Centripetal and centrifugal interconnection on hotel and restaurant linguistic landscape of Bali, Indonesia

Abstract

The existence of foreign languages, Indonesian-the national language, and Balinese-the local language, on public signs of hotels and restaurants in Bali indexes the interconnection between the centrifugal and centripetal force of the multilingual situation. This study aims to map and analyze the language distribution and the interconnection between centripetal and centrifugal forces on the hotel and restaurant commercial signs in three Bali tourist sites: Candidasa, Ubud, and Lovina. Interview and observation method with photograph-taking technique were implemented to gather the data. Four hundred and twenty-six photographs of the hotel and restaurant public signs were captured for the study subjects. The data were presented using linguistic landscape design on language distribution (monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual) and then to be analyzed using Bakhtin’s theory on centripetal and centrifugal forces. The findings revealed that English dominated other languages in monolingual signs that indexes centrifugalism. The interconnection exists in bilingual and multilingual signs. Hotels and restaurants of various types put Indonesian and Balinese words on their signs, along with the massive use of English. The interconnection is scrutinized through three layers of analysis; multimodality, signage relation to social emplacement, and indexicality levels. The mixture of fixed centralizing and fluid decentralizing force on the signs seems unavoidable because of linguistic and semiotic commodification and political reasons. Further, it manifests glocalization, which combines international, national, and Balinese local identities.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Linguistic landscape
• interconnection
• centripetal
• centrifugal
• Balinese
• Indonesian

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

This article explores the interconnection between the centralizing and decentralizing forces on language policy and practice on the hotel and restaurant public signs in three tourist sites in Bali. It is achieved by using a mixed-method approach. Indonesian as the national language represents language centralization, while Balinese and foreign languages represent decentralization. Both sides are used on the business public signs to combine political and business purposes. From a language policy point of view, the use of Indonesian is promoted by national and local governments. At the same time, the local government promotes using the Balinese language, especially the script, so the local one plays double roles as centralizing and decentralizing actors. From the business point of view, the language choice indicates the business’s target market, commodification and glocalization of certain languages.

1. Introduction

The language choice of public signs for commercial orientation is not always in line with the language choice for language protection and preservation (Zaini et al., 2021). The contradiction happens due to the different ideologies underlying both orientations; commercial versus national and local ideology. This notion is supported by Lotherington (2013), in which languages are not perceived equally in social interaction; the language with high status tends to be dominantly used and learnt in society. In the context of Balinese tourist places, it influences the locals’ language preference for business communication (Artawa & Sartini, 2019).

Foreign languages, commonly English, are essential in supporting Balinese tourism because it is the means of communication between the local population and the guests (Malini et al., 2017). According to the Central Bureau of Statistics of Bali Province, the visit of foreign visitors in Bali in 2019 reached 6.275.210 people. The development of accommodation facilities such as hotels and restaurants supports the vast growth of tourism. In 2019, there were 265 star hotels, 2005 medium hotels, 3103 budget hotels, and 2864 restaurants (Bali Tourism Board, 2019). Those accommodation infrastructures are spread in tourist places in different parts of Bali. Every establishment has its name and signboards to be easily recognized by outsiders, especially tourists.

National and local regulations manage the language choice of the public signs in Bali. At the national level, the language law of the Indonesian Republic number 24 year 2009 regulates that the Indonesian language is compulsorily used for the names of public facilities or infrastructure owned by Indonesian citizens or those with Indonesian legal entities. The names may also use local or foreign languages to maintain historical, cultural, customs, tradition, or religious values. After the language law, Presidential Regulation number 63 year 2019 was released to manage the use of the national language, which strengthened the implementation of the language law number 24 year 2009. On the other hand, at the provincial level, protecting the Balinese language is also an emerging issue with the issuance of Bali Governor Regulation number 80 year 2018. It clearly states that Balinese script must be placed at the top position above Roman script on the name boards of Hindu temples, customary organizations, public buildings, government institutions, private institutions, streets, tourist infrastructure, and other public facilities. Bali Governor Regulation is based on the amended constitution of the Republic of Indonesia 1945 Article 32 Section 1 that the country respects and maintains the local language as the asset of national culture (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Republik Indonesia, 2016). The goals between business-oriented private signage and the government’s local and national language policy are contradictory. The former intends to obtain profit, and the latter is for promoting the political ideology of the nation-state, preserving linguistic purity, creating linguistic hierarchies, leading to practices of marginalizing and excluding groups, violations of individual rights and undemocratic practices (Shohamy, 2006).

From a linguistic landscape (henceforth abbreviated as LL) framework, this phenomenon makes the language choice of public signs all over Bali heterogeneous. The wide-spread use of English seems irrelevant to Indonesian language regulations that require the dominant use of Indonesian (Foster & Welsh, 2021). English is considered popular in the LL of Bali due to its economic value (Artawa & Sartini, 2019; Sahril et al., 2019). Bali is an international tourist destination, so English is the most often used medium of business communication, especially those related to the tourism industry. Consequently, Balinese as the local language and Indonesian as the national language are often placed as complementary elements on the signs (Mulyawan, 2021). Public signs may be top-down (government) or bottom-up (commercial and other unofficial signs) (Ben-Rafael et al., 2006). Private companies usually own bottom-up signs. Many bottom-up signs in the tourist areas of Bali belong to hotels and restaurants. The signs are one of the companies’ instruments to gain profit, so the most effective language tends to be used on their public signs.

LL studies on the use of English and local languages on the signs, have been conducted in various countries. The existence of English, either in monolingual or bilingual and multilingual combination with domestic languages on the signs is prominent in the cityscape of various countries representing a high level of economic status and prestige of business (see Artawa et al., 2020; Coluzzi, 2016; Paramarta et al., 2022; Rowland, 2016; Zhang & Chan, 2017). The contacts between English and domestic languages raise the interconnection between the national language policy and profit-oriented practice. Foster and Welsh (2021) investigated the presence of English and Indonesian on the signs in Balikpapan City, East Kalimantan, Indonesia, and Tamtomo and Goebel (2022) conducted their research in Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia. Their focus was on the Bakhtinian heteroglossia, which included the simultaneous forms or signs and, second, the tensions among those signs viewed from sociohistorical aspects. The tension includes a centripetal (centralizing) force that unites the languages into one standard national language and a centrifugal (decentralizing) force that accommodates the existence of local or non-national languages (Bailey, 2012; Busch, 2014). They found that English and local languages represent centrifugalism, and Indonesian represents centripetalism. Both forces frequently exist in signs made by government and private parties as the representation of the blurring zone of the two forces (Foster & Welsh, 2021).

Learning from those findings, the contact of English with local languages exists in all research sites. The investigation of the interconnection between centripetal and centrifugal forces is still confined to signs made by government and private parties which target mainly local readers. Further research concerning the interconnection between the two forces on signs that target foreigners in the Indonesian area is still limited in number. Especially in Bali, the national and local government utilize their power to strengthen the position of national and local languages in the tight competition with English commodification (Mulyawan, 2021). However, the policy implementation may be varied in some parts of Bali. Most LL research in Bali was conducted in Kuta and Denpasar, the central urban areas of Bali. The comprehensive literature search shows that other tourist sites in Bali have received little attention. In addition, the LL research was predominantly on language contestation and local language preservation (see Mulyawan et al., 2022; Paramarta, 2022; Purnawati et al., 2022). For obtaining a more extended picture of LL in Bali, this study was conducted at Candidasa (in east Bali), Ubud (in central Bali), and Lovina (in north Bali). Those three research sites are the main tourist destinations of Bali outside Kuta, which LL researchers rarely explore. The research questions of this study are:

1. What is the language distribution on the hotel and restaurant public signs in Candidasa, Ubud, and Lovina tourist areas?

