Linguistic Landscape Study on Food and Beverage Signage in Medan’s Shopping Mall

Abstract

This research examines the linguistic landscape study on food and beverage commercial signage in Medan's shopping mall. The data source for the study is taken from billboard signage at Sun Plaza and Plaza Medan Fair food and beverage outlet area. Using the theory of Characteristics of Language by Cenoz and Gorter, the study aims to (1) identify the languages used on food and beverage signage within the linguistic landscape and (2) describe the characteristics of these languages on food and beverage signage in shopping malls. Descriptive qualitative was applied as the research methodology to achieve the objectives of the study by obtaining 101 signage as primary data and the contextual as secondary data, which consist of monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual. The data is focused on linguistic signs in Sun Plaza and Plaza Medan Fair food and beverage outlet, which includes indoor and outdoor areas. There are 10 languages used in the signage, they are English, Indonesian, French, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, Korean, Italian, Arabic, and Thai. The results show that Sun Plaza has 71 signage and Plaza Medan Fair has 30 signage. Furthermore, the result shows that English is dominant at first order from the total 101 LL billboard signage; the size and font of text are mostly similar, the type of translation is mostly a non-literal, but some of them have no translations. These signs are not just about language diversity; they serve as a means of communication that highlights the nature and details of the products available.