THE LLEIDA TIMES: INTERNATIONALISATION OF THE LOCAL BUSINESS.

THE LLEIDA TIMES: INTERNATIONALISATION OF LOCAL SERVICE BUSINESSES THROUGH ENGLISH

by Martí Monerris, Íngrid Torrent and Lluba Zolota

1. Introduction

Languages are essential for human communication and social organization. They allow people to share information and to express their identity. In multilingual landscapes, various languages coexist and interact within the same space. This often shows historical developments and patterns that have been interacting in the society. These changes and developments are studied using linguistic landscapes which “refer to the visibility and salience of languages on public and commercial signs as a given in territory or region” (Landry & Bourhis, 1997). By examining signs, posters, advertisements and other written displays in public spaces, linguistic landscape studies show how languages are used depending on their importance in each community. 

The city of Lleida, as it is a multilingual environment with lots of languages mixed, offers a considerable number of linguistic landscapes. Apart from the official languages spoken in Lleida, which are Catalan and Spanish, English has also become more common in commercial contexts as this language is linked with prestige and modernity (Cenoz & Gorter, 2009). Moreover as people from different countries live in Lleida, more languages such as Arabic, Romanian or Chinese are spoken. Subsequently, linguistic landscapes in Lleida reflect a lively interaction between local languages, global linguistic influences and foreign languages.

Our Linguistic Landscape token is a poster displayed on the window of an upcoming yoga space, which was being renovated when the picture was taken. Since the new yoga space aims at making money with this announcement (i.e. the place is a commerce), the LL token is of a commercial type. These commercial signs, which are often used to promote different businesses and products, include specific words to attract clients and to convey different meanings such as professionality, for instance. The poster is mainly monoglossic, with English appearing as the more foregrounded language alongside Catalan. These languages are used with different purposes: while English is used mostly for the branding and advertising, Catalan serves a more instrumental use. Moreover, we also find pictures and handwritten notes, which will be further analysed in section 4. These semiotic resources add meaning to the poster and affect how viewers interpret the message.

2. Contextualisation

Our LL token is located in the city of Lleida, at Carrer Pallars, 3, situated in the Centre Històric neighbourhood (see Figure 1 below). Within the neighbourhood, it is quite near the Turó de la Seu Vella and is next to the Local Police Station (see Figure 2 below). Despite being surrounded mainly by residential buildings, a few meters down the street, one finds itself in Avinguda Prat de la Riba, where we can find stores, bars, barber shops (see figures 5 and 6)… 

Figure 1. Map of the different neighbourhoods in Lleida.

Source:  https://www.gifex.com/fullsize2/2011-04-14-13453/Barrios_de_la_ciudad_de _Lerida.html

Figure 2. Street view map of our LL token.

Source: Google Maps (March 3, 2026)

The neighbourhood is a deteriorated area, with buildings in very poor condition and inhabited mainly by impoverished people. Actually, Centre Històric (Districte 1) is the third district with the highest number of immigrants (see Figure 3 below). 

Figure 3. Table showing the migrant population in each Lleida district.

Source: https://www.idescat.cat/poblacioestrangera/?b=10&geo=mun:251207

It is important to note that our LL token is in the fringe of two neighbourhoods. It is right in the delimitation between Centre Històric and Príncep de Viana-Clot (see Figure 4). Therefore, the business’ area is not as run-down as the centre housing of the neighbourhood.  

Figure 4. Close up of our LL location with regards to Lleida's neighbourhoods.

Source: https://www.gifex.com/fullsize2/2011-04-14-13453/Barrios_de_la_ciudad_de _Lerida.html

Finally, it has to be stated that the facility in which the new yoga studio is located has had many changes of businesses in the last two years. As the authors could observe, the space has transformed from a photography studio, to a place that could be rented to have some parties and celebrations, to this new yoga space. The implications behind these changes can be found in the fact that it is not a long street and, due to its location, not many people walk it; therefore, this slight affluence of people condemned the two previous businesses.

Figure 5. View of Prat de la Riba Avenue from the corner of Carrer Pallars.

Source: Picture taken by the authors (March 16, 2026).

Figure 6. View of Prat de la Riba Avenue from the corner of Carrer Pallars.

Source: Picture taken by the authors (March 16, 2026).