2. How is the interconnection between centripetal and centrifugal forces indexed on the LL of hotels and restaurants in the three areas?

The study aims, first, to map the language distribution on the monolingual, bilingual and multilingual signs. It is intended to obtain a general view of the actualization of centripetal and centrifugal forces in the three research sites. The second aim is to analyze the interconnection of the two forces on the signs as the result of the combination between language policy and economic purposes. The result of the study is expected to enrich the LL body of knowledge. It may also become an essential input for the tourism business practitioners and the government in accommodating business and political aspects on the public signs.

2. Theoretical framework

2.1. Linguistic landscape

LL concerns the study of “the visibility and salience of language on government and private signs in a specific territory or region” (Landry & Bourhis, 1997, p. 23). LL research may cover various topics such as “identity, language policy, multilingualism, and the existence of English with an interdisciplinary analysis of semiotics, linguistics, and sociolinguistics” (Peng et al., 2022, p. 352). The coverage, which is not confined to the linguistic aspect of the public signs but expands to the non-linguistics aspects, makes some linguists use the term semiotic landscape to refer to such analysis (Goebel, 2020; Jaworski & Thurlow, 2010). Jaworski and Thurlow (2010), following the notion proposed by Scollon and Scollon (2003), argue that public signs contain written language that is connected to the place where they are installed, so “the combination with other discursive modalities (image, nonverbal elements, architecture and the environment) is unavoidable” (Jaworski & Thurlow, 2010, p. 2). Consequently, the LL analysis becomes more comprehensive and holistic by combining linguistic and semiotic elements of the signs.

Malinowski (2015, p. 95) synthesizes Lefebvre’s (1991) and Trumper-Hecht’s (2010) views on spaces through “a triadic paradigm which explores the multiple meaning of LL by considering three interconnecting aspects; conceived, perceived, and lived spaces”. It is clarified that “conceived space refers to the concept of LL that is constructed and developed from the regulations issued by the authority as the actor of top-down language policy, local mandates, and local development plans” (Malinowski, 2015, p. 106). Language policy is a mechanism made by the authority to regulate, manage, and manipulate the language to actualize the ideology explicitly or implicitly (Shohamy, 2006). Afterwards, perceived space refers to the actual presentation of public signs in a certain territory which can be observed and photographed (Trumper-Hecht, 2010). In perceived space, sign makers must consider government regulations and their goals in making the signs. Conceived and perceived space reflects the meeting point of the top-down LL actors (government) and the bottom-up LL actors (non-government) in which the negotiation between centralization and decentralization ideology happened (Shohamy, 2015). Centralization is emblemed with the use of the national language, and decentralization is related to the use of local and international languages (Bailey, 2012). In Indonesian context, Indonesian is the national language that unites approximately 700 local languages spread in thirty-eight provinces all over the country (Sakhiyya, 2020). The third element is “lived space” which refers to the sign readers’ views and experience of the LL around their community (Trumper-Hecht, 2010). The sign readers may perceive the linguistic and semiotic elements of the public signs differently based on their cultural backgrounds, life trajectories, and experiences. Concerning the language used on the signs, lived space is usually revealed through the sign readers’ language attitude (Li & Wei, 2022).

2.2. Centripetal and centrifugal forces on public signs

The centripetal and centrifugal forces on public signs are the essential elements of dialogism proposed by Bakhtin (1981). The two contradictive but interrelated forces form the LL of a certain territory. Bakhtin (1981, p. 271) views “language as a system of utterances which are ‘ideologically saturated’ rather than ‘an abstract grammatical system’”. The centripetal force refers to the pull toward a centralized standard of language. Centrifugal refers to the push towards local and international languages, considered the non-standard form of language (Bailey, 2012). The two forces may create social tension in the national and local ideology as the main concern of a term called heteroglossia (Bailey, 2012). The recent phenomenon shows the massive centrifugal influence due to globalization (Tamtomo & Goebel, 2022). It is realized with “increased economic and political interaction in capitalism ideology, international human mobility, mediatization, and transnational flow of information, ideas and ideologies” (Jaworski & Thurlow, 2010, p. 1). At the local level, there is an essential effort to internationalize the local language for instrumental and symbolical functions, termed glocalization (Mulyawan, 2017). It also contributes to strengthening the centrifugal force in recent times.

Tamtomo and Goebel (2022) see the two forces not from the tension point of view but from the interconnection of centripetal and centrifugal forces, which are inseparable and support each other. The interconnection is relevant to Bakhtin’s “borrowed voiced” concept, which means that a person’s language is always influenced by the language of others (Young, 2020). “borrowed voiced” is more visible in a multilingual situation where the community members are exposed to various languages. They need to make themselves heard by other members of the community, therefore borrowing others’ language is one of the strategies (Blommaert, 2005). Bakhtin’s concept is also related to identity construction, in which using a language is related to the language ownership sense of the people (Young, 2020). “One is identified as a member of a speech community with some indicators, one of them is his/her ability to speak a particular language” (Edwards, 2009, p. 248). Apart from its function as a means of communication, a language is symbolic and emblemed to the construction and maintenance of the groupness of a speech community (Edwards, 2009). In the context of LL, certain languages on the signs are the indexation of particular groups related to ethics, religion, and national identity (Coluzzi, 2016). In addition to languages viewed as the index of ethnic groups, places and identities, “languages are also linked with skill, choice, and added value” (Burdick, 2012, p. 10). In the business area, the notion leads to “the commodification of languages that are related to 1) market saturation (stagnant marketing after massive offering to consumers), 2) market expansion, 3) distinct symbolic value to increase selling, 4) the growth of global production network, and 5) production flexibility” (Duchene & Heller, 2012, pp. 8–9). Those ideas are also related to glocalization in marketing, in which the local language becomes a part of marketing due to its symbolic value for increasing sales (Mulyawan, 2017).

2.3. Multimodal and indexical analysis of public signs

A multimodal and indexical analysis is a comprehensive way to scrutinize the linguistic and semiotic elements of public signs, which covers three layers of analysis; multimodal, emplacement, and indexicality (Tamtomo & Goebel, 2022). The first layer focuses on the signs’ physical presence, including multimodal elements such as the language and orthographic presentation, images, and writing designs (Huebner, 2009). One of the theories related to this notion is the composition theory which is a part of the grammar of visual design coined by Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006). It comprises three interconnected elements: “information values, salience, and framing” (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006, p. 177). “Information value covers the arrangement of signs’ elements from left to right (given and new information), top to bottom (ideal and real), and center to margin (important and less important). Salience refers to the sign makers’ efforts to give stronger emphasis to certain parts of the signs. It may be in the form of foreground and background, size difference, color contrasts or sharpness. Framing is the existence of framing markers (imaginary or real lines) to connect or disconnect the image components, reflecting that inclusion or exclusion of the elements on the signs” (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006, p. 177).

