Linguistic Landscape in Indonesian Restaurant Signages: Meanings in the Use of English, Color Selection and Neon Boxes

Abstract

English in Indonesia has been perceived as a modern language and one carrying prestige for Indonesian users, despite that English has never been its second language. Its use is more widely spread with the increase number of businesses, including the vast grow of eateries and restaurants in recent years. Therefore, this study was conducted to validate the use of English, in particular, and the use of its counterparts and to discover the colors used, and to find out whether the use of neon boxes has a connection with the accentuation of the meanings in association to English as the language of modernity and of prestige. To make the data distinctive, the restaurants and cafes chosen are those hosting international tourists. With the application of multimodality, this research discovers the meanings implied in the 7 (seven) selected restaurant and cafe signages in 3 (three) selected cities and a town in Jawa Timur province in Indonesia