Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
open access
This thesis investigates German-English and Dutch-English codeswitching in conversations between strangers. The aim was to grasp speakers’ perceived norms towards using English in German and Dutch...Show moreThis thesis investigates German-English and Dutch-English codeswitching in conversations between strangers. The aim was to grasp speakers’ perceived norms towards using English in German and Dutch speech. In order to do so, this study draws comparisons between German and Dutch speakers’ codeswitching, as well as compares codeswitching towards strangers to previous findings on codeswitching amongst members of specific communities. The dataset consisted of spoken data from the German and Dutch version of the TV programme First Dates. Over 600 codeswitches from 74 German and 99 Dutch speakers were analysed. The analysis examined structural elements (e.g. word category) as well as semantic elements of the switch (translation equivalence). In addition to this, the analysis considered speakers’ sociolinguistic features (age, gender, etc.) to see how widespread codeswitching is amongst various speaker types. The findings include that speakers do not engage in “creative” switching (i.e. new formations regardless of standard English grammar) while communicating with strangers, in contrast to codeswitching between community members. Overall, Dutch speakers switched more often and the word categories of switches were more diverse than German speakers. This is likely due to the higher level of English exposure in the Netherlands. Moreover, accommodation in codeswitching (i.e. speakers adjust their behaviour either to emphasise similarities or emphasise differences) was correlated with whether partners wanted a second date. This suggests that speakers managed their codeswitching to moderate social distance. The use of codeswitching was not limited to specific groups (e.g. youth speakers); rather, the majority of the speakers used English expressively and functionally. These findings imply that codeswitching is generally perceived as acceptable in German and Dutch.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
closed access
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...Show moreAlthough 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.Show less
This thesis analyses the English borrowings in a corpus of Dutch original and translated cookbooks. The main purpose is to determine whether translators’ tendency to explain and clarify causes them...Show moreThis thesis analyses the English borrowings in a corpus of Dutch original and translated cookbooks. The main purpose is to determine whether translators’ tendency to explain and clarify causes them to produce translations that contain fewer anglicisms than similar original Dutch texts. The results show that the anglicisms found in the translations and original texts are similar in terms of type, function, and degree of conventionality, but the total number of anglicisms is larger for the corpus of original texts.Show less