The second layer of analysis is about interpreting interpersonal distances, which are realized through the placement of the signs (Tamtomo & Goebel, 2022). It is an essential element of the discourses in place theory proposed by Scollon and Scollon (2003). “Interpersonal distances, under interaction order, are classified based on Hall’s work into intimate (touch to 46 cm), personal (46 cm to 1.2 m), social (1.2 m to 3.6 m) and public distance (3.6 m to 7.6 m)” (Scollon & Scollon, 2003, p. 53). Distance differences index the interpersonal relationship that the sign makers intend to achieve. The close signs to the readers tend to utilize linguistic and semiotic aspects that represent the local and immediate interaction and transaction (Stroud & Mpendukana, 2010). On the other hand, the signs placed high above the ground represent the mixture of local and international interaction (Stroud & Mpendukana, 2010).

The third layer of the analysis is the indexicality of languages on the signs (Tamtomo & Goebel, 2022). It covers the presence of the languages as symbols of political, economic, and social elements adopted by the sign makers. The language used on the signs may become an index of where it is placed, association with certain community groups, geopolitical symbolization or sociocultural indexation (Scollon & Scollon, 2003). Tamtomo and Goebel (2022) state that linguistic and non-linguistic signs convey certain interpretation, which is determined by the associations of the signs from social context and language ideologies and characterized by the centralization and decentralization forces.

3. Previous studies on centripetal and centrifugal forces on public signs

The recent LL studies related to centripetal and centrifugal forces on outdoor signs concentrate on the top-down and bottom-up signs intended mostly for domestic readers. Foster and Welsh (2021) investigated the realization of both forces on the outdoor signs on the main street in Balikpapan, Indonesia. They found that Indonesian as the index of centripetalism and English as the index of centripetalism dominated the languages used on the outdoor signs. On the other hand, local languages, as the index of centrifugalism, were absent on the signs. This research adopted the heteroglossia point of view in which the two forces were considered the source of tensions. Between the tension that yielded national and global identity, the blurring area was an intersection of the two forces. Another related research was conducted by Tamtomo and Goebel (2022) in Semarang, Indonesia. Unlike Foster and Welsh (2021), they viewed heteroglossia from a dialogism point of view. They considered that the two forces are not the source of tension but are closely interrelated each other. They revealed that in the Indonesian context, the government, as the actor of centripetal force, combines the use of national, local, and international languages on their public signs, which supports the idea of interconnection between the two forces. The interconnection was analyzed from three layers, namely multimodal presentation analysis that covers the linguistic and non-linguistic presentation of the signs, the relation of the signs with the social semiotic aspects, and the interpretation of the signs and the social context.

The LL research on centralized and decentralized language presentation on outdoor signs expanded the focus on various topics: identity contestation, language commodification, and language policy implementation on outdoor signs. The investigations on LL of Andalusian and Leipzig revealed that Arabic as the minority language becomes the identity marker of the Muslim community in the two cities (Said & Rohmah, 2018; Yusuf et al., 2022). They also found that Arabic was used for commercial purposes which supported the raise of multilingualism. In Leipzig, Arabic is combined with German and English while in Andalusia, it exists amidst the wide-spread of Spanish. Yusuf et al. (2022) used the term commodification of Arabic for selling products. The word “halal” was most often used for arabicizing some German terms for business purposes. Coluzzi (2016) identified the indexation of languages on the LL of Brunei Darussalam in a more detailed version. He found that English indexed lingua franca for various ethnicities, modern languages, the language of commerce, and foreign tourists. Jawi, the local language and Arabic were related to Islam. Malay, the national language, represented nationalism, and other minority languages indexed ethnic identities. English emblemed as the language of commerce and prestige was also found to be the most dominant language over Indonesian and the local language in the LL of Kuta, Bali (Artawa & Sartini, 2019; Artawa et al., 2020). Yet, in the center of Yogyakarta’s tourist area, Malioboro, Indonesian was found to be much more dominant than English, as the target market of the place is domestic Indonesian visitors (Da Silva et al., 2021). In Bali, the local government’s support was essential in protecting the local language and scripts on public signs that made the local Balinese identity more visible on the LL of Bali (Mulyawan et al., 2022; Mulyawan, 2021). The existence of the local language and scripts presented the typical artistic local nuance to tourists who visited Bali. This situation led to the local language glocalization (Mulyawan, 2017).

4. Research method

The study adopted a convergent parallel mixed-method approach in which the quantitative and qualitative data were collected during the same data collection period (Creswell, 2014). The focus of the study was on the interconnection of the use of Indonesian, the centripetal fixed form of language, Balinese and foreign languages, the centrifugal fluid forms of languages, on the bottom-up tourist-oriented outdoor signs which belong to hotel and restaurant public signs in three locations in Bali. The quantitative approach was implemented to map the language distribution in monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual signs. It was intended to diagnose the most influential force on the signs and also to reveal the sociolinguistic situation of the area of research (Maly & Blommaert, 2019). At the same time, the qualitative approach was implemented to investigate the interconnection of centripetal and centrifugal forces through linguistic and semiotic presentations.

4.1. Research sites

Determining the research location in LL research is essential since it examines the public signs in a given geographical location (Ben-Rafael et al., 2006). The study was conducted in three tourist places in Bali: Lovina, Ubud, and Candidasa. The three locations represented the northern, central, and eastern parts of Bali Province. The first location was Lovina in Buleleng Regency, about 125 km north of Denpasar. The second location was Ubud, located at Gianyar Regency, 25 km north of Denpasar. The third location was Candidasa, located in Karangasem Regency, eastern Bali, about 50 km east of Denpasar, the capital of Bali. In Indonesian administrative division a regency is similar to a district or county. Lovina, Ubud, and Candidasa were categorized as the most popular tourist destinations in each regency and had the highest number of hotels and restaurants (Bali Tourism Board, 2019). The high number of tourist visits and accommodation facilities were related to the availability of outdoor signs required for this study. In addition, the languages used on the sign were also getting more heterogeneous. The locations of those places can be seen in Figure 1.

Figure 1. The locations of Lovina, Ubud, and Candidasa.

(Source: https://www.google.co.id/maps/@8.4229668,115.2260698,9.48z?hl=en&authuser=0)

Lovina and Candidasa are coastal tourist places with beautiful beaches. Ubud is famous as the center of tradition and culture. The local people speak Balinese as their vernacular. They mainly use the language for their daily communication and activities related to cultural and religious activities. As their national language, Indonesian is commonly used for formal administrative activities, education, national-level entertainment and mass media, and inter-ethnic communication as lingua franca (Benu et al., 2023). Due to the impact of tourism and globalization, they are also familiar with English and other foreign languages. English is also one of the main subjects at school, which make English more familiar to them (Paauw, 2009).

4.2. Data collection

The data was collected through observation methods with photographing techniques and interviews. There were 426 photographs of all hotel and restaurant public signs on the main streets of the three research sites directly captured using a digital camera. Choosing the main street was based on the area selection procedure implemented by Backhaus (2006) and Huebner (2006) in their research. The outdoor signs photographed were those placed outside the establishments, such as name boards, promotional advertisement boards on the street, and directional boards. The relation of sign placement to the readers, including the possible intended interpersonal communication and the indexation of the signs, were also observed. Afterwards, interviews with seven relevant informants were conducted. The informants were selected through purposive sampling. Purposive sampling focuses on particular individuals who are able to supply sufficient and relevant data for the study (Yin, 2016). The seven informants were selected based on their expertise and experience in the tourism business. They were a hotel general manager, two restaurant owners, and four human resources managers at hotels and restaurants for more than ten years. They were all well-informed about the process of making the outdoor signs and the related government regulations. Telephone interview technique was chosen due to the informants’ hectic schedules at work. Each interview was conducted and audio-recorded in approximately thirty minutes. The interviews were about 1) the reasons for choosing certain languages on the signs from a political, social, cultural and business point of view, 2) their perceptions and attitudes to the language choices and displays on the commercial signs (see the interview guide in the appendix). After the step, the interview data were gathered and elaborated for reaching data saturation.

