The Pride Of Using English For Shop Names In Aceh: An Analysis From The Postcolonial Semiotic Reading Perspective

This study was carried out to analyze the phenomenon of privileging English names for shop names in Aceh in recent years. Using postcolonial theory of Bhaba, mimicry theory, thus this study attempted to uncover the reasons behind the westernized shop names as represented of English preference to local languages, even though their customers are mostly local people. Data was collected through taking pictures and interviews of 20 shops ‘owners, 4 females and 16 males. It was found that 120 shop names in Banda Aceh and Aceh Besar are in English. The shop names can be categorized into several forms of linguistic mimicry, included modified English + Indonesian ordering, modified English + English ordering, full English + Indonesian ordering, full Indonesian + English ordering, full English + English ordering, mixing English with Pakistan language + English ordering, mixing Acehnese language with English + English ordering and mixing owner names with English + English ordering. From the interviews, several reasons behind the use of English language instead of local languages for their shop names were uncovered, including their beliefs of superiority of English for marketing purpose over local languages, unawareness of their beliefs and practices, and lacking confidence of using local language due to not modern for their shop names. All this can be a measure of how much Acehnese society has been westernized. It can be concluded that many shop owners’ beliefs have been subjugated by the Western hegemony that they feel inferior to their own languages.