Institutional names in the linguistic landscape of Salamanca
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48075/odal.v7i1.36731Keywords:
public service, denominative signage, urban space, morphosemantic configuration, topoergonymsAbstract
This research takes as its starting point the public services listed by Salamanca City Council on its website, which enable us to design a kind of virtual map of their location in the city, in order to search for the official signs that identify them in the external linguistic landscape. The first goal is to observe whether these services involve signs indicating their presence on the buildings that host them, and whether their distribution and identification signage depend on the socio-economic profile of their inhabitants. The second goal is to analyse the morphosemantic pattern of the names that appear on their signs, focusing on those that involve a proper noun.The research, based on 71 signs collected photographically, draws on the framework used in sociopragmatic studies of the linguistic landscape. The description of the names appearing on these signs falls within the framework of semantic-referential lexicology. The data from both corpora have been classified according to the service offered in the space to which they are linked and the area of Salamanca in which they are located. The identifying names have been described both morphologically and semantically, with a synchronic approach relative to current Spanish.The research shows that the signs identifying public services in Salamanca is unequal and irregular, but that it is influenced by the type of service offered, its architectural location and the need for direct interaction with the population. It also highlights that the geographical location in the city, as well as the number and socio-economic profile of its inhabitants, influence the nature of services offered, but not their visibility. Furthermore, there is evidence of a significant use of proper nouns in their names (61.1%), which generally link the service to the place where it is located or assume a commemorative function. Thus, the research demonstrates usefulness of the linguistic landscape for evaluating institutional action, not only in terms of naming policy, but also in relation to accessibility and territorial equality.
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