4.3. Data analysis

Data on language distribution on the signs were analyzed using linguistic landscape analytical categories proposed by Backhaus (2006). First, the analysis included two aspects: languages on the signs and their combinations. The outdoor signs were grouped based on the monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual categories. The percentage of the language’s existence was counted to identify their distribution on the signs. Second, the centralization and decentralization aspects were analyzed with the centripetal and centrifugal theory proposed by Bakhtin (1981). Adapting the model of analysis implemented by Tamtomo and Goebel (2022), named multimodal and indexicality analysis, the interconnection between centripetal and centrifugal forces was levelled into three. The first level covered the multimodal elements of the signs, including orthography, designs of the texts, image presentation, layout and the multilingual aspects of the signs. In this research, the level of analysis was based on the composition theory of reading images proposed by Kress and Van Leeuwen (2006). The second level of analysis scrutinized the relationship of the signs’ placement to the readers as proposed in the geosemiotics theory by Scollon and Scollon (2003). The components of geosemiotic theory that cover the signs’ social relation are termed interpersonal distances, which were categorized into four distances, namely intimate, personal, social, and public (Scollon & Scollon, 2003, p. 46) The third level was the interpretation of the signs using indexicality theory (Scollon & Scollon, 2003). It referred to “the semiotic elements of sign, icon, index, and symbols which cannot have any independent existence” (Scollon & Scollon, 2003:vii). There is a connotative or evaluative message that reflects the interconnection between the signs and the social context, including the language ideologies (Tamtomo & Goebel, 2022).

5. Findings

5.1. Language distribution on the public signs in the three sites

The 426 photographs were described quantitatively to reveal the language distribution of the LL of Candidasa, Ubud, and Lovina. The result of the calculation is presented in Table 1. It shows that monolingual signs are most often found in Candidasa (55.3%) and Lovina (65.9). On the other hand, the monolingual type takes the second position in Ubud (46.4%), slightly lower than the number of bilingual signs (47.1%). In Candidasa and Lovina, the bilingual signs take the second position, respectively 39.7% and 32.6%. Multilingual signs are the least often found; Candidasa (4.9%), Ubud (6.5%), and Lovina (1.5%). There seems to be a significant difference between the number of multilingual signs and monolingual or bilingual signs.

Table 1. Types of signs in Candidasa, Ubud, and Lovina

Type of signs	Location
	Candidasa		Ubud		Lovina
	Number of signs	Percentage	Number of signs	Percentage	Number of signs	Percentage
Monolingual	78	55.3	72	47.1	87	65.9
Bilingual	56	39.7	71	46.4	43	32.6
Multilingual	7	4.9	10	6.5	2	1.5
Total	141	100	153	100	132	100
Grand Total	426

Regarding monolingual distribution, the signs in the three sites are similar and different in some aspects. The similarity is that English as the international language appears dominantly on the signs, followed by the national language, Indonesian. The signs are bottom-up signs made by the establishments’ owners to attract customers. There is a tendency that the site’s characteristic influences the number of bilingual and multilingual signs. Ubud, embedded in cultural tourism, tend to have more bilingual and multilingual signs than other tourist sites which are coastal sites.

The interview revealed three main reasons for the dominance of monolingual English and Indonesian signs. The first reason is the perception of business practitioners in those languages. The existence of English as the language of commerce is adopted by the sign makers who use English monolingually. Based on their experience, English is a common language spoken by most domestic and international guests. They perceived that the use of other languages was not necessary. They rarely found guests who did not understand written English, especially on the outdoor signs. The second reason was from the economic point of view, in which the language choice depends on the business’s target market. Some hotels have their fixed-target market segments. It influenced the language choice of the outdoor signs. The third reason was from a political point of view. There was no intensive government control on the language choice to make them well implemented. The only control was from the local government to reassure the existence of Balinese script on the outdoor signs. In the regulations themselves, no article stated the penalty for disobeying them. The following are the excerpts taken from the interviews that relate to the above reasons. The interview excerpts are translated from Indonesian to English.

1. “We dominantly use English in our signboards even though our target markets include Indonesian visitors. We observe that they are able to comprehend English very well. English is not a difficult language for them. … So far there is no government control on the use of Indonesian on the signs. … The use of Balinese script as regulated in Bali governor regulation number 80 year 2018 is often socialized by the regional branch of the Association of Indonesian Hotels and Restaurants. As a member of the association, we have to obey the regulation” (Tini, a human resource manager).

2. “We use Indonesian to attract domestic guests and English for international ones. The target market type is very important for deciding the language used on the signs” (Aris, a restaurant owner).

The data on the language distribution of the monolingual signs in the three locations are presented in Table 2.

Table 2. Monolingual public signs

Language	Location
	Candidasa		Ubud		Lovina
	Number of signs	Percentage	Number of signs	Percentage	Number of signs	Percentage
English	68	87.2	53	73.6	60	68.9
Indonesian	10	12.8	12	16.6	27	31
Balinese	-	-	2	2.7	-	-
Italian	-	-	3	4.2	-	-
Spanish	-	-	1	1.4	-	-
Czech	-	-	1	1.4	-	-
Total	78	100	72	100	87	100

Table 2 presents English as the most ubiquitous language on the signs in the research sites. Compared to the two sites, in Candidasa, English appears the most frequently on 68 signs (87.2%), while in Ubud, it exists on 53 signs (73.6%) and in Lovina on 60 signs (68.9%). In the second position, Indonesian becomes popular with significantly less English use on the signs. By seeing the percentage, Indonesian is the most frequently used in Lovina (31%), followed by Ubud (16.6%) and Candidasa (12.8%). Meanwhile, the difference between the three sites is that Balinese, the local language, only appears on 2 (2.7%) signs in Ubud but is absent on the signs in two other areas. Candidasa and Lovina share similar patterns of language distribution, while Ubud has more varied languages used on the outdoor signs. The informants stated that the use of languages was related to the ownership of the business (a foreign company uses the language of their origin), the type of food and service offered (product originality and quality are often related to the language used for naming them), and the type of target customers (the particular language is bonded to specific groups of customers). The examples of monolingual public signs are presented in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Examples of monolingual signs (source: the authors).

Figure 2 contains four photographs of examples of monolingual signs. Photo (1) is taken from a restaurant in Candidasa named “The Hungry Crocodile” with some main cuisines: seafood, salad, grilled food, and steak. All words used are in English. Example (2) is the name board of a Balinese food restaurant in Ubud. The name is “Bali Buda”. The word “Buda” is equivalent to the English word “Wednesday”, the restaurant’s opening day. Example (3) is a name of an Italian restaurant in Ubud named “Uno” with an Italian phrase below it “Ristorante Italiano”. The last one (4) was the name of a restaurant in Ubud, “Casa Luna”, a Spanish phrase.

