Interpreting the Linguistic Traits of Linguistic Landscapes as Ethnolinguistic Vitality: Methodological Approach

Abstract

Studies on bilingual and multilingual linguistic landscapes (LLs) have become a productive source of sociolinguistic information. Most of these studies focus on language presence in the public sphere, but scarce attention has been paid to the actual linguistic traits and their relation with language maintenance and ethnolinguistic vitality. A few studies on Spanish LLs in the U.S. have explored and speculatively confirmed that relation. Thus, contrast with monolingual Spanish LLs has aimed to further validate those findings. However, the complexity of the monolingual corpus has challenged the methodological approach applied to previous studies. In order to address these challenges, the present article provides the guidelines for a systematic examination of written LLs that range from the characterization of the unit of analysis to the interpretation of linguistic data as ethnolinguistic vitality.