Anglicisms and their Usage in the German Newspaper Die Zeit

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,0, University of Innsbruck, language: English, abstract: In order to analyse the frequency of anglicism usage in the German language, this paper analyses articles from the German newspaper Die Zeit. Media and the press, for instance, mimic the use and competence of English words in the German language among German native speakers. Therefore, analysing newspaper articles is an efficient and effective way to demonstrate the spread of anglicisms.At the beginning of this thesis there is a general explanation of anglicisms. This not only includes a definition but also further information on the different forms of anglicisms, such as direct or indirect loan influences as well as hybrid anglicisms. Moreover, it illustrates the transmission processes with its parameters and the grammar of anglicism within the German language system. Consequently, this lexical productivity is summarized, and the types of integration of anglicisms into the German lexicon are further evaluated. This is then followed by a chapter that highlights diachronic aspects of integrating English borrowings into the German language and the motives of using these. Subsequently, it provides information on the impact it has on German and the reasons why some German linguists believe their language to be endangered.The analysis in this paper encompasses a broad sample of 60 articles in total from six different news categories that were published between October 2019 and February 2020 on the online platform of the German newspaper Die Zeit. Since Second World War, the use of anglicisms in the German language has drastically increased, and thus, English words are borrowed more frequently. Nowadays, in the year 2020, one can confidently argue that nearly every German native speaker uses anglicisms in their everyday life.