Morphological assimilation of english borrowings in modern German (based on economic discourse in 2020–2023)

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Abstract:

The article discusses the morphological assimilation of English-language loanwords in German in the early 21st century. This period is characterized by a significant change in communication technology, which has led to the emergence of new forms of communication. One manifestation of this change is the introduction of new words into the language. English, as the primary and most effective means of international communication, has become the dominant source for borrowing lexical items into other languages, including German. Due to the need to understand and characterize these new words, this article is relevant. The goal of the article is to identify the features of grammatical transformation of the latest Anglo-American loanwords in terms of gender assignment in German. A review of relevant theoretical works on this topic is also presented. The practical material for this research was selected from scientific articles on economic discourse, as the economic sphere is highly sensitive to various innovations, which are quickly reflected in the verbal level. It was noted that English language borrowings serve to enrich the lexical composition and expand the nominative base of the language, particularly in the field of economics. They can also perform additional functions. The research was conducted using methods such as morphological component analysis, transformational analysis, contextual analysis, lexical comparison and juxtaposition, and elements of statistical data processing. The results of the analysis demonstrated that the most common borrowings were nouns. The systematic analysis by gender showed that nouns were relatively evenly distributed across different generic groups. At the same time, we have identified groups of nouns that have double gender, or no gender specified in lexicographic sources. These nouns can, however, be determined either by context or according to one of the principles outlined in this article.