Linguistic Cityscape of Billboard Advertisements in Mandaue City

Abstract

This study analyzed the linguistic cityscape of billboard advertisements found in the selected areas in Mandaue City and the occurrence of linguistic compositions and linguistic landscapes in billboard advertisements. This study used a mixed-method. Billboard advertisements along the highways and flyovers in Maguikay, Subangdaku, Umapad, Banilad, Tipolo, and Guizo, Mandaue City were the corpora of the study. A survey was also conducted to verify the effectiveness of billboard advertisements. Results revealed that the English language was the dominant language in the billboard advertisements, while complementary multilingual writing and phrases prevailed among the other types of writing. On the other hand, the emotional appeal was the commonly used advertising appeal in non-official signs. The results suggest that consumers have purchasing power based on emotion. However, they use logic to justify their decision.