Functioning of modern borrowings in the English language: Socio-cultural and discursive dimensions

Abstract

Background/Objectives: The purpose of this article is to study the functioning of modern loans in the English language in socio-cultural and discursive dimensions. Methods: The study was conducted using the methodology of corpus linguistics by applying authentic electronic corpora of English texts of free access: To verify this hypothesis, the method of probabilistic and statistical analysis was implemented which consisted in collection, synthesis and study of statistical data on the representation of the studied language in the texts of selected electronic corpora for statistically significant period of time in space of various types of discourse. Findings: The results showed that at the present time borrowings from French, German, Spanish, African, Indian and other languages continue to emerge in the English language and are actively functioning in key areas of existence. The growth in loan words from African and Asian languages, especially from the Japanese language can be referred to a new trend in the 20th-21st centuries. The undertaken study confirms the relationship of the current stage of the borrowing process with the need to designate new concepts that native speakers of English have acquired as a result of a glimpse at the social and public life and culture of different peoples in a given period. The present study shows that the latter borrowed vocabulary functioning in English at the end of the 20th-beginning of the 21st century is referred to such spheres of existence as culture, social and political life, everyday life and the most permeable discourses in these areas are the colloquial and journalistic discourse types. Applications/Improvements: The resulting findings can serve as a theoretical and methodological basis for further studying the functional potential of modern lexical borrowings in the paradigm of anthropocentric linguistics applying modern electronic text corpora