3. Methodology

The data-gathering procedure used an ethnographic approach. In order to properly analyse the LL token, and to control any changes it may suffer during fieldwork time, more than one visit took place. Strangely enough, the day after the first visit (which took place on February 19, 2026) the linguistic landscape had vanished. Upon taking a closer look, there could be seen the interior of the yoga studio now fully functional, with some people making use of it. Two weeks later, when the location was visited again, there was a banner and a sign indicating the name of the ioga studio: Rohé (see figure 7 below).

Figure 7: Rohé sign.

Source: Picture taken by the authors (March 16, 2026).

The third visit to the place was made on February 25. In this visit, made in the morning (around 10 a.m.), the authors could observe that there were some people making use of the yoga studio. Therefore, we could see that the establishment was now fully functional. 

The fourth and final visit was made on March 12. This time the studio was closed, with no one in it. The reason behind this was that at the time the authors visited the space (8.30 a.m.), it had not yet opened. The authors could observe that the banner in which appeared the name of the yoga studio had been taken down.

The languages that appear in the LL are also an important element to be analysed. The language policy in Catalonia, and therefore in Lleida, states that the official languages in which the public signs are written must be, at least, in Catalan, as dictated in article 32.2 of law 1/1998, which states that ‘(establishments) must have fixed banners and signs at least in Catalan’. Moreover, when using signs for advertising, the publicity must be made in Catalan and Spanish, or in the language of a specific place (e.g. Aranès, or in our case English), allowing for the use, too, of the emplacement users' languages. This is, nonetheless, not the sole way to mark the territory; all the signs – mainly the private ones – that are written by the citizens also are part of the city’s linguistic landscape (Backhaus, 2006). These private signs, however, are also obliged by the Generalitat de Catalunya (the government) to contain some Catalan in them (Gorter, 2006).

The selected LL is, therefore, considered to be a bottom-up, since it was the owners themselves who chose to make use of both Catalan (as marked by all the top-down policies) and English, the latter being nowadays a global language. As for real communication with costumers they do comply with the bilingual laws.

4. Results and discussion

In this section the focus will be on our Linguistic Landscape. We will analyse its functions, and the meanings that we can extrapolate from these. Moreover, we will relate our findings with the process of Engishisation in our city, extracting some conclusions on how and why it happens.

Figure 8. Our LL token: The Lleida Times. 

Source: Pictures taken by the authors (February 19, 2026).

According to the Landscape Observatory of Catalonia (2026) the linguistic landscapes can be assigned six different values. Our LL token, according to their classification, has high aesthetic, identity and productive values, because the design of the poster uses an appealing mutilingual and multimodal layout combining images, handwritten notes, and an elegant typography (both in Catalan and English), with expressions such as “Opening Soon”. 

The aesthetic function can be seen, mainly, through the multimodality of our token (see figure 8 above). First and foremost, the typography of the title emulates the one of the prestigious American newspaper The New York Times. Moreover, the design attempts to be akin to what could be a front page from a prestigious newspaper, with the combination of text and images. The pictures, despite not showing anything from the interior of the business, convey that the new space will be open, well-lit and comfortable. Furthermore, the combination of different font sizes (e.g. the name  of the yoga space, "Rohé", is more salient than "stay tuned"), upper case (e.g. "OPENING SOON", "EL TEU NOU OASIS DE BENESTAR"), lower case (e.g. "Febrer 2026"), a combination of upper and lower case (e.g. "This is YOURS"), bold (e.g. "OPENING SOON", "Febrer 2026"), and the cross-out of some words (e.g. This is NOT A REGULAR PILATES STUDIO) make the design more appealing. 

The productive value is reflected in the aim of the poster, which is to promote the opening of a yoga center and therefore has an economic purpose. Moreover, the English language is used to index a modern and prestigious image that helps attracts clients (Cenoz & Gorter, 2009). Not only that, but the multilingualism displayed (Catalan and English) is a tool used to create more money, and not necessarily a sign that the owners are multilingual. This aligns with Edelman and Gorter (2010), that state that a LL can speak of the interplay between the global and local economy by means of using a global language (in this case, English) into the local economy. The using of English as an advertising tool, or what is known as "advertising English" serves the owners of the yoga shop project an identity (as well as sell). Since English is being used as a tool for advertising, the owners do not expect the potential users of the space to understand everything that is written in the poster; therefore English is used as an attention gatherer, and thus understood by denotation by English readers and connotation by non-English readers. Finally, this commodification of English, and its combination with Catalan  showcases the Englishisation process in Lleida, where English is used more and more in local contexts to give that sense of modernity, cosmopolitanism, leadership and prestige as a linguistic fetish. 

