Media Linguistic Landscapes

Alle Linguistik sollte Medienlinguistik sein

Abstract

All linguistics should be media linguistics, but it is not. This thesis is presented by using linguistic landscapes as an example. LL research does not belong to the traditional core of either mainstream linguistics or media linguistics. This is why not everything within power has been done yet to make full use of their thematic, conceptual and methodological possibilities. Visible signs in public space, however, are an everyday phenomenon. You have to pull out all the stops to research them extensively. The distinction between linguistics and media linguistics turns out to be counterproductive. But this does not only apply to the case of linguistic landscapes. It also stands for any comprehensive investigation of language and language use. (Exceptions may be very narrow questions for specific purposes.) The above thoughts are supported by a database of the project „Metro­polen­zeichen“ with more than 25.000 systematically collected, geocoded and tagged photographs.