PATTERNS OF LANGUAGE USE IN SHOP SIGNS IN MALAYSIAN TOWNS
Keywords:
shop signs, language use, unilingual, bilingual, multilingualAbstract
The Malaysian subsidiaries of the Local Council by-laws (Undang-undang kecil Majlis Perbandaran) and the National Language Act (Akta Bahasa Kebangsaan) stipulate that Bahasa Malaysia (BM) must be used for the public signboards and road names. However, the use of foreign words and phrases, especially English, for the local name places such as residential areas, streets and shops has become a very common practice in this country. This paper examines the language use in store fronts of four town centres in Malaysia. The analysis indicates that English is the preferred language for the store signs in larger cities while those in the smaller and provincial towns are in favour of 1) Bahasa Malaysia (BM), 2) a mixture of BM and English, or 3) a mixture of these two and another native language. The findings show that the language chosen for the store signs is related to the type of the township, store location, and the targeted customers. The analysis also reveals that the store signs in the larger cities portray sophisticated language use in terms of English or foreign names, foreign loanwords and language play. On the other hand, the store signs in the smaller towns contain simple BM, English, or a native language.
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References
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