Multilingualism reflected on a Valencian business from lleida by Claudia Moreno, Hasleiby Montoya, Olga Salillas

 Multilingualism reflected on a Valencian business from in lleida by Claudia Moreno, Hasleiby Montoya, Olga Salillas

Introduction

Figure 1: Linguistic landscape

Source: Picture taken by the authors (25/02/2026)

 

The Linguistic landscape token chosen for this project is a clothing shop located in Carrer del Carme, 11, Lleida, called “KORÖSHI”, with more than 50 shops in Spain, starting in 2001. The text typology of the text is the front

shop, which includes the name sign and all the banners that are in the window displays of the shop as well as an

advertising sign and an indication sign at the entrance door. The establishment is part of the shopping domain

due to the fact that you have the option of purchasing the clothing products.According to  Mooney and Evans(2018) category this is a commercial discourse. Moreover, the main language

is English due to the fact that the majority of the words present in this Linguistic landscape are in English.

And the side languages are Spanish and Catalan. Even though the name sign seems to be in Japanese it is an

invented word, with no real meaning which means that it is used with the sole purpose of attracting customers.

To finalize, the alphabet used is the Latin one. The online shop is mainly written in Spanish, and English is the

embedded language as they use it more to advertise clothing sizes and collections, though the languages available

are Spanish, Catalan, English, French, German and Italian. And in all of them is present English for the use of a

advertisement as an embedded language, except in the English version, where it counts as part of the matrix language.. Something that as explained by Cenoz and Gorter (2009)

can be due to the fact that: ”The diversity of languages on the signs can be good for tourists and can solve

communication problems and avoid their costs”(p. 6). Explaining why there are so many different languages present

on the online shop. 

Figure 2: a screenshoot of the online shop: https://koroshishop.com/ca

3. Contextualization

Figure 3: A street view map of its surroundings 

Figure 4: A  map street view map of its surroundings 

According to the Ministry of Town and Country Planning and Public Works of the Government of Catalonia

Contextualization is: “Landscape integration strategy based on the establishment of continuity between pre-existing

and new elements, through reference to typological, volumetric, structural and chromatic guidelines, etc”(n.d).Through this definition we explain the socioeconomic background of the landscape to be able to explain the LLs with

as much accuracy as possible.

First of all the store is located in the historic center of the city which is an area highly populated by migrant

population of up to 44,81%, while there is a 55,19% of native population present there, though the influx of people

coming and going is constant. Due to the fact that this is a very transitory  and touristic area, as it’s filled with

shops and restaurants, historically significant monuments and additionally due to the fact that it’s in between the train

station, the bus station, and the university. All of these are reasons for why the majority of establishments include

a variety of languages. Nonetheless this is one of the most impoverished areas of the city as it’s one of the

neighbourhoods with the least amount of average income of up to 2.508€, while the cost of living is higher, of

up to 2.870€ as of the fourth of March of 2026.

Secondly, in the image of the store we can see several languages. In the window display, on top of the sign of the

brand name, one can see two sentences in English, which are the motto of the brand. On the left side there is the

sentence “Life is a game” and on the right side there is the sentence “Let’s Play it”. These sentences are English due

to the impression this language has on the public eye which attracts clientele, and for a big brand is important due

to the fact that it also makes it more visible to the eyes of people from foreign territories. The advertising sign in the

door of the store says “Hasta 70%” in Spanish, due to the fact that the first word is in Spanish and the second is a

number, the people who read it would read the percentage in Spanish. And on top of the door there is a little

information sign, indicating the exit of the store “Sortida” in Catalan. Lastly, in the name sign of the store we see

the word “KORÖSHI” written in capital letters, which is an invented word with no actual meaning, whose purpose

is to attract people. 

Figure 5: Lleida neighbourhoods

Figure 6: average income per neighbourhood and living expense 

4. Methodology 

The bottom up policies found in Lleida stated by Ajuntament de Lleida (2018) argue that all the types of

public signage must be written in Catalan (Article 14). Moreover it explains that "Outside the

Catalan-speaking area, advertising should preferably be produced in a bilingual version, which is Catalan

and the language of the territory it is directed to or in Spanish"(Article 17.2, 2018).

The policy applied by the Ajuntament of Lleida for posters, banners, stickers or any other form of

propaganda states that no advertisement on municipal buildings and facilities, on landscape elements,

on urban furniture and in general on all those elements located on public roads and/or public spaces

services to citizens are allowed to be advertised unless they have an authorization of the city council(4.3). 

We chose this linguistic landscape as a sudden encounter with a shop walking through the career, catching

our attention compared to all of the shops that were around. We found it interesting the way the colours

were mixed and how they used the English with the light banners in the window display. We found it an

innovative way to promote something different from what is usually seen. After two weeks we visited

our linguistic landscape and no changes appeared. However,  we observed that there were more clients

than last time we visited it. Finally, the language used between the workers is Spanish and Catalan and

the languages used to interact with clients are Spanish and Catalan. But, in the case of foreign tourists,

they use English.

