Multilinguismo e politica: il Linguistic Landscape nelle elezioni amministrative 2023 in Alto Adige/Südtirol

This study examines the presence and role of electoral signs in the Linguistic Landscape (LL) of Alto Adige/Südtirol during the 2023 election campaign. Giv- en the region’s bilingual (Italian-German) and in some areas trilingual (including Ladin) context, electoral signage provides a unique insight into political commu- nication strategies and language use. Using a qualitative approach, the research analyzes monolingual and multilingual election posters collected in the week pre- ceding the October 22, 2023 elections through the LL-Politics_Südtirol corpus, built with the Lingscape APP. The study explores how parties utilize linguis- tic and multimodal strategies in their campaign materials and whether language choices reflect the linguistic composition of candidate lists. Findings indicate that language use in political messaging varies significantly across parties, with some adhering strictly to monolingual communication and others incorporat- ing multilingual elements to reach a broader electorate. Applying models from Reh (2004), Kress/van Leeuwen (2006) and Scollon/Scollon (2003), the research highlights pragmatic, symbolic, and strategic uses of language in the electoral LL.