Call the world for less

LYCAMOBILE:
📲 CALL THE WORLD FOR LESS 📱

Arturo Puch Pena

1. Introduction

This project aims to analyze a token that includes English, Spanish, and Catalan inside a linguistic landscape (LL) in a globalized area (Lleida's city). Research in the study of linguistic landscapes studies the way in which linguistic objects mark the public space (Ben Rafael et al. 2006:7).

In the case of Lleida (Catalonia), the two predominant languages are Catalan and Spanish. They are co-official within the whole Catalan territory. 

Nevertheless, it seems that the Catalan (local) language is the minorized language in this specific linguistic landscape.

According to Landry and Bourhis (1997:25), linguistic landscapes are ''the language of public road signs, advertising billboards, street names, place names, commercial shop signs and public signs on government buildings'' of a particular area. 

The LL token to analyze is supported on a banner and a window display and basically has a commercial function. Moreover, according to Mooney and Evans (2015: 92), the signs involved are commercial discourses because they are based on advertisement and related signage. This linguistic landscape informs persons about the name of the company, what is the company about, and what services does this emplacement offer, aiming to sell products. According to Mooney and Evans classification (2015: 92), the activity domain of the linguistic landscape is commercial.

Apart from that, the token uses Catalan and Spanish as the main foregrounded languages and also uses English in a more backgrounded way. All the terms of the display are monoglossic and written in the Roman alphabet. 

In line with all this, the main topics that the student wants to deal with, through the appreciation of the selected token are multilingualism, English globalization, and invisibilization of local languages that are minorized. 

In this way, we will reflect on the role of multilingualism and English globalization regarding the city of Lleida and will have a clear view of the power of the languages used by the participants of the area through the observation and analysis of the following linguistic landscape (see 'Token' below).

Token: Call the world for less (Lycamobile)

Source: https://www.instantstreetview.com (Accessed 6 March 2021)

2. Contextualization

The linguistic token is located in the Catalan province of Lleida, specifically in a neighbourhood named Cappont at Eduard Velasco's street, 6, 25001. 

Concerning Cappont sociodemographic's profile and according to Lleida's Official Socioeconomic Bulletin posted in 2012 (See Paeria, 2012), 81.56% of the inhabitants living in the neighbourhood (100%) are Spanish and  18,44% of the inhabitants are foreigners. 

Also, regarding the 21 neighbourhoods in the city of Lleida that include the total of the area's inhabitants, data show that 78.43% are Spanish and 21.57% are foreigners (See figure 1 below). Thus, it can be said that the area of Cappont is mostly formed by native individuals rather than non-native, as 18,44% of the participants are immigrants according to Paeria's Socioeconomic Bulletin (2012).

Taking into account the neighbourhood's socioeconomic profile, Cappont is not back and forth high-class but it is neither a low-class area. The district seems to be middle-up-class and certain parts of the sector are high upper-class, as there are quite pretty buildings and gardens in the area such as one of the two city faculties. Below this paragraph and the following four pictures, there are two visual pictures of Cappont (see Figures 5 and 6) of the neighbourhood in which the readers can appreciate the beautifulness and dimensions of the zone. 

Paeria (2021) also states that apart from Pardinyes and Balàfia, Cappont, is one of the neighbourhoods that grow the most. It has many emplacements intended for entertainment, and has the University campus. Furthermore, Cappont is currently considered as one of the most modern neighbourhoods of the city, in which the principal sellers of supermarkets and commercial centers of the city are set. 

Figure 1: Lleida citizens classified by nationality and neighbourhood. Retrieved from La Paeria (2012). Link to access the PDF document.

Additionally, the following map (see Figure 2 below) shows the city neighbourhoods division presenting Cappont in the thirteenth place. 

Figure 2: City neighbourhoods distribution (2012). Picture taken by Lleida's City Council (2012). Link to access the website. 

The following street view maps of the token's surroundings (Figures 3 and 4) show instances of multilingualism regarding the names of some shops and businesses and a great number of commercial emplacements concerning all of them, which means that the area has an active multilingual and commercial activity in which more than two languages take place. 

Figure 3: Street view map of the LL's surroundings (Cappont).

Source: https://www.instantstreetview.com (accessed 11 March 2021).

Figure 4: LLs surrounding the selected token

Source: https://www.instantstreetview.com (accessed 19 March 2021).

Figure 5: Cappont neighbourhood. Picture taken by I, Galifardeu (2005). Link to access the picture. 

Figure 6: Some upper-class buildings of the neighbourhood. Picture taken by J, Rodriguez (2020). Link to access the website. 

3. Methodology

The group participant visited the emplacement and the street in which it is located several times, and that made him understand that Eduard Velasco is a crowded street.

The first time he went there (5 March 2021; 16:55), there were several Spanish and immigrant clients in the local emplacement, and also many people were crowding Eduard Velasco's street.   The second time the participant visited the emplacement (8 March 2021; 15:40), there were few Catalan persons at the emplacement's door and the local was empty. Concerning the third time the visitor went there (10 March 2021; 18:30), it was full of people that seemed to be mostly migrant, as he could realize. 

