Public Signs in Heritage Area of Denpasar: Linguistics Landscape Studies

Abstract

Linguistics Landscape study has become one of the interesting studies in recent years. This research aims at examining if the language on public signs was applied according to governor regulation No. 80 of 2018 concerning the protection and use of Balinese language, script and literature on public signs in Heritage area of Denpasar, and how it was applied as well as its function(s). This research is field research and used descriptive qualitative method. The data were taken from the public signs in the heritage area located in Jalan Gajah Mada, Denpasar, and also from the interview with the owners of the shops along the heritage area (bottom-up) and the administration staff of the government (top-down) in order to find out their functions. Based on the results, it was found that there were 34 signs that did not apply the governor regulation with the percentage of 61,8. Meanwhile there were 21 signs applying the regulation with a rate 38,2%. In addition to the functions, it was found that there were some motives from the authors in applying the language on public signs, they are: (1) language conservation, (2) providing information, (3) commercial purpose (4) and decorative function.