What type of study is this?

This is a Observational study (also classified as: Literature Review).

August 17, 2025Open Access

Monolingual and plurilingual wordplay in ergonyms as part of the linguistic landscapes of Tübingen and Chernihiv

Key Points

Plurilingual wordplay highlights the impact of globalization in the linguistic landscapes of Tübingen and Chernihiv, enriching local identities.
The research describes various approaches to wordplay, including lexico-semantic features like homonymy and metaphor, enhancing the creative expression in ergonyms.
Methods include detailed graphic, structural, and functional analyses, enabling a comprehensive understanding of how wordplay functions as a cultural marker.
Humor emerges as a significant characteristic of monolingual wordplay, serving to engage visitors and enhance the aesthetic of the ergonyms in urban settings.

Abstract

The paper focuses on monolingual and plurilingual wordplay in the ergonymy of the cities of Tübingen (Germany) and Chernihiv (Ukraine). The aim of the study is to describe and analyze lexico-semantic, structural and functional characteristics of wordplay in the ergonymy of the linguistic landscapes of the mentioned cities. The methods of research include personal observation, lexico-semantic, graphic, structural and functional analyses of wordplay in ergonyms in the linguistic landscapes of Tübingen and Chernihiv. The research reveals that the main lexico-semantic features of the studied wordplay are homonymy, paronymy, metaphor and creation of non-existent words. The graphic means of wordplay include capitalization of the whole ergonym or of its part to attract the visitor’s attention, changing of colour and font, putting in bold, paragram, use of paragraphemic signs. The presence of English is remarkable in the ergonymy of both cities. The linguistic landscape of Tübingen is multilingual, including English, Italian, German, French and Greek. The distinctive feature of graphic wordplay in the linguistic landscape of Chernihiv is the usage of Latin and Cyrillic letters in ergonyms. We revealed a few examples of lexicalization in the ergonymy in Chernihiv. According to the structure the analysed ergonyms are mainly nouns, two-component or three-component nominative phrases. Blended bilingual ergonyms reflect the creativity of the nominator. Monolingual wordplay represents localization, meanwhile plurilingual wordplay reveals glocalization and globalization. Ergonyms perform such main functions in linguistic landscape as expressive nomination, original identification, aesthetic and ludic functions. Humour is also a characteristic feature of wordplay, in particular, the monolingual one. Further studies may explore the role of humour in linguistic landscapes or the comparative studies of wordplay in the ergonymy of other cities to reveal common tendencies in the creation of attractive ergonyms.

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