Linguistic Landscape in a Multilingual Cameroon

This book investigates the Linguistic Landscape (LL) of Cameroon, a heavily multilingual postcolonial context. Specifically, it examines the sociolinguistic, pragmatic, and cognitive aspects of signpost messages in Buea, Douala, Yaounde, and Dschang. The book stems from the observation that messages displayed on signposts in Cameroon reveal significant sociolinguistic information about the nation. The investigation is therefore couched in the premise that the messages displayed on signposts in Cameroon constitute a window to the sociolinguistic landscape of the country. Through observation, photographing, questionnaires, and interviews, a total number of 1500 signpost messages targeted for the investigation together with one hundred and seventy (170) interview responses from some authors of the messages were collected. These data were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively from the perspectives of the sociolinguistic approach, pragmatic approach, and Construction Grammar approach to world Englishes, revealing multidimensional findings.