On English Signboards
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2004 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Brno Studies in English |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Field | Linguistics |
| Keywords | signboards; public notices; infromative texts; situational context |
| Description | The article deals with public signboards and notices in English. Unlike other short-text types, they usually stand alone, depending on extra-linguistic (situational) context.. The article is based on a corpus of 283 signboards (380 propositions) collecte din the U. S. in 2001. Their semantic structure is described: they consist of seven sections, though not all of them are always present; the article gives their frequency of occurrence and the most common formulations. The analysis of the wordings and grammatical constructions used in the cores of the messages shows prevalence of imperative constructions (26 %) and the formula No + noun/ing (15.8 %). The frequencies of other constructions (elipted and nominal clauses) are then compared with those established in newspaper headlines. Finally, the dependence on situational context, the use of graphic elements, and punctuation are discussed. Punctuation is missing in most signboards, being often replaced by means of typography. |
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