THE FORMS OF APPEAL IN THE LINGUISTIC LANDSCAPE.

This paper reflects the research aim and starting points of the APVV-18- 0115 project entitled Language in the City – Documenting the Multimodal Semiosphere of Linguistic Landscapes in Slovakia and in a Comparative Perspective. As formulated by its main author, Wolfgang Schulze (2018), the presented interdisciplinary project is focused on “the general research paradigms of the so-called cultural linguistics, sociolinguistics, multimodal linguistics, and cultural semiotics.” Within this context, the paper addresses the means used to express appeal in the linguistic landscape (order, ban, instruction, warning, request, or plea). The author draws on the characteristics and functions of imperative and its competitive forms in the German language, and observes their manifestations in the linguistic landscape. The analysis of the grammatical structures used for expressing the appeal deals with the material collected during the field research performed in the specifically selected parts of Erlangen, Germany. For the purpose of this analysis, the research material was complemented by the signs collected in the more frequented parts of Erlangen as well, i.e., places with increased movement and concentration of people such as the railway station, public transportation vehicles, malls, university, university library. The goal of this paper is to outline the means used in the German linguistic landscape to express an appeal and guide the behaviour of the intended recipients. The comparative perspective is applied not only in the examination and analysis of the research sample, but it also extends to the Slovak language. The results of the analysis are compared with the way an appeal is expressed in the Slovak linguistic landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]