Elena Shabliy

           Globalization has led to the status of English as a second language in the modern world. It is considered as a dominant donor language into other languages, including Russian. My paper primarily focuses on the impact of English on the vocabulary of Russian. The process of borrowings in Russian activated in the middle of the 1980s. Since then a multitude of English words has been penetrating Russian. One of the main reasons of a relatively quick penetration of foreign elements in Russian is sociopsychological aspect such as prestige and stylistic motivations (Krysin, 2002:28).
            English elements frequently appear in Russian periodicals. The aim of the present work is to determine the contribution of English loans to modern Russian language and to describe the variety of types of English borrowings. The main sources used are the Russian online newsmagazine Expert and the daily newspaper Izvestia. Besides the frequency and stylistic function, I will also discuss morphological and semantic aspects of English borrowings in press language. The use of English elements functioning in printed media is a question of significant importance since the language of press exactly mirrors the language use in a society. Periodicals such as newspapers and magazines are considered as a creative source of innovation in Russian and as the main gateways for English words (Glahn 2002:29).

References:

            Krysin, L.P. “Leksicheskoe zaimstvovanie i kal’kirovanie v russkom iazyke poslednih desiatiletij.” Voprosy iazykoznaniia 6 (2002):27-34.
            Glahn, Richard. 2002. Der Einfluss des Englischen auf gesprochene deutsche Gegenwartssprache. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
            Onysko Alexander. 2007. Anglicisms in German – Borrowing, Lexical Productivity, and Written Codeswitching. Berlin: de Gruyter.