Perception and educational investigation of linguistic landscapes
PERCEPTION OF LL ACCORDING TO RESPONDENTS In 2014, ten young people (five girls and boys aged 18 to 21 years) were interviewed in Rēzekne to assess whether young people are paying attention to language signs and the languages used in them, as well as to find out the influence of the lack of knowledge of the lexical meaning of individual words on the perception of the language sign or its type (e.g., announcement, poster, prohibition sign), function and purpose. All ten young people admitted that they generally pay attention to language signs, especially when languages uncommon to the local environment (e.g., Chinese or French in Rēzekne) or interesting linguistic elements—such as original metaphors or wordplay with letters, words, phrases—are used. No respondent indicated that not knowing the lexical meaning of a particular word or combination of words would hinder understanding the text (language sign) as a whole. In their opinion, this lack of knowledge neither hinders the