After describing the language distribution on the monolingual signs, the discussion proceeds to the bilingual public signs. The data are presented in Table 2. It seems that the bilingual distribution is more varied than the monolingual presentation.

English exists in all combinations except in two combinations: Indonesian + Balinese and Balinese + Indonesian. It shows that English is the primary language for the makers of the signs. English is combined with Balinese, Indonesian, and other foreign languages in upper or lower positions. As presented in Table 3, the highest percentage of occurrence is the combination of Indonesian + English (Candidasa 30 (53.6%), Ubud 36 (50.7%), Lovina 29 (67.4%)). The second most frequent combination found is English + Indonesian, which is 14 (24.9%) in Candidasa, 11 (15.5%), and 12 (27.9%) in Lovina. Balinese + English combination appears on 8 (14.3%) signs in Candidasa, 14 (19.7% in Ubud, and 2 (4.6%) in Lovina. Indonesian + Balinese combination presents only in Candidasa on 3 (5.36%) signs and 3 (4.2%) signs in Ubud. Other combinations mostly exist in Ubud with a less significant number of occurrences. The examples of bilingual combinations are presented in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Examples of bilingual signs (source: the authors).

Table 3. Bilingual public signs

Language combinations	Location
	Candidasa		Ubud		Lovina
	Number of signs	Percentage	Number of signs	Percentage	Number of signs	Percentage
Indonesian+English	30	53.6	36	50.7	29	67.4
English+Indonesian	14	24.9	11	15.5	12	27.9
Balinese+English	8	14.3	14	19.7	2	4.6
Indonesian+Balinese	3	5.36	3	4.2	-	-
English+Italian	-	-	2	2.8	-	-
Balinese+Indonesian	-	-	1	1.4	-	-
Indian+English	1	-	-	-	-	-
Vietnamese+English	-	-	1	1.4	-	-
Mandarin+English	-	-	1	1.4	-	-
Sanskrit+English	-	-	1	1.4	-	-
Italian+English	-	-	1	1.4	-	-
Total	56	100	71	100	43	100

Figure 3 presents four examples of bilingual public signs. The first one (1) presents a combination of Indonesian + English. The phrase “puri pandan” consists of two Indonesian words; “puri”, equivalent to a royal house and “pandan”, equivalent to “pandanus”. Example (2) is the combination between English + Indonesian. The establishment’s name is in English, “Wine House & Bar”; the following information is in Indonesian. There are two Indonesian acronyms, namely “UD”, which stands for “Usaha Dagang” (literally translated into “trading company”), and “Jln”, which stands for “Jalan” (equivalent to “street”). Example (3) consists of the Balinese word “arak” (a Balinese alcoholic drink) and the English word “coffee”. The fourth Example (4) combines Italian “gelato”, English “secret”, and “natural”. Instead of using the English word “ice cream”, the sign maker used “gelato” to index the original Italian product.

Another type of public sign that belongs to hotels and restaurants in Candidasa is multilingual sign. The data on multilingual public signs are presented in Table 4.

Table 4. Multilingual public signs

Language combinations	Location
	Candidasa		Ubud		Lovina
	Number of signs	Percentage	Number of signs	Percentage	Number of signs	Percentage
English+Indonesian+Balinese	1	14.3	2	18.2	1	50
Indonesian+Mandarin+English	4	57.1	1	9.1	-	-
English+ Indonesian+Arabic	2	28.6	3	27.3	-	-
Balinese+English+Indonesian	-	-	1	9.1	1	50
English+Indonesian+Spanish	-	-	1	9.1	-	-
Indonesian+Sundanese+Arabic+English	-	-	1	9.1	-	-
Indonesian+Arabic+English			1	9.1
Indonesian+Arabic+English+Mandarin	-	-	1	9.1	-	-
Total	7	100	11	100	2	100

Multilingual public signs are the fewest in number compared to monolingual and bilingual ones. A combination of three and four languages is found on the signs. English + Indonesian+ Balinese appears in all sites; in Lovina 1 (14.3%), Ubud 2 (18.2%), and Lovina 1 (50%). Two other combinations are found in Candidasa and Ubud only, namely Indonesian + Mandarin + English (found in 4 (57.1%) signs in Candidasa, on 1 (9.1%) signs in Ubud), English + Indonesia + Arabic (on 2 (28.6%) signs in Candidasa, 3 (27.3%) in Ubud. Meanwhile, the Balinese + English+ Indonesian combination is found in 1 (9.1%) sign in Ubud and 1 (50%) in Lovina. Other four combinations are found only in Ubud namely English + Indonesian + Spanish on 1 (9.1%) sign, Indonesian + Sundanese + Arabic + English on 1 (9.1%) sign, Indonesian + Arabic + English on 1 sign (9.1%), and Indonesian + Arabic + English + Mandarin on 1 (9.1%) sign. The interview reveals that budget hotels and restaurants mostly own bilingual and multilingual outdoor signs. The owners perceive that their customers are from the middle economic class that may have a language barrier in written communication, so information in different languages is required. Another essential fact is that religious indexation emblemed with Arabic “halal label” increases the multilingualism on the outdoor signs. Muslim customers will not consume food from restaurants without the halal label on the signs. The following are the excerpts (translated from Indonesian) from the interviews that support the claims.

1. “Our customers are mostly local and international backpackers and they usually avoid expensive hotels and restaurants. The locals tend to look for restaurants that use Indonesian because they expect less expensive price compared to those that only use foreign languages. Foreign language use usually indicates expensive price. On the other hand, we also welcome foreign guests, so we also use foreign languages on our public signs” (Andi, a restaurant owner).

2. “The use of halal label is a must for Moslem restaurants. Moslem guests will only visit restaurants with the label on the public signs. The most prospective Moslem customers are Arabian guests, they never think twice about the price as long as the label exists in the restaurants” (Tini, a human resource manager).

Examples of multilingual signs are presented in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Examples of multilingual signs (source: the authors).

For multilingual signs, there are four examples presented in Figure 4. Example (1) presents a name board of Balinese+English+Indonesian combination. The word “samisami” is derived from the Balinese reduplication “sami-sami” (in English “together” or “you are welcome”). It is combined with the English “space” and followed by Indonesian “nongkrong” (in English “to hang out”), “jajan” (in English “refreshment”), and “ngopi” (in English “to enjoy some coffee”). The presence of the Balinese lexicon on the sign differs from the language choice in Balikpapan main streets in which local languages are not included on the signs (Foster & Welsh, 2021). Example (2) combines the Indonesian phrase “Majelis Ulama Indonesia” (Indonesian Ulema Council) with the Arabic word “halal” and followed with the English “burger”. The third Example (3) presents four languages, namely Indonesian “warung” (food stall), Sundanese “igelanca” (fast), Arabic “halal”, English “no MSG added” and “Indonesian home cooking”. The fourth Example (4) presents Indonesian “Warung Borneo”, Arabic “halal”, English for some types and names of food served, and Mandarin informing the names of food available in the restaurant.

