Two Mom's TATOO studio: Englishization in Catalan landscapes
Two Mom’s TATOO studio:
Englishization in Catalan landscapes
Antonio Moreno, Ariadna Massip & Josep Salud
1.
INTRODUCTION
In this paper, we aim to study a banner from a shop in the center of Lleida, representing the multiculturality and multilingualism that is depicted by English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), and by zooming into the manner in which this has taken ground and has been accommodated into a bilingual society with a minority (Catalan) and a majority language (Spanish). Throughout the paper, we will claim that this can be affirmed by the fact that "multilingual speakers will use English for utilitarian purposes with a pragmatic attitude" (Canagarajah, 2006, p. 197), and we will depart from the idea that the chosen token directly deals with the Englishization happening in this globalized and internationalized world; focusing on a non-English-using society in southern Europe, where Englishization is relatively new.
Continuing with this idea, it must be stated that the English language is being
nowadays spread all around the world, developing into the idea of ELF. This language, thereby, is considered as the
international language, and its various forms are constructed among the
different English-speakers, and have different social roles and connotations in diverse societies where it is present. The English used in this shop ("Two Mom's Tattoo Studio") is an instance of
English for Spanish Speakers (ESS), as well as English for Catalan Speakers - as the exemplification of “all local English
varieties regardless of which of Kachru’s
As a way of communication between speakers with different first languages, the concept of ‘English as a Lingua Franca’ (ELF) is highly distinctive from the other cases of languages in contact (Seidlhofer, 2005). This reassures the important value of this language around the world, and how the commercial and social impact is important within the audience. More specifically, this paper aims to analyze the impact of ELF in the city of Lleida, and what can be interpreted from its emergence in relation to local/global languages in contact. Finally, this will raise awareness of the Englishization that the town is suffering from.
In the main
elements of the abovementioned billboard, the different manners in which the message is
conveyed will be analyzed from a linguistic and cultural/social point of view. It
shall be stated that the alphabet used, as it will be explained posteriorly, is
the Roman one, so the readability of the language used is more similar to the owners’ mother
tongue (Spanish & Catalan). Furthermore, the diverse values will be developed; as well as the multicultural, and linguistic functions, which will be analyzed, in order to portray the
main elements of the banner. Apart from the various values and purposes of the English billboard within the Catalan landscape, this investigation will also be analyzing the grammar characteristics that are present in the billboard. In other words, we can observe how the owners (Catalan speakers) try to use a direct translation from the Catalan language, leading to a syntactic error.
Conveying a commercial function, the billboard of the tattoo studio has a bottom-up production in a monolingual repertoire, with English as the main language of communication. Thereby, Our chosen Linguistic Landscape (LL), through which this analysis will be conducted, is a billboard belonging to a tattoo studio, which reads ‘Two Moms Tattoo Studio’, and is located on ‘Torres de Sanui’ street, number 26; its purpose is commercial, and the message displayed is monolingual (only written in English) and bottom-up.
Having mentioned on the prior, it must be stated that the billboard belongs to the commercial function, according to the different categorization of the signs, stated as an ‘important step’ within the analysis of a linguistic landscape because the commercial realm is where English is the most expanded (Gorter, 2006). By investigating this fact, we will be able to acknowledge the different theoretical and practical “dimensions […] which represent the ethnocultural and national” (Gorter, 2006) perceptions within the Catalan community, particularly in Lleida.
2.
CONTEXTUALIZATION
Our LL token belongs to the neighborhood of ‘Universitat’, according to Ajuntament de Lleida (n.d.). If we locate ourselves in ‘Plaça Ricard Vinyes’ (see image 1), and we go straightforward to the different commercials of that area, our linguistic landscape is one of the most appealing ones. In others, it can be seen that, despite the fact that it is located in the corner of a street (Torres de Sanui St.), its appearance and advertisement is appealing for each and every kind of public.
