The subject of English influencing the German language has become more and more obvious in the last decades, particularly in the last few years. The Deutsche Bahn (DB) is a very graphic example for this language fashion. You buy your “Tickets” there at the “Counter” next to the “Service Point” and after you have taken the “City Night Liner”, you can rent a bike from the “Call a Bike” program after having made a short rest in the “DB Lounge”. But there occurred a lot of misunderstandings because of the new short term parking lots in front of railroad stations called “Kiss&Ride” in January 2010. So the chairman of the DB Rüdiger Grube finally decided to reduce the amount of anglicisms at the DB in February 2010. “Counters” turned again into “Schalter”, “Tickets” into “Fahrkarten”, “Call a Bike” is now called “Mietradservice der Deutschen Bahn” again, only established and well known terms like “Bahncard” and “Intercity” stayed the same.
Thus, English has obviously a huge bearing on the German language, especially in the field of facilities and advertising and, above all, on youth language. You would definitely find a lot of anglicisms in youth literature, youth magazines or youth series on TV. You only have to glance at the cover of the BRAVO: headings like “Coole Ansage an seine Hater”, “Neues Game: Star-Memory”, “Romantische Dates” or “Kuscheln im Tourbus” are not a rarity. But how does this phenomenon look for example in German highbrow newsmagazines with the average German newsmagazine readership?
To find this out, I have chosen two very popular German newsmagazines, the FOCUS and Der Spiegel since the two of them represent pretty much the German highbrow newsmagazines. I was interested in the question whether these two magazines also represent the mainstream fashion of using many anglicisms in their articles or not. As there have already been a couple of studies on this topic, especially concerning anglicisms in Der Spiegel, there is also enough comparative data to refer to. The latest work, Alexander Onysko’s “Anglicisms in German”, about anglicisms in Der Spiegel was published in 2007, so it’s really interesting to compare the results of this study with the data of this book to see possible changes or similarities.
Table of Contents
1. Anglicisms in the German Language
2. Design of the Present Study
2.1. Aim
2.2. Study Material
2.3. Method
3. Comparison of Anglicisms in Der Spiegel and the FOCUS
3.1. Quantity
3.2. Word-Classes
3.2.1. Adjectives and Adverbial Phrases
3.2.2. Verbs
3.2.3. Nouns
3.2.3.1. Types of word formation
a) Compounds
b) Initialisms
3.3. Context
4. Summary
Research Objectives and Core Topics
This study aims to quantify and analyze the presence of Anglicisms in the front-page articles of two prominent German highbrow newsmagazines, FOCUS and Der Spiegel, based on selected issues from 2011. The research seeks to determine whether these publications reflect the common trend of increasing English influence in the German language and to compare the findings against established linguistic studies.
- Quantitative analysis of Anglicisms per page in both newsmagazines.
- Categorization of borrowed terms by word classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives).
- Examination of word formation processes, specifically compounds and initialisms.
- Contextual analysis of how different editorial categories influence the frequency of borrowing.
- Comparative evaluation of language usage in highbrow journalism versus broader social trends.
Excerpt from the Book
1. Anglicisms in the German Language
The subject of English influencing the German language has become more and more obvious in the last decades, particularly in the last few years. The Deutsche Bahn (DB) is a very graphic example for this language fashion. You buy your “Tickets” there at the “Counter” next to the “Service Point” and after you have taken the “City Night Liner”, you can rent a bike from the “Call a Bike” program after having made a short rest in the “DB Lounge”. But there occurred a lot of misunderstandings because of the new short term parking lots in front of railroad stations called “Kiss&Ride” in January 2010. So the chairman of the DB Rüdiger Grube finally decided to reduce the amount of anglicisms at the DB in February 2010. “Counters” turned again into “Schalter”, “Tickets” into “Fahrkarten”, “Call a Bike” is now called “Mietradservice der Deutschen Bahn” again, only established and well known terms like “Bahncard” and “Intercity” stayed the same.
Thus, English has obviously a huge bearing on the German language, especially in the field of facilities and advertising and, above all, on youth language. You would definitely find a lot of anglicisms in youth literature, youth magazines or youth series on TV. You only have to glance at the cover of the BRAVO: headings like “Coole Ansage an seine Hater”, “Neues Game: Star-Memory”, “Romantische Dates” or “Kuscheln im Tourbus” are not a rarity. But how does this phenomenon look for example in German highbrow newsmagazines with the average German newsmagazine readership?
Summary of Chapters
1. Anglicisms in the German Language: This introductory chapter discusses the pervasive influence of English on contemporary German, using the example of Deutsche Bahn to illustrate the recent trend and subsequent pushback against excessive Anglicisms.
2. Design of the Present Study: The author details the methodological approach, including the criteria for selecting the corpus of articles from FOCUS and Der Spiegel and the dictionaries used for verification.
3. Comparison of Anglicisms in Der Spiegel and the FOCUS: This main analytical chapter presents the quantitative and qualitative findings, comparing the frequency, word classes, word formation types, and contextual factors between the two magazines.
4. Summary: The concluding chapter synthesizes the findings, confirming the hypothesis that highbrow press remains selective in its use of Anglicisms and identifying the specific factors that lead to variances between publications.
Keywords
Anglicisms, German language, newsmagazines, linguistic influence, word classes, borrowings, compounds, initialisms, highbrow press, FOCUS, Der Spiegel, language usage, neologisms, media linguistics, quantitative analysis.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core subject of this paper?
The paper examines the usage and frequency of Anglicisms within German highbrow newsmagazines, specifically comparing FOCUS and Der Spiegel.
What are the central thematic fields addressed?
The central themes include the quantitative frequency of English loanwords, the distribution of word classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives), and the impact of subject-specific terminology on language borrowing.
What is the primary research goal?
The goal is to determine the extent of English influence in selected 2011 issues of the two magazines and to analyze if highbrow media maintains a critical stance toward the adoption of Anglicisms.
Which scientific methods were utilized?
The author utilized a corpus-based quantitative analysis, scanning front-page articles from 2011, categorizing the findings, and comparing them against standard dictionaries and previous academic studies by Zürn and Onysko.
What content is covered in the main section?
The main section covers a detailed breakdown of Anglicism frequency, an analysis of word classes, a study of compound and initialism structures, and an assessment of how editorial context affects borrowing rates.
Which keywords characterize the work?
Key terms include Anglicisms, German newsmagazines, language contact, borrowing, and linguistic productivity in modern media.
Why is there a discrepancy in the number of Anglicisms found in the two magazines?
The study concludes that the difference is largely due to the varying editorial categories of the examined articles; magazines dealing with technical topics like technology and economy naturally exhibit higher rates of English loanwords.
What role does the "Duden" play in this study?
The "Duden" dictionaries are used as the benchmark to determine whether a word has become an institutionalized part of the German language or if it represents a very recent, non-assimilated borrowing.
- Quote paper
- Bakkalaureus (B.A.) Katharina Hirmer (Author), 2011, Anglicisms in the German Newsmagazines "FOCUS" and "Der Spiegel", Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/199864
