Yummy Lovers
Yummy food, Yummy lovers
Blanca Ribes
 |
Picture 1: Source: Blanca’s mobile camera. Picture taken by Blanca Ribes on the 13/3/21 |
- INTRODUCTION
Support: Poster
Activity domain: Commerce
Type of sign: Commercial
Main/foregrounded language(s):
English
Secondary/backgrounded language(s): Catalan
Alphabet: Roman alphabet
Linguistic Landscape refers to “the language of public road signs, advertising billboards, street names, place names, commercial shop signs, and public signs on government buildings” (Landry and Bourhis, 1997: 25).
My choosen token is a picture taken by me of a popular cafeteria (Comercial shop) in Lleida city called “ Mug lovers”.
Because of its location( Rambla D'aragó 35 near Rectorar which is a University), is quite popular among students. Students may take advantage of their break and go there to have a drink, to eat some delicious food while enjoying their free time along or with some good company.
I will be analyzing not the name of the Cafeteria but a little poster which I will put the picture right above.
 |
Picture 2: Source: Blanca’s mobile camera
Taken by Blanca Ribes on the 13/ 3/21
- CONTEXT
This Linguistic
landscape can be found in University
Neighbourhood, more specifically in Rambla D’Aragó 35. is a popular and busy avenue near el Centre Históric,
the public Library and other businesses as restaurants and educational
institutions.( Two primary schools near the coffe shop and the University
mentioned before).
Following this brief introduction of the token, we would see some pictures related to this. The first one consits on a screenshot of the exact location of the Cafeteria, made it through Google Maps. The second one consist on a screenshot of the avenue itself( Rambla D'Aragó) and the last one consist on a picture of the avenue but in real time taken from Google Maps.
The linguistic token choosen, was found as I
said near Rectorat. Regarding the socioeconomic profile, the majority of the
citizens living in that avenue, belongs to the middle-class, however, we can
also see more poorly people living around this popular avenue. Some street
buildings are barely new, on contrary others have a more deteriorated state. Undoubtedly
one of the things that the city council of this city would have to change would
be that.
A study done by Paeria in 2004, clearly shows that "Els barris del Centre de Lleida (Centre Històric,
Rambla Ferran – Estació, i Universitat) concentren el major percentatge
d’immigrants".( demographic profile) Therefore, this would be one of the
reason of why housing rents are more
affordable for example. Another cause would the fact that other than
immigrants, we also encounter students who are looking for an affordable price
too.
This cafeteria was established at the year 2019 The type of production would be Top-Down due to Authorities as Catalan and Spanish are required by law but also, Bottom -Up because of comercial information seen.
· The first thing we analyze is its name, which is written in English. "Mug" which refers to cup but also to coffee or tea, since these are drunk in cups and "Lovers" which reflects those people who love coffee for example. An the second one that would catch our eye, would be the differents posters we can see outside and inside the Coffe shop, that is why I have decided to analyzed a poster( look picture 2).
This type of sign would be without a doubt, commercial because we can clearly see " We`re open" which indicates that they are open and, in turn, makes the customer immediately interested. Then we have " For take away" which clearly makes a big difference. It's not the same, being in the cafeteria eating a quick lunch with the fear of being late for your next class, than knowing you could take it away and eat it whenever you want it. Lastly, we have" Cafè d'origen 100% natural" which indicates that the coffe is all natural, furthemore, if we take a look at the website( https://muglovers.es/) we could see how not only the coffee and some beverages are organic, but also many of the dishes that they serve, which reflects they care about our world.
·
- METHODOLOGY
This cafeteria was established at the year 2019 The type of production would be Top-Down.
When it comes to top-down language policies in Catalonia, the official language are Catalan and Spanish. "In Catalunya, there is a legal obligation to have at least some presence of the Catalan language on all public and private signs" (Goter, 2006: 85) According to Paeria (2012), In Lleida, the top-down signs can be done by three different official institutions: the Spanish government, the Catalan government, and the local government.
Moreover, according to Scollon and Scollon (2003: 217), there are four categories of signs. This token would be part of the commercial category, and that is why we could attached this shop to a Bottom-up production as well.
Saying said that, If we look at both, first and the second pictures we realize that there is a coexistence in fact, of languages.We have Catalan and English, however, we also encounter Spanish at the menú. In my opinional the most salient one would be Catalan rather than Spanish. These threee languages share the Roman Alphabet. ( Look picture 6 and 7)
Picture 6: Source: Muglovers.es
Taken on the 7/04/2021
Ta
- RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Having being there since the opening of this bar, 11th of March 2019 According to their instagram (@mugloversbrunch) uncountable times, I realized that the street looks much alive. It is true that around Mug, we find other Coffe shops but in my opinion the one much alive, which would catch a a clients attention faster is MugLovers.
Despite being a small Cafeteria, the decorations that the owners have chosen makes it cozy and relaxing for the customers. Furthermore, we find a feeling of beauty when notice the Two big words. Mug, in yellow and Lovers in white( Look picture 1).
In this token, we can clearly identify the productive value, because the token analyzed provides financial benefits and it is placed in a Cafeteria where customers go in order to taste or drink some delicious food. Among this, taking a look through to their web page we can see how they also sell cups
- CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
The aim of this project was to analyse a multilingual sign with English as the main language. I had several options for this project but, at the end I decided to choose this coffe shop, since from my perspective, have a commercial value but a Tourist one as well as not only regular citizens of the city go but foreign people.
This clearly shows that English has become a Lingua Franca used by people from around the world to communicate to each other. Globalization is relflected in all their posters, as all contents at least one world in the English Language.
To end with, this project was very useful as it gave us the opportunity to apply in practice the theory taught in class and also helped us to understand better some concepts. Besides, this research project help us to be aware about the speaces in which we live and their on-going transformations
- REFERENCES
2. Catalunya.com. (s.f.). Catalunya.com. Retrieved from https://www.catalunya.com/idiomas-11-1-8?language=es
Durk, G. (30 de 08 de 2006). Google Scholar .
Retrieved from https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=es&user=HiS8B9QAAAAJ&citation_for_view=HiS8B9QAAAAJ:bbjcffOLshcC
,
Mugloverbrunch.
(11 de March de 2019). Instagram.Retrieved from https://www.instagram.com/p/Bu4MWTthT3q
Muglovers. (2019). Muglovers. Retrieved from https://muglovers.es
Olufemi, D. (march de 2011). ResearchGate.net. Obtenido
de
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265799616_Linguistic_Landscapes_as_Public_Communication_A_Study_of_Public_Signage_in_Gaborone_Botswana
Paeria. (06 de July de 2012). Paeria.cat.
Retrieved from http://paeria.cat/butlletieconomic/2012/03-juliol/06-poblacio.pdf
Paeria. (2004). Paeria.cat. Retrieved from https://www.paeria.es/arxius/noticies/Document_cat_399.pdf
Sabaté, M. (n.d.).
Handout unit 2. Retrieved from
https://cv.udl.cat/access/content/group/101266-2021/Part%20A%20Sociolinguistics/Unit%202/Hand-out_and_Ppt_Unit_2.pdf
Comments
Post a Comment