English-Slovak language contact: the case of lexical borrowings
English-Slovak language contact: the case of lexical borrowings

Author(s): Klaudia Bednárová-Gibová
Subject(s): Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Comparative Linguistics
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: Anglicism; borrowing; economics; politics; Slovak
Summary/Abstract: This paper zeroes in on current English borrowings in the Slovak language sourced from the areas of politics and economics. The paper elucidates the philosophy of mutual language contact and gives reasons as well as consequences for the borrowing of English lexemes in the present-day globalised world. English borrowings from the Slovak news on the STV1 channel are analysed both from a quantitative and qualitative angle, leaning primarily on Haugen’s approach consisting of loanwords, loanblends and loanshifts. With respect to a qualitative analysis, heed is paid to the analysis of orthographic, morphological and lexical levels. The overall aim of the present paper is to identify current patterns of English borrowings in Slovak in the selected semantic fi elds. The paper aspires to answer the question to what extent English as a lingua franca has infl uenced the Slovak speech community and how this is refl ected in the assembled word-lore, having either a positive or negative impact. A picture of English lexical borrowings as a critical route of cultural diffusion is given.

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