The shop is situated in the historic centre of Lleida, where the percentage of local people is higher than

the immigrant one but still maintains an equivalent balance. At the left side of our LL we can see shops

like BOU nails, Velasco, Florentino, Luque joiers, Casas gift shop and papereria and hobby. Here we see

a clear example of linguistic diversity with French, Spanish, Catalan, English in a same place as various

of the establishments mentioned are internationalised. As Cenoz and Gorter(2009) state, LL can be

connected to theories of linguistic diversity and to the economy of language research as an emerging

field.  And next to Koroshi we can see Monraba, a local on sale and NEO dermoestetica which use

catalan and English to have a more multilingual approach and follow the same advertising method to

attract customers which is plays with the language and words to gain profit. 

Figure 7

Picture taken by Claudia, Olga and Hasleby(4/3/2026)

5.Results and discussion

Figure 8: Linguistic Landscape 

Picture taken by the authors (25/02/2026)

According to the Linguistic Landscape as an agent, uses a private entity and is  interested in landscape,

which used ad  competence in its managemen (Landscape Observatory of Catalonia, 2026).The values

associated to our LL are productive, aesthetic and identity. .

Firstly, the productive value is based on the profit value and the aim to gain money. Because

it uses English as a tool for attracting customers within an  international approach. As Cenoz and

Gorter (2013) state, the signs of the place show that a specific language or languages are

available for communication, e.g. to sell products. 

Secondly the aesthetic value is represented in the catchy name from the window display.

The use of colors of yellow, white and red. makes it more appealing to the public. As it is stated

in Color Meanings (n.d.) yellow affects the logical part of the brain and stimulates the mentality

to make it more perceptive to the public. The red draws attention and the black shows contrast

between the colors to make it more sophisticated and formal. And the white is symbolized to

show cleanliness and perfection, showing a LL with balance and simplicity. Furthermore,

writing by dissociating the word from its speaker creates abstract authorship, that is, authority

helping officialdom to constitute itself and solidify its power. (Florian Coulmas,).

Thirdly the identity value is seen through the aim of the shop to innovate with clothing and

as inconformists they want to  break the rules. It follows a green wash faishon that contributes

to spending more but has better quality and is eco friendly. They follow an inclusive initiative

with the public and the workers, nowadays they have 20 nationalities in their business. And they

follow a cosmopolitan exclusive, modern and unique style. Also, it refers to the value and status

of the languages, as perceived by the members of a language group in comparison to other

languages.(Cenoz and Gorter, 2013, p.2).

The shop is a social establishment with an economic reflection within an international approach.

The use of English reflects the free access to everyone including the local people from Lleida,

immigrant people and tourists. They reflect on the economy because they aim to have international communication

based on English and Spanish. English is put as the most important one though expressive

banners with lights and highlights, showing the prestige of the languages in the commercial

sector and at the same time as a lingua franca. According to Daniel Dor in From “Englishization

to Imposed Multilingualism: Globalization, the Internet, and the Political Economy of the

Linguistic Code”  the spread of English as the lingua franca of the information age is viewed

as the linguistic counterpart to the process of economic globalization (2004).

Figure 9:  Idescat. Indicadores básicos de Cataluña. Usos lingüísticos de la población. Lengua inicial,

de identificación y habitual. 

In the case of Lleida, the city presents a multilingual context in which several languages are used in everyday communication. As can be seen in figure 9, Spanish and Catalan are the most widely used languages, spoken by 46.5% (Spanish) and 32.6% (Catalan) of the population. Apart from that, English is used only by 0.6% of the population, which shows that despite its strong presence in commercial signage, it is not commonly used as a habitual language.

On the other hand, as the image shows, there are some other minority languages spoken in the city like French, Arabic, Russian, Portuguese and Italian.

We can see how languages serve as lingua franca, for instance, in the case of Spanish and in the case of English, Arabic, Portuguese and Russian. These last languages may serve as a lingua franca in certain interactions between migrants, while others, such as Italian, for example, remain minority languages without widespread communicative role.

6. Conclusions

To conclude, the analysis of the linguistic landscape of the establishment of Koröshi in the Centre Històric in Lleida demonstrates how multilingualism serves as a commercial and communicative strategy in urban spaces. The presence of several languages, like English, Spanish and Catalan for example, reflects the sociolinguistic environment that surrounds the city and the need to address a larger audience composed of migrants, tourists and local residents. Here in this project, English accomplishes the main role as a global lingua franca and as a marketing tool to reach the international spread of the brand. Moreover, the linguistic choices of the Valencian brand reflects the utilization of Englishization, so to say, using English as an object to achieve a wide commercialisation. The use of Catalan and Spanish illustrates how the brand ensures the accessibility of the local population. 

Furthermore, the linguistic landscape presented illustrates how the commercial brands can reflect processes such as globalization, tourism, migration, the use of languages as a lingua franca and urban diversity. These multilingual elements that have been observed in the establishment not only correspond to the economic sector but also serve as a channel to show the multicultural environment of the city of Lleida. Thus, the case of Koröshi reflects that landscapes can provide valuable insights into the relationship between society, language and economic activity in urban areas.

On the whole, doing this project and being agents in this research allows us to understand another perspective of language and how the commercial field uses it in order to achieve certain goals and unlock a different point of view as linguistic students because of the multilingual and multicultural environment in which we are surrounded.

7. References

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