A Study of The Linguistic Landscape of Selected Streets in Stavanger

The present thesis is an empirical study of the linguistic landscape of selected streets in Stavanger, Norway. The aim of the study is to see how English is used in the linguistic landscape of Stavanger, one of Norway’s largest municipal areas and also known as a relatively ‘international’ city. The study aims to answer the follorwing research questions: 1. How commonly is English used in the linguistic landscape of Bergelandsgata, Pedersgata and Fargegata, compared to Norwegian? 2. How is English represented differently from Norwegian in the linguistic landscape? 3. What does this tell us about the functions of English in Norwegian urban life? The material collected for this study consists of pictures of signs and writing in three selected streets of Stavanger. The signs were classified making use of two main sets of categories. First of all, they were classified on the basis of the languages used, into two primary categories, monolingual and multilingual; the languages were also identified. According to their content, they were further classified as top-down and bottom-up. They were then further classified in terms of domain: as signs relating to the beauty industry (e.g. hair salons, tattoo parlors), posters for cultural events and concerts and so on. The findings showed that the majority of signs contain English and that English in many cases is represented in a different way from Norwegian. In the material English sometimes appears as a less personal, less inclusive mode of communicatio