The influence of English on German phraseology: Chapter 11. Der Elefant im Raum…

Fiedler, Sabine

doi:10.1075/z.174.16fie

In:The Anglicization of European Lexis
Edited by Cristiano Furiassi, Virginia Pulcini and Félix Rodríguez González
[Not in series 174] 2012
► pp. 239–259

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Chapter 11. Der Elefant im Raum…

The influence of English on German phraseology

Sabine Fiedler

Published online: 22 August 2012

https://doi.org/10.1075/z.174.16fie

English has become the lingua franca of the modern world. The high degree of exposure to English in popular culture and the media speeds up the pace of lexical borrowing. This article deals with the influence of English on German phraseology. It is based on the corpus of the Institut für deutsche Sprache  (COSMAS II) and a corpus of German newspaper articles, which allows comparative investigations over a period of ten years. The study reveals that English is now making an important contribution in disseminating phraseological units (used in their original form in English and as loan translations). Three criteria have been found relevant to prove their Anglo-American origin: (1) use in an English-speaking context (including translations), (2) explicit metacommunicative signalling of the origin and (3) variability of form.

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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.