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.



Picture 3:Source: Google Maps
 taken the 02/04/2021




                                                             Picture 4:Rambla D'Aragó Map

                                                                                Source: Paeria.es/cartolleida/
                                                                             Picture taken  on the 02/04/2021
            




Picture 5: Source: Google Maps
taken on  the 03/04/2021

 

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

Since Covid, I have not been able to visit this coffee shop for quite some time, although, this has not made this analysis difficult for me since I am a regular  customer. As I have mentioned before, many students during and after University, from Monday to Friday attend this cafeteria, and among them, me.

I took the picture on the 13/3/21. That day, I took two pictures, one of the fron side of the shop and the second one, focusing on the poster. ( photo 2) While taking the picture I  noticed all the posters that can be seen on the glass, outside of the cafeteria. I have been there thousands of times, but I  never realized the importane of posters until this project  analysis. 

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



Picture 7: 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 




Picture 8: Source: Muglovers.es
Taken on the 07/04/2021




  • 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

 





 

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