Home Linguistics & Semiotics Chapter 11. Der Elefant im Raum…
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

Chapter 11. Der Elefant im Raum…

The influence of English on German phraseology
  • Sabine Fiedler
View more publications by John Benjamins Publishing Company
To Publisher Page
The Anglicization of European Lexis
This chapter is in the book The Anglicization of European Lexis

Abstract

English has become the lingua franca of the modern world. The high degree of exposure to English in popular culture and the media speeds up the pace of lexical borrowing. This article deals with the influence of English on German phraseology. It is based on the corpus of the Institut für deutsche Sprache (COSMAS II) and a corpus of German newspaper articles, which allows comparative investigations over a period of ten years. The study reveals that English is now making an important contribution in disseminating phraseological units (used in their original form in English and as loan translations). Three criteria have been found relevant to prove their Anglo-American origin: (1) use in an English-speaking context (including translations), (2) explicit metacommunicative signalling of the origin and (3) variability of form.

Abstract

English has become the lingua franca of the modern world. The high degree of exposure to English in popular culture and the media speeds up the pace of lexical borrowing. This article deals with the influence of English on German phraseology. It is based on the corpus of the Institut für deutsche Sprache (COSMAS II) and a corpus of German newspaper articles, which allows comparative investigations over a period of ten years. The study reveals that English is now making an important contribution in disseminating phraseological units (used in their original form in English and as loan translations). Three criteria have been found relevant to prove their Anglo-American origin: (1) use in an English-speaking context (including translations), (2) explicit metacommunicative signalling of the origin and (3) variability of form.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Acknowledgements ix
  5. The lexical influence of English on European languages 1
  6. Section I. Exploring Anglicisms
  7. Chapter 1. Fair play to them 27
  8. Chapter 2. Proposing a pragmatic distinction for lexical Anglicisms 43
  9. Chapter 3. Investigating gender variation of English loanwords in German 65
  10. Chapter 4. The collection of Anglicisms 91
  11. Chapter 5. Semi-automatic approaches to Anglicism detection in Norwegian corpus data 111
  12. Chapter 6. Lexicographic description of recent Anglicisms in Serbian 131
  13. Chapter 7. Anglicisms in Armenian 149
  14. Section II. English-induced phraseology
  15. Chapter 8. Phraseology in flux 169
  16. Chapter 9. Multi-word loan translations and semantic borrowings from English in French journalistic discourse 199
  17. Chapter 10. Newly-coined Anglicisms in contemporary Spanish 217
  18. Chapter 11. Der Elefant im Raum… 239
  19. Chapter 12. English influence on Polish proverbial language 261
  20. Section III. Anglicisms in specialized discourse
  21. Chapter 13. English direct loans in European football lexis 281
  22. Chapter 14. Incorporation degrees of selected economics-related Anglicisms in Italian 305
  23. Chapter 15. Anglicisms in the discourse of Alitalia’s bailout in the Italian press 325
  24. Author index 343
  25. Language index 347
  26. Subject index 349
https://doi.org/10.1075/z.174.16fie

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. List of contributors vii
  4. Acknowledgements ix
  5. The lexical influence of English on European languages 1
  6. Section I. Exploring Anglicisms
  7. Chapter 1. Fair play to them 27
  8. Chapter 2. Proposing a pragmatic distinction for lexical Anglicisms 43
  9. Chapter 3. Investigating gender variation of English loanwords in German 65
  10. Chapter 4. The collection of Anglicisms 91
  11. Chapter 5. Semi-automatic approaches to Anglicism detection in Norwegian corpus data 111
  12. Chapter 6. Lexicographic description of recent Anglicisms in Serbian 131
  13. Chapter 7. Anglicisms in Armenian 149
  14. Section II. English-induced phraseology
  15. Chapter 8. Phraseology in flux 169
  16. Chapter 9. Multi-word loan translations and semantic borrowings from English in French journalistic discourse 199
  17. Chapter 10. Newly-coined Anglicisms in contemporary Spanish 217
  18. Chapter 11. Der Elefant im Raum… 239
  19. Chapter 12. English influence on Polish proverbial language 261
  20. Section III. Anglicisms in specialized discourse
  21. Chapter 13. English direct loans in European football lexis 281
  22. Chapter 14. Incorporation degrees of selected economics-related Anglicisms in Italian 305
  23. Chapter 15. Anglicisms in the discourse of Alitalia’s bailout in the Italian press 325
  24. Author index 343
  25. Language index 347
  26. Subject index 349
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 31.12.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/z.174.16fie/html
Scroll to top button