English semantic loans, loan translations, and loan renditions in informal Polish of computer users
English semantic loans, loan translations, and loan renditions in informal Polish of computer users

Author(s): Marcin Zabawa
Subject(s): Language studies, Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: language contacts; semantic loan; lexical tracing paper; phrase paper; corpus; specialist language; Internet language; language of internet forums; language of computer science
Summary/Abstract: It is common knowledge that Polish is under a strong influence of English nowadays. In the past, such influence was largely restricted to lexical borrowings, noticed and commented upon both by linguists, in the literature on the subject (see especially the monographs by Mańczak-Wohlfeld 1994, 1995, 2006), and by non-linguists, for instance in the popular press. Nowadays the picture is different: English continues to affect Polish at the level of lexis; however, other spheres are not free from the English influence, either. Thus, apart from lexical loans, which have already been relatively thoroughly researched, semantic borrowings, loan translations, loan renditions, and semi-calques (all of which attracted much less attention from linguists) appear with a high frequency as well. In addition, minor types of influence, manifested through the existence of syntactic and morphological loans, can also be detected; such spheres as spelling or punctuation are also under the influence of English, particularly in the more informal varieties of Polish texts. /fragment of the introduction/

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