Examining the linguistic landscape of Alicante (Spain): sociolinguistic and lexical considerations

The on-going expansion of English all around the world seems an unquestionable reality. In Spain its influence can be mainly attested by the large number of Anglicisms existing in Spanish, as well as by its role in the country’s “linguistic landscape”, that is, the actualisation of underlying sociolinguistic realities through a number of elements such as commercial shop signs, street names and public signs. In this paper I explore the prevailing social attitudes towards English by analysing the idiosyncratic role and functions of this language as used in commercial shop signs present in the city of Alicante, Spain.