The findings on the language distribution show that the centripetal and centrifugal forces in the three locations are manifested in the monolingual and non-monolingual signs. The monolingual Indonesian signage represents the centripetal force, and the centrifugal force is represented by non-Indonesian language on monolingual, bilingual and multilingual signage. In this case, the centripetal and centrifugal forces are interconnected to accommodate language policy for local and national identity without neglecting the main target of attracting customers. It shows that the owners of hotels and restaurants in the three sites could not avoid the influence of the two forces. In the research findings stated by Foster and Welsh (2021) and Tamtomo and Goebel (2022), the Indonesian government was responsible to maintain the centripetalism, but in this study, the role is also taken by the owners of the business in their bottom-up signs.

5.2. Centripetal and centrifugal interconnection on the outdoor signs

5.2.1. The hotel and restaurant nameboards: the indexation of the target market and language policy

The interconnection between the fixed centripetal and fluid centrifugal forces on the signs may be viewed from multimodality, social-placement relation, and interpretational layers (Tamtomo & Goebel, 2022). It seems that the centrifugal decentralizing force influences much on the linguistic and semiotic presentation of the signs. It differs from the outdoor signs made by the government, which represent national language centralization. The interconnection of the two forces on the signs is first depicted in figure 5

Figure 5. A nameboard of a halal food restaurant (source: the authors).

The first layer of analysis views the sign into three parts; the name of the restaurant, the halal label, and images. The restaurant’s name is in Indonesian, “Warung Ijo Ubud” (Ubud Green Food Stall). The sign maker chooses the word “warung” instead of “restaurant” to build an impression that the atmosphere of the place is casual and offers affordable prices for budget customers. In addition, the colloquial Indonesian “ijo” is used instead of the standard form “hijau” to reduce the degree of formality for being close to the customers (Foster & Welsh, 2021). The name is written on the top of the signs in bold letters. It shows that it is the prominent part of the sign as it is printed in bold letters (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006). The use of Indonesian reflects the centripetal force adopted by the sign maker. Below it, the centrifugal force is reflected by the English phrase “Indonesian home cooking” in a much smaller letter size. The position of the English phrase indicates that it is the description of the food stall that serves Indonesian cuisine. Those Indonesian and English phrases are backgrounded with green colour that is relevant to the word “ijo” (green) in the restaurant’s name.

Furthermore, there is a picture of a piece of leave as the background of the phrase “Ijo Ubud”, strengthening the linguistic message. On the middle of the name board, there is a circular decontextualized “halal” logo which the Majelis Ulama Indonesia (Indonesian Ulema Council) issues. In the inner part of the circle, there is overlapping writing in Arabic calligraphy and Roman script equivalent to “Majelis Ulama Indonesia”. There is also writing of “halal” in Arabic and Roman script. The existence of the Arabic language and script on the sign shows the centrifugal aspect of the sign. Afterwards, there are some pictures as an illustration of the cuisine served at the restaurant. Instead of writing the menu in a list, the sign maker put the pictures on the sign. The sign itself is made in circular form instead of rectangular form.

The second layer of analysis reveals the sign’s relationship with the placement and the audience. The name board is installed on the corner of the canopy on the restaurant’s porch. It is visible to readers from a distance around the restaurant’s location. It attracts prospective customers who love Indonesian halal food. It seems that the sign’s placement expects local scale interaction of the passer-by around the restaurant. The main target customers of the restaurant are Indonesian or Muslim tourists who consume halal food.

The third analysis is on the connotative meaning of the sign. The signs maker adopts commercial ideology to run the business and determine certain languages and images to include on the sign. At the same time, the sign adopts the interconnection of centripetal and centrifugal forces through the multilingual presentation of the sign. The language law no 24 year 2009 and the president regulation number 63 year 2019 supports using Indonesian and Roman script on public signs throughout Indonesia as a nationalist expression.

The sign in Figure 6 belongs to a hotel named “Ashyana Candidasa Beach Resort”. The hotel is completed with a restaurant, “Le-Zat Beach Restaurant”. The first layer analysis describes the three parts of the signs; the name board of the hotel in the top position, the restaurant in the middle, and the prohibition “dilarang parkir di depan pintu” (no parking in front of the gate) and informational sign “we’re open” and “buka” (open) in the lowest position. The name boards of the hotel and restaurant are in English and written in Roman and Balinese script. The hotel and restaurant names are also expressed fragmentarily in Mandarin using simplified Chinese script. Something creative is presented in the restaurant’s name, derived from the Indonesian “lezat” (delicious) but written into two syllables: “le” and “zat”. It imitates using the prefix “le” in French, Italian, and Spanish to give an aesthetic and international sense to the restaurant’s name, which is called writing system mimicry (Strandberg, 2020). The parking prohibition sign in red and white is fully presented in Indonesian in the lowest part. The sign is still comprehensible to foreigners due to the no parking symbol, which is internationally recognizable. After it, there is information on “open” in English in the upper position and Indonesian “buka” in the lower position. Those signs are installed permanently in front of the hotel.

Figure 6. A sign with some languages and scripts (source: the authors).

The second layer analysis concentrates on the sign in front of the hotel at eye level. It shows interpersonal communication with the people who pass by on the pavement along the main street of the tourist site. The language choice shows that the sign maker intends to address English, Mandarin, and Indonesian-speaking guests, even though Indonesian is not included in the top and middle name boards. Indonesian customers, especially those from the middle to upper economic class, are assumed to be familiar with the English writing on the boards.

The third layer analysis reveals that Balinese script is presented on the top position as regulated by the language regulation issued by the governor of Bali number 80 year 2018. It indicates that Balinese script is given a salient position as a part of Balinese artistic cultural identity. The informants stated that the salient presentation of the Balinese script on the name boards is one of the government assessment criteria in giving “Tri Hita Karana” Award. The award is a yearly basis prestigious award for tourism practitioners in Bali. The award directly supports the promotion of the hotels and restaurants because it is embedded with high quality assurance. Hence, it encourages the hotels and restaurant owners to use the Balinese script on their name boards due to the economic impact of the award. The government of Bali, in one role, is the actor of centripetal force that supports the existence of Indonesian as the national language. However, the use of the Balinese script is in line with the centrifugal force that supports language decentralization, so the local government is responsible to centripetal and centrifugal roles at once.

5.2.2. Promotional signs: offering products to pedestrians

The signage placed on the pavement in front of the hotels and restaurants contains more detailed information for prospective customers. The information is about the products offered to passers-by at an intimate, personal and social interpersonal distance. The intention of this type of signage differs from the name boards, which function as the situated signage of the premises. Figure 7 is an example of a promotional banner placed around the pavement in front of a restaurant.

Figure 7. A promotional restaurant banner depicting the types of food offered (source: the authors).

The first layer analysis views the sign into two parts; the upper and lower parts. On the top position, it depicts a smiling cartoon figure of a female chef welcoming prospective customers. Next, several modern and international payment methods can be applied at the restaurant. After the payment methods, there is information on the restaurant’s opening hours in English. The lower part presents eighteen pictures of food available at the restaurant. Each picture is completed with the food’s name in Indonesian, followed by its English name and the price. The Indonesian name is printed on the upper position, and the English words are below the Indonesian. As presented in Figure 7, “Udang Sambal” is stated in English as “Shrimp Balado”, which still adopts the Indonesian word “balado”. Mixing the English and Indonesian words is the proof of the interconnection of centripetal and centrifugal force at the phrase level. Afterwards, the presence of the pictures is essential to attract the readers to read the sign and understand the menu. Other English names of the food seem to be the result of literal word-per-word translation, which is not natural, namely “udang goreng tepung” is translated into “shrimp fried flour” [sic], “cumi sambal/asam manis” is translated into “calamari hot chilli” [sic], and “cumi goreng tepung” into “calamari fried flour” [sic]. Using bilingual names is an example of the interconnection between the fixed centralization force and the fluid decentralization force.

