in that particular territory. This study analyses the language use in shop signs along two main streets in the multilingual city of Kuantan, Malaysia. 179 still images of shop signs in the area are captured and procured for the data. A textual analysis on the shop sign images based on the language patterns of monolingual, bilingual and multilingual framework is carried out. The frequencies of the language patterns are used and categorized based on the framework to determine the proprietors’ language preferences for their shop signs. The analysis indicates that the number of bilingual and multilingual signs combined far exceeded the number of monolingual signs. The analysis further shows that bilingual signs of Bahasa Malaysia (BM) and English are the most preferred choices for the shop signs despite the enactment of the National Language Policy, soliciting that BM must be used for the public signs. Such preference implies the proprietors’ keenness in embracing the image of modernity and sophistication for their shops, indicating that language use in business in business cannot be simply regulated by any policy. Rather, it is moving towards personal freedom, signifying the business community solidarity of which language(s) is deemed appropriate for their businesses despite the mandatory policy.
