English on air: Novel anglicisms in German radio language

Abstract

Abstract Traditional research on anglicisms has been undertaken in different media corpora. However, the media, both agents of globalisation and affected by globalising flows, and how they operate within global flows of messages and linguistic resources that characterise our mediatised societies have not been given sufficient attention in these studies. In addition, the German media have been repeatedly criticised for using anglicisms without explaining these, causing comprehension problems. By examining novel anglicisms on German radio from a journalistic perspective, this article shows that acknowledging journalists’ language practices gives a more detailed picture of the specific language used on air. This article includes an analysis of novel anglicisms in a self-compiled radio corpus and an examination of interview statements made by radio journalists on their use of novel anglicisms in radio content. The findings show that the claim made by previous research is rather oversimplified. Instead, a complex web of normative forces that shape how novel anglicisms are made comprehensible on radio is revealed, which includes the constraints of the medium, stylistic and journalistic genre conventions, the target audience, and the language perceptions of journalists.