Anglicisms in Europe

Book excerpt: The present volume deals with the influence of the English lexis on other European languages in various fields of discourse, social attitudes towards this phenomenon and its reflections in recent lexicographical work. It contains some of the papers read at the conference Anglicisms in Europe 2006, which took place at the University of Regensburg, Germany. It links linguistic aspects with psychological, social, political and cultural issues, tracing relationships and differences between the respective research interests and findings. Its aim is to put the influx of anglicisms into languages other than English into a wide perspective encompassing the European heterogeneity of cultures, traditions and developments. The volume is divided into four parts, which reflect the particular foci of interest in the recent research on anglicisms in the languages of Europe: I. 'Cognitive and Semantic Approaches to Anglicisms', comprising articles that deal with the cognitive, communicative and semantic motivation for contact-induced innovation; II. 'Attitudes Towards the Influx of Anglicisms', with contributions about various national attitudes towards anglicisms and their reflection in the respective languages; III. 'The Use of Anglicisms in Specialized Discourse', with articles focussing on particular practices and domains such as business, sports, the sciences, and on language varieties used in communication within particular subcultures; and IV. 'Anglicisms in Dictionaries', comprising articles that deal with the existing dictionaries of anglicisms in European languages and provide a future-oriented perspective by making suggestions and recommendations regarding future lexicographic works.