The penetration of English words in European languages, especially from World War II onwards, has led to a form of "anglicization" of European vocabulary; however this would concern the adoption and extensive use of Anglicisms not only in the common lexicon, but especially in technical and scientific terminology, which is considered as a "sensitive target" (Gualdo-Scarpino 2007). This paper examines the presence of anglicisms in the lexicons of Italian and German. From a formal point of view, while in German morphological integration, composition and calquing are very frequent (fully described in Onysko 2007), in Italian direct and not-adapted borrowings are more common. This study does not intend to consider the phenomenon of borrowing in relation to the structural aspects of each language, but investigates cognitive semantic integration of not-adapted Anglicisms in both languages (cottage, airbags), comparing the meanings of Anglicisms in Italian and in German with the respective lexemes from which they derive. As for the semantic integration the analytical model of prototype semantics is applied (Geeraerts 1997) and examples of semantic change of Anglicisms in Italian and German are discussed, such as narrowing (dry) and widening of meaning / semantic developments (backstage), pejoration (boss) and amelioration (look), as well as false anglicisms (in It. pile, in Ger. handy).
Die Anglisierung des europäischen Wortschatzes: semantische Aspekte von Anglizismen im Italienischen und Deutschen
PULCINI, Virginia
2011-01-01
Abstract
The penetration of English words in European languages, especially from World War II onwards, has led to a form of "anglicization" of European vocabulary; however this would concern the adoption and extensive use of Anglicisms not only in the common lexicon, but especially in technical and scientific terminology, which is considered as a "sensitive target" (Gualdo-Scarpino 2007). This paper examines the presence of anglicisms in the lexicons of Italian and German. From a formal point of view, while in German morphological integration, composition and calquing are very frequent (fully described in Onysko 2007), in Italian direct and not-adapted borrowings are more common. This study does not intend to consider the phenomenon of borrowing in relation to the structural aspects of each language, but investigates cognitive semantic integration of not-adapted Anglicisms in both languages (cottage, airbags), comparing the meanings of Anglicisms in Italian and in German with the respective lexemes from which they derive. As for the semantic integration the analytical model of prototype semantics is applied (Geeraerts 1997) and examples of semantic change of Anglicisms in Italian and German are discussed, such as narrowing (dry) and widening of meaning / semantic developments (backstage), pejoration (boss) and amelioration (look), as well as false anglicisms (in It. pile, in Ger. handy).
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