Leiden University Student Repository

De Mare, Kirsten (2019)

The Dutchness of English loans: an evaluation study

Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)

Although there have been many studies looking into the integration process, likelihood and types of loans, the position of loans in the recipient language is less clear. They seem to be part of a grey area, between the lexicon and incidental language use, bordering on code-switching. Through the analysis of a Dictionary Project, a Survey Project and Language Expert Interviews, this study attempts to map the factors that influence the perceived Dutchness of English loans in Dutch and attempts to narrow the grey area that loans are part of. The results show that the Linguistic Aspects, Age and Semantics of loans most strongly influence the perceived Dutchness. Moreover, the loans should not be a niche concept or be rarely used. Subsequently, the results make it possible to create a tentative blueprint for the characteristics a loan should have to be perceived as part of Dutch, in effect slightly narrowing the grey area loans are part of.

loanwords

language contact

loan constructions

perceived Dutchness

sociolinguistics

anglicisms

Author

De Mare, Kirsten

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

Sociolinguistics

Supervisors

Smakman, Dick

ECTS Credits

30

Language

en