ABSTRACT
In this chapter we move beyond the analysis of verbal text to consider multimodal texts which combine verbal and visual elements. Such a multimodal discourse analysis (Kress and van Leeuwen 2006; Kress 2009) is needed to analyse, for instance, advertisements or public signs. In the last decade or so, there has been a growing interest in studying how language is used in the public space. This new area of analysis has been variously referred to as ‘linguistic landscape’ (Gorter 2006), ‘semiotic landscape’ (Jaworski and Thurlow 2010) or ‘discourses in place’ (Scollon and Scollon 2003). Gorter (2006) even claims in the subtitle of his book that it constitutes ‘a new approach to multilingualism’. In a seminal paper, Landry and Bourhis (1997: 25) define linguistic landscape as follows:
The language of public road signs, advertising billboards, street names, place names, commercial shop signs, and public signs on government buildings combines to form the linguistic landscape of a given territory, region, or urban agglomeration.
