Translanguaging spaces as marketing strategies in the linguistic landscapes of Zambia

Abstract

We use advertising billboards and posters of three mobile telecom giants to spotlight translanguaging spaces as marketing strategies in the multilingual and multicultural landscapes of Zambia (south-central Africa). We argue that telecommunications giants deploy, in their marketing discourses, an assemblage of various semiotic resources on translanguaging spaces. Consequently, we show that this occasions a breakdown of language ideologies and blurs boundaries between languages of different sociopolitical statuses, reach and appeal, much to the benefit of telecom giants who wish to grow their subscriber base. We show how the outcome of semiotic complementarity of resources in translanguaging spaces addresses multiple actors in one design by integrating linguistic resources formerly separated by different practices and places for marketing purposes. In this way, we conclude that arising from (semiotic) creativity and defiance of expected linguistic norms, the sociolinguistics of translanguaging spaces admit both amalgamated forms and full-fledged languages in unpredictable ways, enabling telecom giants to achieve their marketing objectives.