The Linguistic Landscape of Leipzig Today: A Place to Mix Sports and Politics

Abstract

When looking at a space and the people within we often turn to polls, surveys, and elections to gauge the feeling of an area, but what happens when those are not enough or people choose to censor themselves in fear of repercussions? By turning to linguistic landscape studies as a way to get an insight into a space and the people who inhabit it, we can get a true and more natural understanding of the area and see how people leave behind traces of their thoughts through interactions. Protected by anonymity, interacting with the linguistic landscape allows these people to mark spaces and create meanings within, without being associated directly with that message. And so, by turning to a combined approach of Geosemiotics, Ethnographic Linguistic Landscape Analysis (ELLA), and turn-taking this thesis can break down moments from the linguistic landscape of Leipzig captured between 2019-2023 and analyse them as more than just photographs. By taking this combined approach I will be able to study the elements of the linguistic landscape and, soccer-related ones in particular, to connect them to the bigger discourses happening around the spaces in which they are placed. By reading the interactions like a conversation left behind for us to discover in the linguistic landscape, we will be able to gain an often overlooked, yet valuable, insight into Leipzig today.