Interestingly, the student generally noticed the non-nativeness of the clients because he heard them speaking, and, according to their accent, use of language, and physical traits, he could discover more or less that they were non-native

The author of this blogsite decided to enter the emplacement to have a general idea of the identity of the worker and know which kind of products do the phone company sells in order to know a little more about the company. He noticed that most of the more visible products were mobile phones and were divided according to their price on a shelf. Moreover, the containers of the products read the information of the items in several languages: Spanish, English, Portuguese and German, among others.

The emplacement opens in the mornings (9.30 a.m -14.30 p.m) and in the afternoons (16.30 p.m - 20.30 p.m) from Monday to Sunday and is quite visited. The guy working at the commercial emplacement knows how to speak Spanish, Catalan, and a bit of English. 

The guy working there is from Catalonia (concretely from Lleida) and switches from Spanish to Catalan or vice versa, depending on the client's linguistic identity. He does not use English at all, as most of the persons of the neighbourhood speak Spanish and Catalan. As previously reported (Paeria, 2012), 18,44% of immigrants live in Cappont and moreover, most of the immigrants of the area do not necessarily use English to communicate, as they are able to use Catalan or Spanish in a less intelligible way, because they know how to speak the national and the local language. 

It must be taken into account that Lycamobile is a British mobile network operator which operates in twenty-three different countries of the world and most of the operator's incomes come from its SIM products. Most of Lycamobile's clients are international migrants who use phone balance cards to call.  Anyway, although the emplacement is located in a middle-up class neighbourhood in which there only 18,44% of citizens are migrants, most of Lycamobile's clients are migrants.

Concerning the linguistic context of the surroundings of the selected token (see Figures 3 and 4 from the previous apartheid), we can appreciate that the linguistic context of the area contains multilingualism, as we find different commercial emplacements that are named by different languages' words as 'Casa de Andalucía de Lleida', 'Bar La Comarca', 'Tallers Charles' and 'Immohabit'.

Specifically, a degree of multilingualism formed by three languages (Spanish, English, and Catalan) is noticeable in the area, as 'Casa de Andalucía de Lleida' and 'Bar La Comarca' contain Spanish, 'Tallers Charles' contains bilingualism, as the term 'Tallers' is Catalan and 'Charles' is an English word, and, finally, 'Immohabit' contains English.

Interestingly, the surroundings of the linguistic landscape are great examples of the linguistic diversity and culturality of the area. 

Bottom-up/top-down language policies in Lleida:

Concerning the language policy that conditions the linguistic landscape of the analysed Lycamobile's emplacement, it is bottom-up. In short, bottom-up language policies are those that are written by citizens (e.g. name of shops, graffiti, commercials, etc) and not by the authorities (e.g. traffic rules signs, names of roads, etc) according to Backhaus (2006) (Backhaus 2006: 53).  

Also, we must take into account the legal policies that influence the creation of banners, window displays, etc. to consider the signs of the linguistic landscape. Specifically, according to Article 14 of language policies in Lleida (BOP, 2014), established by the City Council of the city, public signage of all sorts must normally be written in Catalan. 

In addition, according to 17.2 Article about Lleida language policies (BOP, 2014), outside the linguistic Catalan environment, advertisements have to be preferably written in two versions: one in Catalan and the other in the specific language of the territory where the text is addressed (or in Castilian). 

With regards to commercial texts emplacements, there can be legal, negative consequences if the following municipal rule and the previous ones established and regulated by Lleida's City Council are not taken into account and fulfilled:

''Placing posters, banners, adhesives or any other form of advertising without express authorization of the town hall in buildings, municipal installations, landscape elements, urban furniture and generally, in all those elements that located in public roads that are particularly destined to give specific services to the citizenship'' (BOP, 2014). Retrieved from Lleida's City Council (2018).

In the author's view, the token targeted an international language, and, even though the linguistic landscape legally fulfills the established language policies, he considers that the local language (Catalan) is scarcely present in an area in which Catalan is the language of the local citizens of the city. 

Especially, words in Catalan are smaller and subheaded while the Spanish words ''Ciber Locutorio Cappont'' are headed and bigger.

4. Results and discussion

Token 1.2: Call the world for less (Lycamobile)

Source: https://www.instantstreetview.com (Accessed 6 March 2021)

According to the list of values/functions that are associated with linguistic landscapes by the Landscape Observatory of Catalonia retrieved from the European Landscape Convention (Florence, 2000), the value of the analysed LL is productive, as that linguistic landscape has the capacity to provide financial benefits. 

Less importantly, we also could say that there is a secondary social value, as the LL and the emplacement itself are linked with the community's social use concerning the management of telecommunications among people.

The phone company sells products intended for social interactions that involve technology, ethernet, and human communication. Concretely, the immigrants that buy the products that the company offers intend to take part in transnational migrant networks. According to Fouron and Glick-Schiller (2001), a transnational migration is a ''process of movement and settlement across international borders in which individuals maintain or create several networks of connection to their country of origin while settling in a new country'' (Fouron and Glick-Schiller, 2001: 60). 