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| Image 1. Map of Ricard Vinyes, LL token location. Source: personal. Retrieved 05/03/23 |
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| Image 2. Pedestrian's view of the LL token. Source: Google Maps. Retrieved 05/03/23. |
In relation to the neighborhood itself, ‘Universitat’, it must be commented that according to La Paeria (2012), the rate of immigration is slightly higher than the mean of Lleida. In this neighborhood, the rate is approximately 25%, moderately higher than the mean rate (21%), according to La Paeria (2012). This fact is not important when analyzing the importance of the English language in relation to sociocultural values, but it has to be stated, due to the fact that the shop belongs to Spanish-speakers, for this reason, the usage of English is seen as a foreign or, as will be demonstrated through this analysis, as a lingua franca.
Moreover,
this zone is characterized by the insecurity defended by the ‘neighbors’
association’, who states that “it has been demonstrated that the civic agents’
role does not work, since it appears to be lots of incivility and vandalism throughout the
streets of our neighborhood; not to take into account that some streets are
poorly illuminated” (Segre, 2019).
Nevertheless,
this part of the neighborhood is also distinguished by the great
diversification of shops, which stand out for the enormous variety not
only in terms of products and services but also in relation to the linguistic
repertoire of language that they display.
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| Image 3. Front view of the shop. Source: taken by the authors on 25/02/23. |
The studio, on the one hand, is owned by Catalan-Spanish bilinguals (females); however, the main language of the banner is English. This is due to the fact that the social meaning of this billboard is highly linked to ‘advertising English’ usage. Also, it is important to mention that local customers, as well as the owners of the shop, are Catalan speakers, hence, all the tattoos and products that are sold within the shop (e.g., clothes) represent the multilinguistic repertoire, involving not only Catalan but also English and Spanish, among others.
Focusing on the usage of English for advertising purposes, the strategic use of English in the market conveys, as stated by Fuertes-Olivera et al. (2000), a metadiscursive purpose for the public in general. This is supported by the fact that the purpose is conveyed through 'transparent English', as the billboard represents loanwords from the English language, which is understood not only by English speakers but also by non-English speakers - as it can be understood through the term 'tattoo'. Therefore, due to the globalization of the English language, this language is used in order to approach the commercial through a persuasive writing style.
3.
METHODOLOGY
After our
first visit (made by Toni on February 25th at 11 AM), the first photo was taken
and the precise address of the business was taken down: Torres de Sanui, 26,
25006 Lleida.
The
entirety of the billboard was written in English, as it was assessed during the
other two visits made to this location (on March 5th at 4 PM and March 11th at
11 AM), not only did Catalan not appear in the business’ billboard at all, but
also that the studio workers communicate with their clients in Catalan and
Spanish (which was discovered during a brief conversation with them on the
third and last visit, on 11/03/23).
According
to the official website of the Catalan official government, all publications,
bulletins, public announcements, and advertising made by Generalitat de
Catalunya must be in Catalan, and should there be any other languages
involved, Catalan must be both predominant and the most prominent of all
languages used (Gencat, 2019). This regulation was created in reference to
top-down policies, but only applies to the already stated media in which the Generalitat
is involved; therefore, the public is free to express themselves and to present their
businesses in the language of their choice, depending not only on the service offered but also on the demand of it.
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| Image 4. Nearby shop. Source: taken by authors 05/03/23. |
Nevertheless,
this rule does affect any sort of sign created by the Generalitat, which
includes road signs, an abundance of which can be found in the vicinity of this
location. Regarding the situation with Two Mom’s Tattoo Studio, the
surrounding businesses are presented to the public in different languages: on
the left hand side of the studio, we find a restaurant named in Catalan (Petit
Tonelet), yet on its right side, we find Italian (Porco Dio), a made-up word
(Eminú) and Japanese (Kanichi Street, or 貫–かんいち). This, thereby, unfolds the multilingual nature that the street transmits.
In brief, we
can observe how the idea of English as an ‘advertising language’ is supported
by the previous picture. In this adjacent shop, the main tongue is Japanese,
but the message is also conveyed in English, for productive values. This issue
is what our LL token represents, with the various grammatical characteristics
used by the Catalan-Spanish speakers
4.
RESULTS & DISCUSSION
The
interconnection among the different cultures and languages is of incredible
value within the various circumstances of the same urban landscape. By studying
and grasping some of the elements of these languages, it is possible “to arrive
at an understanding of the general principles of organization […] in both
languages and the uses of languages”
The aesthetic and productive values are represented in the landscape token. The intention is to show this aesthetic value. This is due to the fact that the studio has a carefully chosen name, depicting and describing the owners of it. Also, it represents, thanks to the chosen typography and the colors in the billboard, a catchy name for customers, gathering at every moment the attention of the local people.
However, there appears to be a
syntactic mistake in the plural form of Mom’s. We believe that the mistake in
the name of the place is done on purpose to gain people's attention and to gain
more customers. In this sense, the billboard, as well as the owners of the shop, try to use a playful and dynamic approach to the commerciality of English. In others, they transmit a feeling of non-standerness and, hence, non-nativeness that verifies this idea of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF). We can see from the
billboard that English is the only language used to commercialize the shop; as
a result, clients know exactly what type of business this shop is. Because the
linguistic landscape is a commercial one, a tattoo studio, the aesthetic value
is closely related to the productive value; and the productive value is given
because the establishment sells tattoos to make money. However, they also sell clothes, so the productive value is the most relevant to the economic development of the shop.
On the one hand, it is important to mention the fact that English is mainly used for attention-gathering purposes because, inside the shop, the main languages used are Spanish and Catalan. This raises awareness of the billboard's identity value. In other words, despite the fact that the locals use Catalan as the main language, the most used language in terms of tattoos is English. Moreover, since they are creating a global identity, the best language to choose in order to advertise the shop is the English language. This enables the owners to demonstrate modernity, and open-mindedness not only from the shop but also from the local society, being in trend with the latest fashions and workings of tattoos.
On the other hand, another factor that contributes to understanding the use of English in the Spanish/Catalan advertisement is that it represents positive stereotypes including "modernity, progress, and globalization" (Hooft et al., 2017:2), apart from leadership and innovation. This fact is supported by the fact that the term 'studio' sounds more professional and tends to be more related to specialists; on top of new technology trends in tattooing. We have this use of LLs tokens as an innovative way of advertising because the messages of the tokens are understood as a form of public discourse aimed at selling and projecting an identity here seen through branding (Sabaté-Dalmau, 2023). As a result, we can conclude that the general perception of English in our country is relevant in determining the values visible in our LL token.
5.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
To
conclude, the goal of this project was to look into a multilingual sign in
which English was one of the many languages used throughout the city. As a
result, we can all agree that Lleida has evolved and is becoming a
multicultural city. We discovered that the city of Lleida makes extensive use
of English as a means of advertising or attracting people's attention. By this same token, we must acknowledge the fact that this conveys a concrete social meaning not only to the local community (Lleida) but also to the global society.
This
project helps students understand how the sociolinguistics discipline works and how to apply
its theoretical constructs in real situations. Moreover, LL demonstrates that it is an effective method
of using pedagogical tools and incorporating various skills, such as Technology
of Knowledge Acquisition (TKA) and Technology of Empowerment and Participation
(TEP).
We have to agree that we had never paid attention to our surroundings or the cultural diversity that exists before embarking on this project. We were able to see how the English language has become very popular throughout the city by conducting all of this research. Furthermore, the importance of language for businesses to become visible and attract new customers.
This, nevertheless, can lead to a linguistic discussion, due to the fact that this Englishization process can, directly or indirectly, displace local languages as in the case of Catalan or Spanish. For this reason, it must be commented on the fact that even though English is used for the many values aforementioned, the languages of Lleida, and the community itself, are little by little devalued by the international usage of the English language.
All in all, we would like to emphasize that, as a result of this experience, we were capable of putting the theory we had learned in class into practice, which means that this project assisted us in analyzing the various sociolinguistic concepts in our environments. Finally, we found it extremely interesting and dynamic to make these various visits to our linguistic landscape and learn more about the various languages involved in the city of Lleida. Having seen the different results, we can affirm that Lleida is undergoing the Englishization process within our 'global village' (Modiano, 1999, p. 24) that conveys the English language as the Lingua Franca for different communicative purposes.
6.
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