Since the 1960´s the increase of anglicisms in the German language can be recognised and since the 1990´s it strengthened even more.
The reasons for that are obvious: It is the economical, technological, military and cultural domination of the United States and Anglo-Saxon speech communities all together.
This domination is very remarkable in the fields of media, technology and the film industry. That is why anglicisms are found especially in those fields which bring or brought technological innovations into everyday life: the information technology (computer), the service area (autoleasing), the leisure industry (Trendsportarten) and the culture of the youth (Popmusik) whose taste of music and way-of-life is coined predominant by English-speaking areas. Until now there is a large number of papers and books written about the English influence on the German language, for example Broder Carstensen, Werner Betz, Manfred Görlach, René Appel and Pieter Muysken, to name just a view.
In my paper I don´t want to write about anglicisms of the fields mentioned above.
The task of this written assignment was to analyse in what respect anglicisms appear in Greifswald´s bakeries: For this I will, first of all, define the term anglicism from a linguistic perspective, and I will give an overview of the processes of adopting words with all their distinctive and characteristic features in their formation. For this I will go into terms like loanword and foreign word. This theoretical framework will help me to analyse afterwards the practical examples which I collected from four bakeries in the inner-city of Greifswald (namely: Backfactory, De Mäklenbörger, Marckwardt and Stadtbäckerei Junge).
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Main part
2.1. Anglicisms
2.2. Classification
2.2.1. Forms of linguistic tranfer
2.2.1.1. Borrowings
2.2.1.2. Replacement
2.2.1.3. Pseudo-Loans
2.2.1.4. Other important terms
2.2.2. Linguistic levels
2.2.2.1. Pronunciation
2.2.2.2. Spelling
2.2.2.3. Morphology
2.2.2.4. Meaning
2.3. Analysis
2.3.1. Borrowings
2.3.2. Pseudo-loans
2.3.3. Other hybrid formations
2.3.4. Blendings
2.3.5. Other formations
3. Conclusion
Research Objectives and Core Themes
This paper aims to investigate the prevalence and nature of anglicisms within the culinary offerings of bakeries in Greifswald, specifically exploring how English terms are adopted, integrated, or coined to suit local marketing strategies.
- The linguistic analysis of anglicisms in German bakery product names.
- Categorization of linguistic transfer based on Manfred Görlach’s theoretical framework.
- Empirical study of thirty-one collected tokens from four specific bakeries.
- Distinction between borrowing, pseudo-loans, hybrids, and other creative formations.
- Evaluation of the impact of English influence on everyday German language and consumer perception.
Excerpt from the Book
2.3.1. Borrowings
The first group in the category of borrowings is the group of foreignisms. I found an example for this group, namely Slush. I first thought that it is a blending of the two English words snow and mush, but I could not imagine where the l is coming from. When I looked the term up in my dictionary I found the German translation Schneematsch and the English description is: “1. partially melted snow or ice; 2. watery mud” (Soanes, Stevenson 2004: 1360). The drink is colourful and made with crushed ice. The term is a foreignism for me because it refers to an object which cannot be found neither in the “Duden. Die deutsche Rechtschreibung” (1996), nor in the German-English dictionary, nor in the Görlachs dictionary of anglicisms, but in the English-English dictionary, and it is absolutely not felt to be part of the German language (original English pronunciation, spelling and morphology) . In Germany there is no word that could express this drink, so they took the English word to use it “on the spot”. It might be integrated in the following years.
Chapter Summaries
1. Introduction: Presents the historical increase of anglicisms in Germany and defines the scope of the study within Greifswald’s local bakeries.
2. Main part: Provides a comprehensive theoretical framework of linguistic transfer mechanisms and applies them to the collected empirical data.
3. Conclusion: Summarizes the findings regarding the intensity of English influence on local bakery products and discusses the future of such linguistic developments.
Keywords
Anglicisms, Linguistics, Loanwords, Borrowing, Pseudo-loans, Hybrid formations, Morphology, Semantics, Greifswald, Bakeries, Language change, Linguistic transfer, Foreignisms, Compound, Brand names
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this research paper?
The paper examines the usage and integration of English-derived terms (anglicisms) in the product assortments of four specific bakeries located in the inner city of Greifswald.
What categories of anglicisms are analyzed?
The study uses the classification by Manfred Görlach, covering borrowings (foreignisms, foreign words, loanwords), pseudo-loans, hybrid formations, and blendings.
What is the core research question?
The author investigates how and to what extent English language influences the terminology of bakery products in a German-speaking environment and how these terms are adapted or adopted.
Which scientific methodology is applied?
The author utilizes a descriptive-analytical linguistic approach, collecting thirty-one "tokens" from local businesses and analyzing them against established theoretical definitions of linguistic transfer.
What does the main part of the work cover?
The main part builds a theoretical foundation regarding the definition and history of anglicisms, followed by a detailed classification system and the subsequent empirical analysis of the data collected in the field.
Which keywords best describe the paper?
Key terms include Anglicisms, Linguistics, Loanwords, Borrowing, Pseudo-loans, Hybrid formations, and Linguistic transfer.
How does the author distinguish between "foreignisms" and "loanwords"?
Foreignisms remain unadapted (e.g., in spelling or pronunciation) and are not felt to be part of the German language, whereas loanwords are integrated into the German phonological, orthographical, or grammatical system.
What role do "pseudo-loans" play in the findings?
Pseudo-loans are items that look English but do not exist in the English language system itself; the author identifies them as creative coinages that indicate the active adaptation of English elements by German speakers.
- Arbeit zitieren
- Julia Diedrich (Autor:in), 2006, An analysis about Anglicisms collected from four bakeries in the innercity of Greifswald, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/189298
