Español e italiano en el paisaje lingüístico de Milán : ¿Traducción, mediación o translanguaging

Taking as a starting point the well-known definition of Linguistic Landscape (LL) (Landry and Bourhis 1997), this paper aims at proposing a model to describe the relationship between the different languages used in the LL units which can be observed in immigration contexts. After a brief overview of Latin American immigration in Milan and a review of the different approaches in this field of research, a theoretical and methodological framework will be set up, combining different perspectives, from discourse analysis, critical sociolinguistics of globalization and social constructivism. Subsequently, the photographic data which constitutes the basis of a research project on the Milanese LL will be presented, describing the methodological approach used in collecting and analysing data. Finally, the model concerning the management of multilingualism in LL will be outlined and some examples will be discussed, in order to demonstrate its sustainability and to highlight the actors’ metapragmatic awareness (Caffi 2017). As it will be illustrated, the main modalities used to manage the contact between Italian and Spanish are translanguaging, hybridization, translation and mediation; some monolingual items in Spanish will also be considered.