2.2. The Peculiarities of the Borrowing Process

The main fields where the number of Anglicism’s is the highest are the following: food and drink, animals, sports, clothing, economy, banking and finance, trade and measures, language and literature, medicine and science.

In order to be integrated into the borrowing language, Anglicism’s should be first adapted. The borrowed word should be analyzed from the following points: a) the orthographic level, to understand how the spelling of an English source word is adapted into the orthography of the receiving language; b) the phonological level, to explain the exact pronunciation of the Anglicism especially when it is different from the initial pronunciation; c) the morphological level (parts of speech and gender); d) the semantic level, to define which meaning of the English source word is transferred.

The pronunciation is outlined by the similarity and dissimilarity of the phonological systems of English and the receiving language:

1) if some elements of the receiving language differ from those ones of the Anglicism, its pronunciation is only partially equal to the source word: spot – Croatian: spot [spöt];

2) if the pronunciation of a source word comprises the elements absent in the sound system of the receiving language, the substitution is free: flirt –Russian: флирт [fl’irt];

3) if both systems have the equally described elements, the Anglicism is pronounced according to the norms of the receiving language: zoom [zu:m] - French: zoom [zum].

The morphology of Anglicism’s might have several variants:

1) the Anglicism preserves the suffix of the source word: farmer – Croatian: farmer;

2) the suffix of the receiving language replaces the original one: coalition – Italian: coalizione;

3) no suffix of the receiving language is added: bluff – German: bluff;

4) adaptation of verbs and adjectives usually follow the rules of the receiving language: to test – French: test-er; boycott – German: boycott-ier-en; folklore – Croatian: folklor-an; sport – Italian: sport-ivo.

As for the adaptation of gender, the following criteria are applied:

1) in substantives which denote human creatures gender is determined by their sex: barman (m.)– French: barman (m);

2) the masculine tendency (the majority of Anglicism’s are of masculine gender): magazine – French: magazine;

3) contamination: body art (n) – Italian : una body art (f), analogy with l’arte. As for the semantical meaning, Anglicism’s form the following groups: adapted words with only one meaning: beefsteak – French: bifsteck;

4) an Anglicism might expand the number of its meanings after being integrated into the receiving language: termite – French: termite (hidden, destructive work), nylon – Croatian: najlon (plastic).

In order to borrow the lexical items from English, at least some contact (lingustic, ethnic) should have been observed between one or more Anglophone countries and another group [20; p. 280]. The borrowing from English does not differ from the lexical transfer from any other language to a language-borrower. In most cases the process of borrowing involves phonetic and morphological changes of the borrowed word as a part of its adaptation to the receiving system. Sometimes the writing system of the recipient language may be totally unlike the structure of the borrowed word; in this case the alphabet of the recipient may be adapted to the words which have been borrowed. This phenomenon is common in Japanese, Arabic and Modern Hebrew, as their alphabets are different from the English Latin-based alphabet. Sometimes the borrowed words are absorbed with their English spelling and pronunciation, despite the fact that the English spelling rules are different from those of the recipient language.

Not all English borrowings reflect new objects, but may refer to familiar elements. In such cases the borrowed loan words are used as synonyms and form the basis for the creation of semantic doublets. Doublets can also be formed in the cases, when new lexemes are formed. Usually one of the doublets is used more frequently, which diminishes the role of the other one and might lead to its complete fadeaway.

With regard the borrowing of different parts of speech, it is usually nouns which are transferred. Adverbials, particles and vocatives are borrowed less frequently, sometimes replacing those of the absorbing language because of discourse preferences, for example, “OK”.

The borrowing process tends to be discriminatory because of the number of concepts in the English language. Most of the borrowed words can be divided into two categories: the sphere of economics, technology and science and the sphere of personal needs (culture, entertainment and material products). The number of English borrowings in a definite language depends on the cultural and economic development of the group it is spoken in. The more technologically and economically developed a society is, the more English borrowings can be found in its language. The change of the borrowing pattern is explained by the ideological spirit and the English language, which is associated with its native speakers and their position in the modern world.

The overall borrowing process is dependent on extralinguistic factors, such as the exposure to English words of borrowing speakers, duration of English learning at school, the contacts with the Internet, English movies, books and journals [22; p. 871]. Hence, the countries which have been in contact with English for a short time have fewer Anglicism’s in their languages than those countries where English has been present for a long time, for example, the languages of Japan and Taiwan China, where speakers of American English used to be in close contacts with the local population for a long time. These languages have witnessed the flow of the borrowings, though the tempo has varied in different periods due to governmental control. The vocabulary which is usually borrowed is formed according to the habits and needs of the recipient community. Accommodation habits, climate and the pattern of behavior are extralinguistic factors which define which lexical items are to be borrowed, as unnecessary concepts are not likely to be borrowed.

The quantity and tempo of the borrowing process are also dependent on psycholinguistic and linguistic features, such as the importance of the new items for the speakers of the borrowing language and the connection between the phonological and morphological structures of English and the language-recipient. The lack of some phonemes and differences in articulation do not prevent speakers of the borrowing language from using important words. Still, most of the borrowed words undergo the process of morphophonological adaptation which is relevant to the rules of the borrowing language. For example, the pronunciation of English /w/ causes certain difficulties for Russian and Ukrainian speakers, pushing them to the creation of easily pronounced versions of the English words [21; p. 438].

Each language has its own unique history of contacts with other languages, influenced by psycholinguistic factors (the needs of individuals) and sociolinguistic ones (the needs of communities). Thus, each language follows its personal pattern in the borrowing process, and Ukrainian language in particular.