Focusing on the identity value, the bilingual use/combination of English and Catalan show the existence of global and local identities in Lleida. English indexes a modern and prestigious image through the name of the "newspaper" ("The Lleida Times", which is a clear and direct reference to The New York Times) and the English expressions (e.g. "this is yours", "opening soon", stay tuned"), deliberately showing the owners' wish to reach a wider audience, such as tourists, Erasmus students, international people living in Lleida… displaying an international identity and connecting the new business with globalisation. Moreover, through the use of Catalan expressions (e.g. "el teu nou oasis de benestar", "febrer 2026"), which are used for instrumental purposes, and the fact that the newspapers' title includes the city's name (i.e. Lleida), the owners also target local populations and displaying a local identity. 

All these values elucidate how English has found its way into the local lives of the city of Lleida. This process of Englishisation responds to changes in economy, politics and demography, and shows the city's commerces hability to evolve and adapt to new linguistic realities.

5. Concluding thoughts

This project has helped us to understand the use of linguistic landscaping applied to our reality, becoming empowered to be competent observers and knowledge generators (Sayer, 2010). Observing Lleida’s different linguistic landscapes, we have noticed that the city has many different languages coexisting together. Apart from English as a language that gives power and importance to its message, we also find foreign languages (such as French, Arabic or Chinese) that have only recently been introduced in Lleida’s linguistic landscape along with the citizens that came into the city.

We also applied the linguistic concepts provided by the teacher to real-life contexts, especially sociolinguistics and pragmatics, and it has been a really interesting experience. However, the project could have been carried out over a longer period of time, which would have given us more opportunities to observe and analyse the linguistic landscape and possibly increase our learning. 

Furthermore, completing the activity through the Technology of Knowledge Acquisition (TKA) and the Technology of Empowerment and Participation (TEP) (Prego Vázquez & Zas Varela, 2018) has helped us have a clearer understanding and put in context our linguistic landscape as well as the different linguistic landscapes selected by our classmates. This proves that technology is a useful tool for teaching language courses (in this case, sociolinguistics), and particularly helps the students see how to apply the knowledge obtained in lectures into real-life situations by becoming researchers themselves.. 

We realised that Lleida is Englishised, since English is present in many aspects of our daily lives. It has become part and parcel of language repertoires in Lleida. Although Catalan and Spanish remain the languages that ought to be used by law, English has become very visible in the linguistic landscape of Lleida through LL tokens, contributing to the city’s Englishisation. 

6. References and websources

Backhaus, P. (2006). Multilingualism in Tokyo: A Look into the Linguistic Landscape. International Journal of Multilingualism, 3(1), 52–66. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790710608668385

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.

Gifex. (2011, April 14). Barrios de la ciudad de Lérida.  https://gifex.com/fullsize2/2011-04-14-13453/Barrios_de_la_ciudad_de%20_Lerida.html

Gorter, D. (2006). Introduction: The Study of the Linguistic Landscape as a New Approach to Multilingualism. International Journal of Multilingualism, 3(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790710608668382

Idealista. (n.d.). Princep de Viana-Clot, Lleida—Idealista. idealista/maps. Retrieved 6 March 2026, from https://www.idealista.com/maps/lleida/princep-de-viana-clot/

Idescat. (n.d.). Població estrangera a 1 de gener. Per districtes. Lleida. Retrieved 6 March 2026, from https://www.idescat.cat/poblacioestrangera/?b=10&geo=mun:251207

Landry, R., & Bourhis, R. Y. (1997). Linguistic Landscape and Ethnolinguistic Vitality. Journal Of Language And Social Psychology, 16(1), 23-49. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927x970161002

Law 1/1998. Departament de Presidència, Barcelona, Spain 7th January 1998.

Observatory of the Landscape of Catalonia. (2005-2026). Landscape glossary. Observatory of the Landscape of Catalonia. Retrieved, from https://www.catpaisatge.net/en/landscape-resources/landscape-glossary

Prego Vázquez, G., & Zas Varela, L. (2018). Paisaje lingüístico. Un recurso TIC-TAC-TEP para el aula. Lingue e Linguaggi, 25, 277-295. https://doi.org/10.1285/I22390359V25P277)

Sayer, P. (2010). Using the linguistic landscape as a pedagogical resource, ELT Journal, 64(2), 143–154. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccp051