Purism and the UDASEL
Purism and the UDASEL

Summary/Abstract: These alternatives exist as a reaction to the lexical impact of English (or other languages) on Continental languages - to borrow the foreign word (with whatever formal changes), to use an existing native word and extend its meaning, and to render the English word by translating it. The paper explores the evidence for the latter policy in meeting the English challenge in sixteen European languages, distinguishing between three types of calquing: (loan) translation, rendition and creation. The data are taken from the new Usage Dictionary of Anglicisms in Selected European Languages (to be published by Oxford University Press in 1998), and the limitations of this source with regard to the problem in question are explored. Structural and political/attitudinal reasons are adduced to explain differences of purism apparent in the languages investigated. Selective provisional entries, with experimental grids, are printed in the appendix to detail the arguments and to visualize the geographic representation.

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