Author(s): Amela Ćurković,Almina Lisičić-Hedžić / Language(s): German
Publication Year: 0
This paper aims to analyze signs containing the German language present in public spaces in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is motivated by the fact that cultural and economic ties between Bosnia and Herzegovina and German-speaking countries have existed for many years. The corpus comprises signs in the broadest sense, serving various functions, including historic-cultural, informational (tourism), commercial and random, unintentional signs. Accordingly, city signs are defined as representational, multimodal, mostly multilingual, and context-bound texts that are present in public spaces and must be understood as signs and indicators of certain cultural and social characteristics. This includes inscriptions of various kinds, posters, stickers and information boards. The data collection area primarily covers the cities of Sarajevo and Zenica, but also other locations and streets throughout Bosnia and Herzegowina where relevant material could be found. Our guiding question is where and why such signs occur. Consequently, the aim of the paper is to identify the historically, economically and sociologically determined occurrence, distribution, and design of various texts with German-language elements in public spaces in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The goal of this qualitative analysis is to collect, systematically classify, and evaluate the material. For this purpose, four categories of city signs are identified. The ultimate result will reveal the causes and purposes behind the visualization of the German language in the public sphere of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
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