The second layer of the analysis reveals that the sign invites intimate, personal and social interpersonal communication between the sign maker and the customers. The sign maker intends to offer their products to passers-by by placing the sign on the pavement in front of the restaurant. Customers are commonly reluctant to enter the restaurant due to their unfamiliarity with the local cuisines and the prices. Using Indonesian with English fragments is an effort to address domestic and foreign customers. This interpersonal communication is also a strategy to win the business competition with other restaurants in the area by displaying the product to the public.

The third layer analysis identifies an effort to internationalize the local cuisines based on commercial ideology. Foreign tourists come to the restaurant’s location for various motives, one of which is to try local food. Foreign tourists unfamiliar with Indonesian cuisines may be curious about the local names; therefore, the sign makers put the Indonesian names above the English fragments. This condition simultaneously supports the existence of national identity at the international level. In addition, modern payment methods informed the top position of the signs and the food price, which is relatively costly to put aside customers from low economic levels.

6. Discussions

6.1. Language distribution on the public signs in the three sites

The findings on language distribution may be viewed from various angles, namely economic aspects, language policy, and the language perception of the sign makers. Based on the data, the most often found signage is monolingual English, followed by Indonesian monolingual signs. It indicates that the centrifugal force is more dominant over the centripetal one. The status of English as the international lingua franca makes it the most effective language choice for hotels and restaurants’ public signs. The business owners perceive that written English on public signs is not difficult for most guests. The existence of international chain hotels and restaurants also supports the massive use of monolingual English on the signs. They tend to focus on the specific international target market with high economic status. The business owners have experienced that the guests from this group are usually familiar with English due to their exposure to communication technology, frequent travel experience, high level of education, and other international language contacts. The notion is in line with “the postmodern globalized society, which is much influenced by extensive capitalism, massive human mobility, mediatization, international flow of information, ideas and ideologies” (Jaworski & Thurlow, 2010, p. 1). This finding differs from the LL of Malioboro Street, a tourist center in Yogyakarta, in which Indonesian was dominant in the area as the index of the Indonesian target market and the implementation of national language policy (Da Silva et al., 2021).

In contrast to Da Silva et al. (2021), Indonesian is the second most often found on monolingual signs in the three research sites. This signage indicates that the domestic target market is not the main target of the hotels and restaurants. The signage represents the centripetal force with the use of the national language. The use of Indonesian is related to the target market, product offered, business ownership, and the feeling of nationalism. From the target market point of view, the signage is usually owned by hotels and restaurants which expect domestic or budget tourists. The use of Indonesian is also related to the offered local products, such as Indonesian cuisines. The sign makers, commonly Indonesian, have to respect the national language and maintain it as the symbol of national identity. This practice is also found in the LL of Brunei Darussalam and Yogyakarta, where the national language is used as the index of national identity (Coluzzi, 2016; Da Silva et al., 2021). The finding is relevant to the research conducted by Mulyawan (2021) in terms popularity of English and Indonesian on monolingual signs. However, the absence of Balinese in Candidasa and Lovina makes the finding of this research different from Mulyawan’s findings in Kuta-the most popular tourist site in Bali. Kuta has become the main target of local language preservation of the local government, which has resulted in a significant increase in the use of Balinese on the signage after the issuance of the language regulation from the Governor of Bali in 2018 (Mulyawan, 2021).

The bilingual and multilingual outdoor signs are made based on target market expansion and promoting local and national identity. From the target market point of view, the hotels and restaurants intend to attract visitors from various linguistic backgrounds. The sign makers perceive that presenting the customers’ language is potential to attract them to come. They will feel appreciated because of the presentation of their native language on the signs (Edwards, 2009). The use of more than one language on the signs is also an effort to accommodate local and national identity. The names of the local and national food served in the restaurants make the use of Balinese and Indonesian languages unavoidable. Some restaurants are also bonded to certain ethnic groups or countries, for example, Chinese, Sundanese, Padang, Madurese, Borneo, Indian, and Italian restaurants. They also commodify their languages on their outdoor signs combined with English and Indonesian. Another essential consideration is the shift in the customers’ budget spending behaviour. Visitors with limited travel budgets tend to avoid international chain hotels and restaurants and often decide to visit local restaurants instead due to economic reasons. In addition, the booming of culinary tourism increases the visit of international guests to street food and local restaurants. It also improves the use of international languages in local restaurants that previously only focused on local customers. So, the number of bilingual and multilingual signage also increases.

The languages and their functions found in the three research locations show some functional similarities and differences from the LL of the neighbouring country, Brunei Darussalam, as mentioned by Coluzzi (2016). First, in the LL of Balinese hotels and restaurants, English only functions as the language of economic purposes. However, in Brunei, it is also the language of inter-ethnic communication. Second, Arabic, only found on the “halal food” labels in Bali, is a marketing strategy to differentiate Muslim restaurants from non-Muslim ones, as in Bali, the dominant religion is Hindu. The research informants confirm that the Muslim guests always consume halal food from restaurants with the label. Third, ethnic languages like Mandarin and Sundanese do not function as mediums of communication but tend to be the product identity for supporting selling, while in Brunei, Arabic and Mandarin function as the means of daily and religious communications. It confirms that the economic, social and political characters of the community in a certain territory determine the functionality of languages on the outdoor signs.

6.2. Centripetal and centrifugal interconnection on the signs

Undeniably, the use of the Indonesian language on the signs manifests centripetal force. In contrast, using the local language, English and other languages represent the centrifugal force (Foster & Welsh, 2021). In the context of language policy, the binary forces seem contradictive and often result in linguistic tension in the implementation (Bailey, 2012). However, in the context of bottom-up LL for business, the tension is often excluded, resulting in the language combination as the indexation of the two forces’ interconnection. Basically, the language regulations are parts of the government’s instrument to centralize the language in Indonesia (Sakhiyya, 2020). However, language choice depends on the profit orientation in the LL of hotels and restaurants in the research locations, which is based on commercial ideology. One of the examples is the combined Indonesian, English and Arabic as one effective combination for attracting various target customers. Combining Arabic on the halal label with the domestic language is classified as commodifying Arabic and Muslim identity (Said & Rohmah, 2018; Yusuf et al., 2022). However, the label does not prevent national and international non-Moslem customers from buying food there. In addition, the presence of photographs of the food is like a shortcut to depict the restaurant’s menu. The sign readers who are not Indonesian will comprehend the pictures much easier than the words’ descriptions.

From the political point of view, the local government has double responsibilities; maintaining the local language as the local identity and supporting the national language as regulated by the national language regulation. The sign maker from a private company combines the fixed centripetal force with the fluid centrifugal force for informative and symbolic functions. The signboards inform the readers about the existence of the hotels and restaurants to both local and international tourists. It also supports the existence of local languages, addressing nationalist expression and juxtaposing international languages and scripts with domestic ones. “The languages used on the signs seem to have a positive connotation related to the language’s relative power and status in a sociolinguistic context, language policy, and ideologies” (Cenoz & Gorter, 2006, p. 67).

