American Idiom in Modern German Socio-linguistic Motives

Kurth, Ernst-Norbert E.

Babel 1998 44 (3)1-16
(ReLIS:jul:oibfdn:y:1998:v:44:i:3:p:1-16)

Abstract:

Due to post-war American cultural predominance and the aggressive expansion of English as a world language, countless English loan words have entered German through pop culture, advertising, technological transfer, and media language. In the course of this process, cultural and linguistic receptiveness reinforced each other. Increasingly, English terms are taken over that do not denote new realia, but compete with existing TL terms. Many of these predatory loan words get lexicalized. Today, there is a tendency to not translate English terms for new items and phenomena, and a general fashion to use anglicisms instead of TL terms. This linguistic behaviour differs from the mere instrumental use of loan words. It involves assimilation/ submission to a foreign culture instead of assimilation of foreign words to one’s own language. Using examples from German newspapers and magazines, this paper sets out to analyse the perceptible and hidden influence of American English on modern German. It looks at the sociocultural motives governing the coinage of loan words, loan blends, and loan translations.

Keywords: Alemán ; Inglés ; Neologismos ; Anglicismos ; Traducción ; Publicidad
Pages: 1-16
Volume: 44
Year: 1998
Issue: 3

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