Changing world-changing tendencies of naming shops and services : the dynamics of linguistic landscape in the center of Hódmezővásárhely

Abstract

The names of shops and services constitute a vast part of the linguistic landscape of an area, mainly the city
center as most shops are located there. In the modern globalized world, signage of shops is linguistically colorful.
World languages appeared in shop names with English in the first place and the application of foreign words in
the signage is internationally an increasingly popular phenomenon. However, in the past, before the 1990s, using
foreign words in shop signage was not a fashionable trend. In my work I examine the change of shop naming
practice from a historical perspective in the center of Hódmezővásárhely within a century. I divided the more
than 100 years long period in three sections, starting from the early 20th century, the period of communism and
the present times. I collected photos and old postcards of the town center from these three periods where the shop
names are visible and examined how the shop naming tendency changed during the decades and how the
proportion of foreign names have increased by the beginning of the 21st century.