The penny dropped
1.INTRODUCTION
CANDY COFFEE: An example of use of advertisising english focused for economic pruposes.
Daniela Escobar and Moisés Tormo
The linguistic landscape is a relatively new concept that can be defined as “The language of public road signs, advertising billboards, street names, place names, commercial shop signs, and public signs on government buildings combine to form the linguistic landscape of a given territory, region or urban agglomeration” Landry and Bourhis, 1997. A city can be determined as a place of language contact, where a variety of languages coexist.
The aim of this paper is to critically analyse the uses and social meanings of English in the city of Lleida. More specifically, examine a particular Linguistic token located in the city. In order to accomplish our goal, the token selected for the project was a coffee shop sign localised in the neighbourhood of Cappont, specifically, in the Mequinensa street number 3.
This study focuses on observe, document and analyse the selected token in order to provide a critical analysis. Consequently, offer general insights about how the linguistic landscape can be a helpful tool for the understanding of multilingualism
The aim of this paper is to critically analyse the uses and social meanings of English in the city of Lleida. More specifically, examine a particular Linguistic token located in the city. In order to accomplish our goal, the token selected for the project was a coffee shop sign localised in the neighbourhood of Cappont, specifically, in the Mequinensa street number 3.
This study focuses on observe, document and analyse the selected token in order to provide a critical analysis. Consequently, offer general insights about how the linguistic landscape can be a helpful tool for the understanding of multilingualism
2.CONTEXTUALIZATION:
As previously mentioned, our token belongs to the neighbourhood of Cappont. The neighborhood stretches along the eastern bank of the Segre river and contains the city's largest park,Camps Elisis, one of the University of Lleida campuses and some new leisure centers.
The neighbourhood itself has a gentrified demographic profile, wich means to renovate and improve a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste, it is one of the neighborhoods that is growing the most, along with Pardinyes and Balàfia. Due to its growth, Cappont show a significant modernization, and important hypermarkets and new shopping centers are situated there.
The area is mainly populated by spaniards citizens ,as the studies realized by Paeria in 2012 indicate, only the 18'44% of the population are immigrants (table1). Due to the inequality between immigrants and spaniards, it can be deduced that the habitants of the area belong to the middle classes of the spectrum.
Table 1: Statistics of Spanish and Foreigners citizens in Lleida (2017)
Table 1: Statistics of Spanish and Foreigners citizens in Lleida (2017)
Moreover, It is necessary to take into account that most of the habitants of the area may be, at least most of them, students, because the university campus is a few meters away. Also, Carrer Mequinensa can be classified as a residential neighborhood so most of the buildings are residences, this may be caused by the proximity of a primary school, the university and parks. Furthermore, the neighborhood has more cafeterias and bars like the coffee shop that hosts our Linguistic Landscape.
This particular Linguistic Landscape belongs to a coffee shop banner, making this a commercial sign. Since it has not been written by any form of authority member, we can assert this as a bottom-up sign, made by the shop owner. The banner is written mainly in English although there’s a presence of Catalan as secondary language.
Figure 1: Carrer mequinensa, cappont, Lleida. (google maps https://www.google.com/maps/place/Carrer+Mequinensa,+1,+25001+Lleida/@41.6113296,0.6289007,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x12a6e0650d547697:0xb2f32b928b7c87dd!8m2!3d41.6113256!4d0.6310894)
Map 1: Average of age Lleida 2019 ( https://www.foro-ciudad.com/lleida/lleida/habitantes.html )
3.METHODOLOGY
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Our first visit to the coffee shop took place on the 8th of March in the morning, where we took the first image of our token. The second image was taken on the 20th of March and a third visit took place on the 23rd of March and, on this occasion, we were able to see the establishment from the inside.
Due to its linguistic situation, Catalonia has a different top-down language policy in comparison to other regions. According to both “Llei 1/1998 de 7 de Gener” and “Llei 22/2010, 20 de Juliol”, “Bars and restaurants must have, at least, menus, bills and tickets in Catalan […] Information located in posters or signs must also contain information in Catalan” And also have to consider the "Article 3 of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia declares that Catalan is the official language of Catalonia and in section 3.3, establishes that "the Regional Government is to guarantee the normal and official use of the two languages, adopting the measures that are necessary to create awareness and foster the suitable conditions for achieving full equality in reference to the rights and obligations of the citizens of Catalonia" (Article 3, Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, Section 3.3)
In Lleida, any type of Top-Down information comes from a total of three different institutions. The first one is the Spanish Government, the second one is the Catalan Government, and the third one is the local government, on this occasion, the city council of Lleida (Paeria). Any information provided by any of these three institutions is transmitted in both Catalan and Spanish.
