This paper analyzes the linguistic landscape, more specifically the signs, displayed on the streets of Cabbagetown, a neighborhood located in downtown Toronto, so as to explain which linguistic groups coexist in the neighborhood, and how physical and symbolic spaces – such as religious, linguistic or ethnic spaces – are defined by both minority linguistic groups and by the majority’s hegemonic power. In order to do so, we regard Cabbagetown as a polycentric space, characterized by a blend of indexical orders postulated by different scale levels. The neighborhood, which is predominantly English-speaking, displays signs in different languages. The use of English as opposed to minority languages may have different purposes and may direct the message conveyed by the sign to different kinds of recipients. The study takes into account the language, location, content, and communicative function of each sign, so as to attempt to come up with an explanation of how spaces in Cabbagetown are defined by institutions and linguistic communities, and how some of those spaces may become actual ‘places’ for a specific community.
