Poland has in the post-war era been a very homogeneous country both culturally and linguistically. Globalisation, however, has also left a mark in both spheres. The Polish public space has recently been inundated with a wave... [ view full abstract ]
Poland has in the post-war era been a very homogeneous country both culturally and linguistically. Globalisation, however, has also left a mark in both spheres. The Polish public space has recently been inundated with a wave of foreign language names, signs, slogans, elements of advertisements and billboards, with the English language largely in the foreground, and not infrequently competing against Polish in such spheres as services and advertising of even Polish brands.
The present investigation of this unofficial form of multilingualism combines the method of linguistic landscape analysis with that of attitudinal research (cf. Backhus 2007, Garrett 2010, Giles & Watson 2013). The first stage of the discussion overviews, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the presence of foreign languages both in the Polish street in a big city and in selected Polish magazines, focusing on the choice, form, and function of the languages in shop and restaurant names as well as advertising of various products, notably clothes and cosmetics. The choice of these languages is analysed in relation to the character of goods and services they advertise and the frequency of use, with the aim to indentify by means of this indirect method associations Poles have with the respective cultures. The second stage of discussion focuses on the results of an electronic survey distributed among Polish respondents which asks them about their interest in and perception of products/services advertised by means of Polish, English or another language, with subsequent questions concerning their attitudes to the form of the advertisements presented. The analysis of the outcomes will take into consideration the respondents’ age, gender, and level of education. The objective of the study will be to assess the perception of the languages used in the Polish public space, the reaction to their very presence, and their possible influence on the respondents’ further actions.
Backhus, P. 2007. Linguistic Landscapes: A Comparative Study of Urban Multilingualism in Tokyo. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Garrett, P. 2010. Attitudes to Language. Cambridge: CUP. Giles, H. and B. Watson (eds.). 2013. The Social Meanings of Language, Dialect and Accent. International Perspectives on Speech Styles. New York: Peter Lang.