The bottom-up policies are "non-official" policies, the ones made by the citizens. For this token, in this case, we have a mixture of Catalan, and English. As said before, the use of Catalan is a priority in the whole Catalan territory and, in fact, that is what we can see in this case. At first sight, the coffee shop label is written in English "Candy Coffee" and in Catalan "Endolça’t la vida", but if we take a look at the menu inside or even the banner outside where it informs us about the products that they are selling, it is mainly in Catalan or Spanish and the use of English is only intended for the naming of the brand, so , all in all, the use of English here can be considered as advertising English, wich is aimed to make a use of English throught the aplication of borrowings, in order to announce a product or to describe it.
Figure 3: Street view of the location. (google maps) https://www.google.com/maps/place/Carrer+Mequinensa,+1,+25001+Lleida/@41.6113266,0.6305422,19z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x12a6e0650d547697:0xb2f32b928b7c87dd!8m2!3d41.6113256!4d0.6310894?hl=es
4.RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The token Candy coffee uses two languages Catalan and English at first sight, but once you enter in the cafeteria, the language of the menu is Spanish and also the main language used by the waiters, furthermore, it is also used by some of the costumers, even it can be heard code-switching between Spanish and Catalan.
As mentioned before, the burden is on Catalan and Spanish, which is thought-provoking that the function of the English language is merely aesthetic. The election of English as a language branding for a cafeteria in Lleida, where the official languages are Catalan and Spanish, is a clear demonstration of what is well-known, globalization.
Nowadays, English plays an important role on a global scale, it serves as a medium of communication across the world. Furthermore, English has a big influence in the political and economic field. As a result, it is not surprising that the motive of popularity for using English in the marketing and advertisement field
may be linked to the economic power.
The marketing intention is clear in our token, it can be observed a clear bilingualism. On one hand, Catalan, endolça’t la vida, represents the local language creating a connection with the local community, the use of the home language makes it more familiar and also can be understood by the majority of the population.
On the other hand, the use of English is mainly for an international or global appearance, it also related with prestige and modernity. Kelly-Holmes (2000) denominates this use of the language as the “language fetish” and claims that when English is used in an advertisement, there is a common understanding of the symbolic uses behind that choice. Its use is associated with unconscious associations made about various languages, which advertising recreates and invokes in our consciousness
Figure 4: selected tokken: candy coffe
Figure 5 : candy coffe menu. Picture taken by Ruben M.V
5. CONCLUSION
The analysis of the linguistic landscape of Lleida has led us to a new understanding
of the language. This project has meant understanding Lleida from sociolinguistic point of view, which must be seen in a wider context.
It is a fact that multilingualism is present in the city of Lleida. But, what it is necessary to highlight is the big presence of the English language in the different public places of the city. Even though English is not an official language, it is utmost present in different places such as billboards, restaurant signs, shops and advertisements.
As in the token analyzed, there is an established interaction between three languages: Catalan, Spanish and English. Nowadays, it is perceived as a common trait the use of English as an added language, as English has been broadly accepted to serve as the language of globalisation.
In conclusion, the facts suggest that Lleida ,despite being an small city, is a clear reflection of the impact of English as a global language. English has become part of the landscape of Lleida, and it is reflected mainly in the leisure and commercial areas. Englishization can be seen in restaurant signs, shops and advertisements as a way to appeal not only local people but also international customers.
This project has given us the opportunity to learn about the English language in context and how Linguistic Landscapes can be used as an instrument in the field of sociolinguistics. We have realized that the number of languages can show the social and political diversity involved in a specific place. In this case, Lleida is a city which has a bilingual population, Spanish and Catalan, but also has the influences of English in a big part of the commercial areas. Furthermore, during the process of this blog, it has been almost impossible not to realize how influent English has become and in specific in the advertising field.
6. REFERENCES
La Paeria, Ajuntament de Lleida. (2012). Població al municipi de Lleida. Available
La Paeria, Ajuntament de Lleida. (2017). Població de Lleida. Available in: https://www.paeria.es/doc/2017/2017.pdf
Landry, R and Bourhis, RY Linguistic landscape and ethnolinguistic vitality Journal of Language and Social Psychology 16 (1), 23-49.
Source of Figure 1 - GOOGLE MAPS: https://goo.gl/maps/z7caeyKjhXTVULdh9
Source of Figure 3- GOOGLE MAPS: https://goo.gl/maps/7YS8ZcBonqK9fsXR6
Edelman, L. and Gorter, D. (2010) Linguistic landscapes and the market. In: Language and the Market (ed.) by H. Kelly-Holmes & G. Mautner. London: Palgrave. 96-108.
Edelman, L. and Gorter, D. (2010) Linguistic landscapes and the market. In: Language and the Market (ed.) by H. Kelly-Holmes & G. Mautner. London: Palgrave. 96-108.
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