Exploring the Linguistic Landscape of Ho Through Multimodal Analysis of Billboards

Abstract

The study of the linguistic landscape is crucial as far as regulating and negotiating linguistic diversity are concerned but not much work has been done in this area in Ghana. The few works done in the area of linguistic landscape in Ghana mostly focused on multilingualism. The current study adopted a multimodal approach to investigate billboards on three commercial streets in Ho, the Volta regional capital town of Ghana. Pictures were taken of all billboards on the three selected commercial streets in Ho. The qualitative content analysis research method was used for data analysis, in line with the research questions. The analysis revealed that Ho is a multilingual town. Three languages were found in the public spaces of Ho: English, Eʋe, and Twi. Furthermore, drawing on Roman Jacobson’s language function, all six functions were found on the billboards in Ho. There is a dominance of referential, conative, and poetic functions of language on the billboards because of the very nature of billboards which are essentially to attract. Nonetheless, most of the functions are complementary in the roles they perform on the billboards in Ho. Finally, image and text interacted on the billboards such that some images projected the information in the text; others served complementary purposes while some texts supported images on the billboards by showing the people’s advancement in technology and economy. These findings imply that multilingualism is at play in the public domain. Based on the findings, the study recommends the need for improvement in the literacy of local languages in the Ghanaian educational system so that the public space will be more inclined towards using the indigenous languages to communicate with the public.