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Linguistic Landscape As a Reflection of the Linguistic

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Linguistic Landscape As a Reflection of the Linguistic See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233452859 Linguistic landscape as a reflection of the linguistic and ideological conflict in the Valencian Community Article in International Journal of Multilingualism · May 2011 DOI: 10.1080/14790718.2010.550296 CITATIONS READS 36 1,532 1 author: Beatriz Lado City University of New York City - Lehman College 19 PUBLICATIONS 214 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE All content following this page was uploaded by Beatriz Lado on 08 February 2016. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. International Journal of Multilingualism Vol. 8, No. 2, May 2011, 135Á150 Linguistic landscape as a reflection of the linguistic and ideological conflict in the Valencian Community Beatriz Lado* Languages and Literatures, University of San Diego, 5998 Alcala´ Park, San Diego, CA 92110-2492, USA (Received 4 November 2009; final version received 16 December 2010) The Valencian Community is an area in Spain where Valencian, a variety of Catalan, is the co-official language along with Spanish. Differently from other bilingual areas in Spain, the unique historical circumstances that the Valencian Community underwent have led to the current linguistic and ideological conflict in the area. The historical division between Spanish versus Valencian, with Spanish being the high prestige language, was reinforced during Franco’s dictatorship. After Franco’s death, there was a slow process of language normalisation intended to reinforce the use of the local language. In Valencia, this situation was hindered by the birth of a secessionist movement claiming that Valencian and Catalan were two different languages. This ideological situation frames the language policy in Valencia and is reflected in the public space. This paper analyses 248 linguistic landscape items collected in two urban sites representing public and private institutions. The data uncover existing conflicts such as the inconsistency between institutional norms and language practices, and provide evidence of the implicit and explicit mechanisms that determine ‘de facto language policies’. Keywords: linguistic landscape; Valencia; Catalan; Valencian; minority language; linguistic and ideological conflict Introduction According to Spolsky (2004), there are three components that need to be considered when exploring the language policy of a speech community: (a) language practices (the actual languages that are spoken), (b) language beliefs or ideology, and (c) language management or intervention. Language management includes not only those explicit regulations coming from the government, but also implicit forms of language policy, such as those present in education, tests, myths, propaganda, and language in the public space. By language in the public space, Shohamy (2006) understands any language item that is found in streets, shopping centres, schools, markets, offices and other public (and often private) spaces. Shohamy argues that the presence or absence of certain languages in the public arena sends a message that reveals the centrality versus the marginality of these languages in the society. For that reason, language in the public space may be a reflection of the ideological conflicts taking place within a society that need to be considered as part of the broader view of language policy. *Email: [email protected] ISSN 1479-0718 print/ISSN 1747-7530 online # 2011 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/14790718.2010.550296 http://www.informaworld.com 136 B. Lado Linguistic landscape Linguistic landscape (LL), as mentioned by Shohamy (2006), could be one way to frame language in the public space. Landry and Bourhis (1997) defined the LL of a territory as ‘the language of public road signs, advertising billboards, street names, place names, commercial shop signs, and public signs on government buildings’ (p. 25). Landry and Bourhis also stated that LL can serve two functions: informational and symbolic. On one hand, the LL is informational when it provides details about the linguistic characteristics, territorial limits, and language boundaries of the region, thus reflecting the language or languages that are used to communicate in a community. In addition, LL may inform about the sociolinguistic composition of the language groups in a certain area, indicating its language diversity or lack thereof. On the other hand, the LL is symbolic when it reflects the value and status of the language, i.e. dominant versus subordinate, or symbolises the strength or weakness of different ethnolinguistic groups. Laundry and Bourhis (1997) also mentioned the distinction between private and government signs, which were later named as ‘bottom-up’ and ‘top-down’ signs respectively (Ben-Rafael, Shohamy, Hasan Amara, and Trumper-Hecht, 2006). Private signs are those included on storefronts and business establishments, commercial advertising on billboards, and advertising signs displayed in public transport and on private vehicles. Government signs are those used by national, regional, or municipal governments in areas such as road signs, place names, street names and inscriptions on government buildings. Both types of signs shape the LL and provide invaluable information about the sociolinguistic situation of a given region. Scollon and Scollon (2003) give a more detailed classification of discourse in urban places: (1) signs produced by official organs (municipal regulatory and infrastructural discourses), (2) commercial discourses (e.g. shop signs), and (3) transgressive discourses (i.e. signs that violate the conventional semiotics expected, e.g. graffiti). Spolsky (2009) argues that both private and government signs could be regulated ‘from above’ and that government signs could be under more or less local control. In addition, Ben-Rafael also questions whether we can still talk about bottom-up as ‘from below’ at a time in which private international corporations seem to be controlling directions ‘from above’. In any case, investigating the differences between top-down and bottom-up signs is still a good way to help reveal whether the norms behind the LL items reflect conflicting trends between public and private sectors (Ben-Rafael, 2009, p. 52). Scollon and Scollon (2003) also talk about ‘place semiotics’ in reference to the arrangement of two or more languages on a sign (code preference), and how it affects the intended message. Thus, a language can appear on the left, centre, or top of the sign when it is preferred over another language marginalised to the right, bottom, or margins of a sign. Font sizes or the use of different signs for different languages are other tactics that indicate preference. Finally, the presence or absence of languages on multilingual signs can also provide valuable information about their role in society. Reh (2004) mentions four possible types of arrangements: (1) duplicating multilingualism, in which the same text is presented in more than one language, (2) fragmentary multilingualism, in which the full information is provided in one language, but with some parts translated into one or more additional languages, (3) overlapping multilingualism, International Journal of Multilingualism 137 in which only parts of the information are repeated in at least one other language, and (4) complementary multilingualism, in which different parts of the information are provided in different languages. As mentioned by Reh (2004), by investigating the relationship between these data and the language knowledge of a certain community we can learn about ‘the social layering of the community, the relative status of the various societal segments, and the dominant cultural ideals of the community’ (p. 28). The increasing number of publications and conferences devoted to LL reveals a growing interest in the field, with many new questions being posed since the first studies were conducted. The areas under investigation have expanded, as shown in Shohamy and Gorter (2009), where theoretical perspectives and methodological concerns are presented among other considerations such as the relationship between LL and identity, awareness, or language policy. One of the areas that has received more attention is the study of the relationship between top-down and bottom-up signs. As already mentioned, this area can provide invaluable information about the sociolinguistic reality of a region. Some of the studies that have examined this issue are those by Backhaus, 2006; Ben-Rafael et al., 2006; Cenoz and Gorter, 2006; Coluzzi, 2009; Gorter, 2006; and Huebner, 2006. Ben-Rafael et al. (2006) looked into sociological theories to investigate the relationship between top-down and bottom-up signs in the context of the relation- ship between Israeli Jews, Palestinian Israelis and Palestinians in East Jerusalem. The findings revealed that the top-down signs reflect the official status of the languages (Hebrew and Arabic), and the bottom-up signs reflect both the importance of the market value, with a strong presence of English, as well as ideological and political considerations: Whereas in East Jerusalem Arabic and English are the most present languages in the LL of the area, in Israeli-Palestinian communities, Hebrew is preferred over English. In addition, the presence of Arabic is very rare in Israeli-Jewish communities, where Hebrew is the most common language, followed by English. Cenoz and Gorter (2006) compared the languages in one central shopping street in Donostia-San Sebastia´n (Basque Country) and a comparable
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