WHERE TECH MEETS TEXT: Commercial English-mediated identity at “Home Gallery” in Lleida. By Josep Blasi, Ares Pérez & Alèxia Solé
1. Introduction
In a world that every single day is more globalised, finding multilingual and intercultural tokens is easier than ever. In advertising, English has become the language of choice in non-English-speaking countries, together with the local ones (Edelman & Gorter, 2010). City centres, where there is plenty of newer, ever-changing, globalised Linguistic Landscapes (LL), are spaces where this phenomenon can be seen in mass, as Ben-Rafael, Shohamy and Barni (2010, pp.18) explain: “(…)the more dense and numerous the LL items, the more one may expect perceptions of the LL to be diversified and heterogeneous (…)”. This Englishisation process occurs in Lleida too, the locality used to carry out this project which aims to observe and analyse multilingualism and Englishisation processes in the public spaces in the Catalan capitals.
This project analyses a Linguistic Landscape (LL) taken from an important retailer shop called Home Gallery, located in the centre of Lleida (Catalonia, Spain). The establishment specialises in selling electronic devices such as mobile phones or TVs. Before being known as Home Gallery, its name was Sony Gallery, as it sold products exclusively from Sony, a Japanese brand born in 1946 and established in Spain in 1973. Nowadays, the establishment has a broader selection of brands and it was renamed as Home Gallery in 2013. The story behind the name and the type of products it sells is important for this analysis as it allows us to understand the selected LL in terms of the display of the economically-motivated Englishisation process in the city to a deeper extent. It is also worth noting that, while the company’s website advertises only in Spanish, the physical store in Lleida displays the information in both Spanish and Catalan, and customer service can be provided in either language. This difference may be explained by the fact that the company has several shops across Spain, which leads it to use Spanish as the main language for its online communication.
The selected token consists of a front shop sign displaying the shop’s name, Home Gallery, which consists in a monoglossic LL that uses English as its only language. The use of English can be understood thanks to Edelman and Gorter (2010) explanation in their chapter Linguistic Landscapes and the Market, in which this language is commonly associated with notions of technology, globalisation and modernity. As mentioned before, Home Gallery sells electronic products from international brands, and therefore, it displays this idea of modernity by using the language of reference when talking about globalisation. This board does not only function as a commercial sign within the urban space or to identify the business and attract customers, but also as an example of how in a society whose official languages are Catalan and Spanish, the English language accommodates itself so perfectly that its presence feels completely normal. Finally, the alphabet used is the Roman alphabet, which aligns with both English and the local languages of the area (Catalan and Spanish).
The main goal of this project is to understand the process of Englishisation in Lleida and to analyse the sociolinguistic phenomena associated with it by observing how English is increasingly present in the urban linguistic landscape and how it blends with the local languages, mainly for economic reasons. In order to do so, we decided to use Home Gallery as our token of analysis, which perfectly shows how English is incorporated into the commercial landscape of Lleida, reflecting the city’s multilingual and multicultural environment.
2. Contextualisation
The studied linguistic landscape makes reference to the “globalisation” of Lleida. Home Gallery is an electronics shop located at Carrer de Sant Joan, 8 (Lleida). Home Gallery has two retailer shops in Lleida, both located in the same neighbourhood (Centre Històric, refer to Figure 1).
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| Figure 1: Centre Històric Neighbourhood Source: NetMaps (2026). https://www.netmaps.uk/digital-maps/mapa-lleida/ |
As can be observed on an interactive map published by Turisme Lleida (figure 2), Centre Històric is the neighbourhood with more abundance of touristic locations in the city (about 190).
Moreover, as globalisation has reached every single corner of the world, this is one of the zones where multilingualism can be observed by just having a walk: 44.81% of the inhabitants of Centre Històric are of migrant origin, making it the neighbourhood with the highest percentage of migrant inhabitants. (Maria Sabaté, 2023, figure 3).
Whilst Centre Històric has a unique combination of old -posh- and new -modernist- buildings, Lleida's town hall has allocated money to promote new buildings and shops in that specific area of the city. Moreover, as the main street -carrer Major- experiences the closure of old, local boutiques and the appearence of popular -national or international- esablishments, it is crystal-clear that Centre Històric is moving towards gentrification.
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| Figure 2: touristic locations in Lleida Source: Turisme Lleida (2026). https://www.lleidaturisme.cat/ca/mapa-interactiu |
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| Figure 3: Immigrant population per neighbourhood Source: Sabaté-Dalmau (2023). https://cv.udl.cat/access/content/group/101266-2526/Part%20A%20Sociolinguistics/Project%20Localising%20English%20in%20Lleida/Project%20Information_Assessment_Steps_Outcome.pdf |
According to official data published by a local newspaper (El Segre, 2026), Centre Històric is one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Lleida.
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| Figures 4 & 5: cost of living and average income per neighbourhood Source: El Segre (2026). https://www.segre.com/ca/lleida/260304/la-renda-dels-vens-de-lleida-la-del-barri-de-ciutat-jardi-quatre-vegades-mes-alta-que-a-la-mariola-i-el-barri-antic_1131211.html |
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| Figure 6: PROVISIONAL, TO BE UPDATED ON 12/03/2026 |
3. Methodology
In order to analyse our token, we adopted a critical sociolinguistic approach, which consists in identifying and investigating tokens in public spaces from society’s point of view. In our case, we looked into the social meaning of utilising English to sell appliances. More than one visit took place in order to control the surroundings and to check if any tokens changed.
Our first visit was on 07/02/2026, at 13:56, when we were searching for linguistic landscapes. Before starting our LL hunt, we were never that aware of the languages surrounding us. We took a picture of the establishment. On the second visit, which was on 04/03/2026, we took a photo of the token and its surroundings. Everything was the same.
Our third visit was on 05/03/2026. No changes occurred, and the LL was the same. We went specifically to observe the interactions between employees and customers and we noticed that the employees spoke Spanish and Catalan between themselves and the customers, only using English when a foreigner or immigrant came into the shop. We asked them about it, and they replied that, as stated before, they use English with people who don’t know Spanish or Catalan. Moreover, they explained that they use the name “Home Gallery” because it is already the name of a national company (Home Gallery), and using English made it catchier and more attractive to customers. In other words, they use what we call “advertising English”.
As we previously said, our LL token is located in Lleida, Catalonia, an autonomous bilingual community in Spain. Two languages coexist: Spanish, the official language, and Catalan, a co-official but minority language (Estatut d’autonomia de Catalunya, 2016). To promote the usage of Catalan, the council of Lleida (la Paeria) wrote a bulletin in 2014 containing top-down policies. Article 14 states that all public signage must be written in Catalan, and according to Article 17.2, advertising outside the linguistic field must be in a bilingual version. Depending on the target, either Spanish and Catalan must be used.
Considering what has been said, our LL token is recognised as a bottom-up policy, since its owners have the right to utilise the language they wish. We see how they chose to use English as the business's language while simultaneously speaking Spanish and Catalan. English is not the official language in Catalonia nor in Spain. However, it is popular on a global scale, it is clear they chose to use a multilingual strategy for advertising: commercial multilingualism (Edelman & Gorter, 2010). According to Cenoz & Gorter (2009), using English in advertising is seen as a linguistic fetish rather than a tool for commerce.
As it has been stated earlier, “Home Gallery” will address its customers in Spanish or Catalan based on the customers’ preferences. If they wish to communicate in English, an employee who speaks English will come and attend them. Those were the languages heard during this third visit. The languages surrounding our token are Catalan, Spanish, English and French (see Figure 6 PROVISIONAL PHOTO, NOT TO BE CONSIDERED).
4. Results and discussion
Our LL token possesses multiple values (The Landscape Observatory of Catalonia, 2023). It has an aesthetic effort in order to be more catchy. The colour scheme (blue, black and white) and the typography (capital letters) have been incorporated to make it engaging. However, only one alphabet - Roman - and one code - English - are present in our token. The presence of a global language shows an effort to connect to the world.
On the one hand, a global identity comes first since the business uses English as their “main” language. On the other hand, Spanish and Catalan identity are shown: the business “Home Gallery” is based in Spain, and the employees use Catalan and Spanish between themselves and the customers.
Nevertheless, it should be noted that there is an underlying linguistic hierarchy. English is preeminent as the name of the business and used with foreigners, while Spanish and Catalan are only spoken by employees and customers that know these two languages. The promotion of English in detriment of the nonappearance of Spanish and Catalan (especially the latter) illustrate how English has a higher status (Spanish as well) than Catalan, at least in commerce. This token could be perceived as a competition between a global code and official language policies. Something that might seem insignificant could contribute to a mapping of the linguistic organisation in Lleida.
Associations between English and profits come forward, as seen with the inclusion of advertising English as a commercial strategy. Multilingualism is utilised in an attempt to gain insights in a global world, which is why foreign words are advertised with commercial intentions (Edelman & Gorter, 2010). This LL token is relevant to see identity, cooperation and competition between languages in light of globalisation and mobilisation.
references for values and for advertising English:
References for the values: https://www.catpaisatge.net/en/landscape-resources/landscape-glossary
Cenoz, J., &
Gorter, D. (2009). Language Economy and Linguistic Landscape, in
E.Shohamy & D.Gorter (Eds.) Linguistic Landscape: Expanding the scenery,
(pp. 55-69). New York/London: Routledge.
In this blog there is a clear study of the shop Home Gallery. They provide an extensive explanation within a sociolinguistic approach. They present Home Gallery as a sign of modernity, technology, and globalisation. This linguistic token is contextualized in the historic centre, where there is a high migrant population and it is one of the poorer neighbourhoods in Lleida.
ReplyDeleteThe name given to the shop is Home Gallery because of its catchiness and attractiveness for advertising. They mention that this shop is considered a bottom-up linguistic landscape, and they also mention that local policies encourage public Catalan signage, but private businesses have the freedom to choose their language.
The results show English as a global market identity and introduce Home Gallery as an example of commercial multilingualism; where English is used as a global prestige and branding language.While Spanish and Catalan are used mainly as communication tools.
Before reading this post, I would have never heard of this shop, and I found interesting how sociolinguistics can show the significance of a place as a linguistic marker. We are used to the idea of shops being just window displays with the aim of making money, but they have more significance if you look at them in more detail. For example, the languages used there or the banners on the window display.