English loanwords: acculturation in chilean society

Abstract

The implementation of the US-inspired neoliberal economic model in Chile four decades ago and the country’s participation in the globalization process have led to fundamental societal changes. In fact, the effect of the adoption of this paradigm is reflected in several areas, including that of the use of the language. For this reason, it is interesting for linguists and translators to  find  out  the  influence  of  the  English  language  and  American  culture on Chilean society. Hence, the objectives of this study were to determine the presence of English loanwords in the press in order to describe them, determine their frequency of use and infer the causes of their adoption. To achieve  these  objectives,  English  borrowings  collected  from  newspapers between January 2003 and December 2009 were classified both manu-ally and semi-automatically. Then these Anglicisms were analyzed from the perspective of their formal characteristics, their frequency of use and the areas of knowledge to which they belonged. English loanwords were found  to  be  adopted  rather  than  adapted;  it  was  also  established  that they have a strong presence in today’s journalistic writing, specifically in economics, computer science, sports and culture. Furthermore, their use is thought to be determined by four main factors: the lack of a counterpart in Spanish, social prestige, linguistic economy and user preference. Finally, it was concluded that the English language and American culture have a significant presence in the Chilean press.