Likewise, the national and local governments seem to play distinct roles in regulating the orthographic elements on outdoor signs. The national language regulations require Roman script in the dominant position and the local script in the second position. Data show a tendency of the business owner group that obeys the national regulation and the group that follows the local regulation. For example, the Balinese script does not exist in the restaurant sign in Figure 7, contrasting with the hotel name board in Figure 6 Balinese script as the local identity is used only at the main public sign, which is regulated by the Bali governor regulation number 80 year 2018. It decreases the centrifugal force of the sign in Figure 7 The interconnection between centripetal and centrifugal force includes English and Indonesian, without the Balinese language and script. This finding is slightly different from the research published by Artawa et al. (2020) that the use of the Balinese language and script is more frequent in the Kuta Area, which is considered to have more potential for local language marginalization (Artawa & Sartini, 2019).

As the actor of centrifugalism who is relatively free from the fixed form of centralizing language, the owners of hotels and restaurants in Candidasa, Ubud, and Lovina cannot avoid English on their public signs. Commercial and public signs have existed in various parts of tourist sites for years. Firstly, they were merely signs for informative functions to the guests. Then, after the coming tourists from various cultural backgrounds, they become symbols of international-ness. The interconnection exists amidst international, national, and local identities. Foster and Welsh (2021); Tamtomo and Goebel (2022) found a similar phenomenon in the locus of their research in which the intersection or dialogic interconnection between both forces creates local and global blended identities that construct not only the LL but also semiotic representation. The capitalist ideology of commercial signs and the language preservation ideology of the government complement each other. The final decision goes to the owners of the hotels and restaurants.

Using international, national, and local languages on public signs seems to be the tourism practitioners’ effort to combine the global and local sense in their business. They realize that their customers are generally international visitors, so they depend on English in their communication. At the same time, their business is located in Bali, a province in Indonesia, so Indonesian and Balinese languages are also unavoidable. They seem to be aware that Bali is a cultural tourism destination. Maintaining the national and local language as a part of the culture is a primary effort to sustain the visit of foreign guests (Mulyawan et al., 2022). Their effort may contribute to the Indonesian and Balinese language and cultural preservation, and consequently, their business will be sustainable. From capitalism ideology, this is an indirect way to obtain prolonged profit. The use of local language and script on the signs offers a Bali-ness atmosphere to the guests, as they do not generally read them. They perceive it as an art product of Bali, which does not exist in other parts of the world. They visit Bali to witness the local culture to expand their travelling experience. Therefore, the existence of Balinese language and script becomes the symbol of glocalization (Mulyawan, 2019). The interconnection between centripetal and centrifugal force seems relevant to the spirit of glocalization. Glocalization is believed to effectively preserve culture, including the local language (Artawa & Sartini, 2019).

7. Conclusions

The language distribution may reflect the level of interconnection between centripetal and centrifugal forces on the signs of the three research sites. Candidasa and Lovina are coastal tourist areas different from Ubud, a cultural and art tourist site. The characteristic of the sites influences the use of local, national, and international languages on the signs, in which cultural tourism tends to show the local identity. English, the international lingua franca, is ubiquitous on the signs in the three tourist areas. It indicates the strong influence of centrifugalism resulting from commercial ideology adopted by business owners. In order to reach all target market customers, the hotel and restaurant owners could not avoid the centripetal force due to the Indonesian setting of their business, and often they also targeted the domestic market besides the foreign one. As a consequence, the national language, Indonesian, is also unavoidable. The combination of national, local, and international languages is viewed more as a fluid interaction than the tension between the centralization and decentralization forces.

The interconnection between the two forces is also reflected in the multimodality, interaction and interpretation levels. In the multimodality level, the signs are medium to attract customers through the use of several elements, namely involving several languages and scripts on the sign (Figures 5, 6), utilizing the religious identity (Figure 5), using language fragments (Figure 7), and using pictures as essential elements on the signs (Figures 5 and 7). Several languages contribute to the unavoidable language fluidity on the sign representing centripetal and centrifugal interconnection. The religious identity presented on the sign also shows the interface of the two forces through Indonesian and Arabic. As the other centrifugal element, the Balinese script is presented in the top position on the sign to preserve the language. Its presence is also combined multilingually with English and Indonesian. The interactional level shows that the main target of the public signs is foreign and domestic tourists by using interpersonal interaction. It is shown by placing the signs at eye level or slightly above the head. The use of English and Indonesian seems to exclude the presence of local people with low economic status. It is strengthened by sophisticated payment methods and relatively high price. The interpretation level shows that the signs made by private companies support the interconnection between the two forces. They do not view the two forces as a contradicting pair because they realize that their business is closely related to local and national culture, products, government, and customers. The result of the study may become a consideration for the local and national government in regulating the language use on public signs with the accommodation of balance centralization and decentralization frameworks. The study is only limited on the interconnection of the two forces in the area of “conceived and perceived space”. Further research needs conducting for investigating the language attitude of the locals and the customers (in the area of “lived space”) for obtaining a complete LL analysis of the three tourist sites.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received no direct funding for this research.

Notes on contributors

Ketut Artawa

Ketut Artawa, I Made Suta Paramarta, Ade Mulyanah, and Dwi Atmawati have been collaborating in investigating the multilingualism phenomenon on public signs in Bali, Indonesia. Ketut Artawa is a professor in Linguistics and is currently the head of the Linguistics Doctoral Study Program at Udayana University, Bali, Indonesia. I Made Suta Paramarta is an associate professor at the Foreign Languages Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha, Bali, Indonesia. Ade Mulyanah and Dwi Atmawati are Linguistics researchers at the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN) of Indonesia. Their research mainly concentrates on the linguistic landscape of Bali tourist sites, namely Kuta, the center or tourist place, Sanur, Nusa Dua, Denpasar, Ubud, Candidasa, and Lovina. Under the linguistic landscape framework, the investigation ranges from language contestation, identity, local language preservation, language policy and human mobility.

Appendix

Interview Guide [translated from Indonesian]

Research Project: Centripetal and Centrifugal Interconnection on Hotel and Restaurant Linguistic Landscape of Bali, Indonesia

Date : … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … . … .

Place : … … … … … … … … … . … … … … … … . … … .

Interviewer : … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … . … .

Interviewee : … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … . … .

Position of interviewee: … … … … … … … … … … … … … …

Project description: The research focuses on the language and script choice of the public signs of hotels and restaurants in Lovina, Ubud, and Candidasa. It aims at 1) mapping the language choices and their distribution (monolingual, bilingual, multilingual) on the hotels and restaurants’ public signs in the three sites; 2) analyzing the interconnection of the centralization and decentralization forces (national versus local and foreign languages) on hotel and restaurant signboards in the areas.

Questions:

1. What languages and scripts are used on the public signs of your hotel or restaurant?

2. What are the reasons for choosing the languages viewed from a language policy perspective? (guide the interviewee with the following topics):

• • Their knowledge of national and provincial language regulations

• • The socialization of the language regulations

• • The impacts of disobeying the regulations

• • The benefits for the company in implementing the language regulations

• 3. What socio-cultural reasons are underlying the language and script choice?

• 4. What economic benefits do you get from the language and script choice?

• 5. Are there any other reasons?

• 6. What is the most appropriate language used on the signs viewed from a business standpoint? Please explain.

• 7. What are your perceptions/attitudes regarding the existence of local, national, and international languages on commercial public signs?

We would like to thank you for your kind assistance in this project.