Purposes of Writing Signposts: The Case of the Signposts in Nusa Penida

Abstract

The discussion of signpost belongs to the area of linguistic landscape. This area is frequently related to the other fields of study namely Sociolinguistics, Applied Linguistics or Historical Linguistics. One of its topics is studying the naming of objects in public space (Ben-Rafael, Shohamy, et al. 2006). According to Landry & Bourchis (1997) signpost will shape the language condition in a particular surrounding. This idea is applied in a place called Nusa Penida Island which is located in the Province of Bali. As a tourist destination, more than one languages are involved in the writing of the signpost there. The multiple languages used and the way they are put in order show the perception of the people towards those languages. Will Gorter’s (2012) idea saying that nowadays monolingual signposts are rarely found turn to be true? This research on name place has been done in Nusa Penida. The data was taken from various signposts related to tourist destination found there. The purpose of this article is to present (1) how the people in Nusa Penida, Bali create their signposts to support their increasing tourism, (2) the purposes behind the creation of the signpost. The result of the research presents that most of the signposts in Nusa Penida are presented in more than one language (script) which reflects their desire to serve tourism well or to show hospitality and at the same time to show their loyalty to their identity as Balinese people.