English in the linguistic landscape of Vienna, Austria

This project investigates meaning-making through the choice of English on written public signs in the linguistic landscape (LL) of Vienna, Austria. Crucially, the project focuses on the under-researched aspect of the sign- readers perspective, theoretically modeling and empirically mapping the steps involved between encountering English use on a sign, and interactionally interpreting its message (e.g. signaling of cosmopolitanism and modernity). The project is grounded in a constructionist epistemology that holds that communicative messages emerge in an interactional-dialogic process of anticipation, interpretation, and negotiation between language producers and recipients. Readers of public signage use language choice (variation) as an interpretative cue in this process, contextualizing a text in terms of the social (symbolic) meanings indexed by the chosen language and deriving messages accordingly. The project addresses the steps involved in the perceptual and interpretative activities that LL sign-readers engage in under such a perspective, in an interlocking series of study modules, anchored in the Viennese context: Module 1: Locating and describing English language use in the Viennese LL Module 2: Establishing what constitutes English language use to Viennese LL sign-readers Module 3: Establishing the social meanings Viennese LL sign-readers commonly associate with English language use Module 1 generates the empirical input for the perception-based studies of Modules 2-3: a corpus of Viennese LL-signs. At the same time, it features an analysis of this corpus regarding patterns of English language use, drawing on the tools and procedure of contemporary variation study. Module 2 empirically gauges the folk perceptual delimitation of English and German by Viennese LL sign-readers, using a lexical decision task experiment. Module 3 maps the social meanings (symbolism, attitudes, ideologies) associated with English by a Viennese audience of LL sign-readers, by means of a matched-guise (language-attitude) study and focus-group discussions. English has spread on a global level, as evidenced on public signs and elsewhere; it is vital to come to understand how this spread is motivated and why it is ongoing. Arguing that the spread is partly driven by interactional and socio-cognitive meaning-making processes that pivot on the perception and meanings of English, this project develops and applies a sophisticated research strategy by which the recipients essential role in these processes can effectively be captured. The focus on the receptive aspects of language choice is the central, original contribution of the present study to sociolinguistics. This contribution has significant implications also for related fields in the social sciences and humanities, and for the general public, as we all seek to understand and navigate the ecology of languages around us.

Nowadays, English seems to be everywhere around us - on shop-signs, ads, stickers - even in countries where it is not 'native'. So how much English is there in Vienna, and why? These are central research questions of the project 'ELLViA - English in the Linguistic Landscape of Vienna, Austria', which investigated the amount, forms, and functions of English language use on written texts in Viennese public space from a sociolinguistic perspective (=studying the interactions of language and society). Over 17000 written artifacts were collected in different areas of Vienna and annotated for language use, location, activity context, material, size, etc. to determine the amount of English and factors influencing its occurrence. Results show that 80% of the data feature some German, 20% English, 4% other languages (mostly French and Italian), and 13% not clearly attributable words (e.g. 'Restaurant', 'Internet'). Analysis of language constellations on the collected items showed that 60% were monolingual German, and 18% monolingual English. 20% were multilingual, the most frequent combination being German-English (~30%). English appeared particularly frequently on items that contain only names, suggesting that English is used rather for symbolic representation (e.g. in brand/product names) than for informational content (e.g. wayfinding or guidelines). To explore why (to what effect) English is present in the Viennese LL , studies were conducted in which informants were shown e.g. the same ad with an English and then with a German text; and they were asked to indicate what characteristics they associated more with each version (regarding modernity, internationalism, youth culture, high quality, etc.). Results suggest that Austrian/Viennese LL audiences perceive English as more international, cool, and modern than German. However, this outcome is highly context-dependent, such that English is typically judged more positively in lifestyle ads (fashion, make-up) than in food ads, where German is preferred (indicating better quality and sustainability). ELLViA's contribution to the sociolinguistic study of linguistic landscapes lies not only in the large amount of data collected and the results described, but notably in the processes and tools developed for this kind of research, especially for LL data collection and the analysis of the social associations called up by LL language use in audiences. One major benefit of the systematic approach taken in ELLViA is its replicability - the procedures developed here can be readily applied in other research contexts, in order to compare results and gain a more comprehensive picture of how English as a global language (or any other language) appears and functions in public space anywhere - with the goal of better understanding what kinds of messages we get from interacting with the linguistic landscape in everyday life, and how it affects us.