Publications

Publication details [#20120]

Picone, Michael D., ed. 1996. Anglicisms, Neologisms and Dynamic French. (Lingvisticae Investigationes: Supplementa 18). John Benjamins. xii + 462 pp.
Publication type
Book – edited volume
Publication language
French
ISBN
90 272 3127 3

Annotation

This comprehensive study of Anglicisms in the context of accelerated neological activity in Contemporary Metropolitan French provides detailed documentation and description of the topic and connects it with issues of general linguistic interest: the effects of technology on language, the analyticity-syntheticity controversy, the lexical contribution to language vitality, the study of compound word formation, the interplay between cultural and linguistic affectivity. By investigating the dynamics of borrowing within the larger framework of general neological productivity and by bringing to bear cognitive and pragmatic considerations, a new and broader approach to the question of Anglicisms emerges. All pertinent phenomena regarding Anglicisms in French are explored: integral borrowings, semantic calques, structural calques, the generation of pseudo-Anglicisms and hybrids, graphological and phonological phenomena. In each case, the phenomenon is investigated in the proper context of its interaction with the other pertinent neological and sociocultural developments. These include general changes in French compound word formation, modified derivational dynamics, the micro-system of pseudo-Classical morphology, historic phonological instabilities, and the pressure for more synthetic types of lexical production in relation to the terminological needs of evolving technology and society.