A lexical-semantic analysis of anglicisms in sports terminology

Anglicisms are words borrowed from the English language that are customarily used in the Serbian language; they are frequently used in the Serbian media and in everyday speech. Trying to shed light on the role and importance of anglicisms in the Serbian language, this paper places a special emphasis on the influence of anglicisms in the sphere of sports terminology. The reasons for conducting an all-encompassing analysis of sports terms are quite obvious. First of all, if we exclude the growing vocabulary pertaining to informatics, we could say that it is precisely in the sphere of sports terminology that the greatest number of anglicisms is to be found. Taking into consideration separate functions of the English language (English for special purposes, English for academic and professional purposes), the paper introduces a general classification of anglicisms, following which, providing numerous examples, it analyses the adaptation of sports terminology within the framework of the Serbian language – on the level of phonology, morphology and semantics. Finally, in order to provide a complete answer to this question, the final research encompasses the broader context of the use of linguistic means. Naturally, the broadening of lexis makes it increasingly diverse and rich on a daily basis, with new syntagms being coined in English, giving surprising results. At this moment, we do not know fully what can be accomplished with them, as their use is still being developed.