Preliminary communication
English Words in the Language of Croatian Media
Irena Brdar
; Maritime Studies, University of Rijeka
Abstract
English is lingua franca of today's society. The consequences of that fact are twofold. On one hand languages such as Croatian tend to restrict huge numbers of anglicizms and plain English words that are taken into Croatian, whilst on the other hand the media promotes English words daily. This paper analyses sixty Croatian texts taken from the internet to see if different sources influence the choice of English words. One group of texts, which discusses the divorce between Paul McCartney and Heather Mills, are based on English sources, hence are often direct translations. The other group of texts, originaly written in Croatian, discusses the divorce between Josip Radeljak and Vlatka Pokos, Croatian ex-couple who could be described as celebrities. The analysis shows that the first group of texts is influenced by English sources on syntax (such as usage of passive, personal pronouns, gerunds) and semantics (such as literate translations of idoms, false friends). They have somewhat more non-adapted English words than the second group of texts. Non-adapted English words in the first group were mostly connected to British culture and music, while the second group of texts used non-adapted English words either with negative connotation or due to trendiness.
Keywords
English words; language of the media; language borrowing; translation
Hrčak ID:
68617
URI
Publication date:
22.2.2011.
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