In this linguistic landscape, readers can appreciate that the use of three languages on the token is an instance of multilingualism. As a result of globalization, English is now one of the main languages in the city of Lleida.

Lleida is a city in which Catalan is the most used language, but, however, readers can notice that Catalan is less visible in the t, as it is subheaded while signs in Spanish and English are much bigger. Thus, this demonstrates that the local language of the city of Lleida is a bit silenced and invisibilized concerning LLs, implying that the national language (Spanish) adds tension and pressure to the use of the local language (Catalan).

Apart from that, signs in English demonstrate the reinforcement of English in a city in which it is not an official language.  Lleida is suffering a process of one more language introduction in which English is becoming the language of advertisements, as it is beginning to take part in many of them. 

Currently, English is having an important impact on our country. English is becoming the language of modernity, the future, and progress. Through the appreciation of the analysed item, readers can know that the role of English as a global language (EGL) and its influence over the linguistic landscapes on the city are nowadays acquiring more visibility.

This linguistic landscape takes part in the process of Englishisation, a term used to refer to the processes and methodologies in which the English language becomes part of the language repertoires in Lleida (Dalmau, 2021). It converts the material of the local language into English.

The use of advertising English to sell is getting introduced into the city, as English is fundamental in the role of LL. Apart from that, the analysed LL is an instance of interculturality in Lleida, a city where English, Catalan, and Spanish coexist. English is being used as a lingua franca that allows intercultural communication and intelligibility among different citizens. In addition, Lleida is being influenced by the interconnection between the local language and the global language.

5. Concluding thoughts

Developing linguistic landscape studies makes students be aware of the linguistic situation of their living areas, being this sort of innovative projects dynamic, participative, active, and useful methodologies to interpret and understand many aspects of sociolinguistics that interestingly surround us. 

Performing this blog made me realize how important is to observe city signages to know more about the big amount of social aspects that play a role within both society and language, the uses that we, as language actors, give to languages, the reasons why we use one linguistic form or another to convey a message, what our statements convey about our identity and our ideologies, among other sorts of information. Through the accomplishment of this project, I realized how much important is English in the city makeup with regard to a few years ago.

Through the use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) concerning this LL project, we have developed a virtual map of landscapes in Lleida and have written a blog entry in which all the information and data collected have been explained and considered to make a contribution to sociolinguistics. Moreover, TEP (Technologies of Empowerment and Participation) have been useful for students to take part in a more autonomous and creative researching methodology. We choose a token and analyzed its social meaning and role within a particular area, which in our case, Lleida is the target area. Finally, thanks to TAC (Technologies for Acquisition of Knowledge) we have learned many concepts regarding the field of sociolinguistics and have applied them in this project.

6. References and sources

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Fouron, G. E., & Glick-Schiller, N. (2001). The generation of identity: Redefining the second generation within a transnational social field. In H. Cordero-Guzman, R. C. Smith, & R. Grosfoguel (Eds.), Migration, transnationalization & race in a changing New York (pp. 58–86). Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.

Gifex-Oficina del Pla: Ayuntamiento de Lleida. (2012). City neighbourhoods distribution.  Map. Retrieved from https://www.gifex.com/Europa/Espana/Cataluna/Lerida/Lerida/Politicos.html.

Glick Schiller, N. (1996). The Situation of Transnational Studies. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 4(2), 155–166.

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I, Galifardeu. (2005). Cappont and La Bordeta boroughs, in the city of Lleida, seen from La Seu Vella. Image. Retrieved from https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cappont#/media/Archivo:Cappont.jpg.

J, Rodriguez (2020). Administración del Campus de Cappont. Image. Retrieved from http://www.fde.udl.cat/es/serveis/administracio-campus/.

La Paeria. (2012). Elaboració pròpia a partir de dades del Padró Municipal de l’Ajuntament de Lleida. Chart. Retrieved from https://paeria.cat/butlletieconomic/2012/03-juliol/06-poblacio.pdf.

La Paeria. (July, 2012). Butlletí socioeconòmic de Lleida. [PDF File: https://paeria.cat/butlletieconomic/2012/03-juliol/06-poblacio.pdf]. Paeria: https://paeria.cat.

La Paeria. (2018). Dades Poblacionals 2018. Dades obertes de lleida: https://aplicacionsweb.paeria.es/eOpenDataPublicWeb/faces/ca/cataleg/territori/demografia/dades-poblacionals-2018/detalls.

Mooney, A. & Evans, B. (2015). Chapter 5. Linguistic Landscapes. In: Language, society and Power. London & New York: Routledge. 86-107.

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Puch, A. (2021). Call the world for less. Image. Retrieved from https://www.instantstreetview.com.

Puch, A. (2021). LLs surrounding the selected token. Map. Retrieved from https://www.instantstreetview.com.

Puch, A. (2021). Street view map of the LL's surroundings. Map. Retrieved from https://www.instantstreetview.com.

Sabaté-Dalmau, M. (under review). ‘Localizing English in town’: A Linguistic Landscape project for a Critical Linguistics Education on multilingualism.

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