ABSTRACT
Spanish in the Linguistic Landscapes (LLs) of the U. S. is particularly relevant to the understanding of Spanish in this country for two main reasons. First, Spanish competes with English in the LL with an apparent disadvantage. Second, LLs are subject to less publishing scrutiny than other written modalities and often favor the language that best relates to their potential readers. Vernacular conventions are thus often prioritized over academic guidelines, and linguistic traits of Spanish in the US are expected to surface in LL texts. LL studies are a developing field with a methodological approach that is gaining consensus, but because it is still in the making, some core issues are currently being discussed by LL researchers. The core issues are LL authorship and actor, definition of the unit of analysis, and interpretation of quantitative data as ethnolinguistic vitality. The chapter presents summaries of these three issues before discussing Spanish LL in the U. S.
