Helten

The Effects of English on German Helten

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject Sociology - Consumption and Advertising, grade: 1,0, State University of New York at Stony Brook (Linguistics), course: Sociolinguistics Seminar, 3 entries in the bibliography, language: English, comment: Double spaced. Using two issues of the popular political German magazine "Spiegel", I show the influence English has on German advertisement - reasons for making use of English, effects of using or not using English etc. Of the 114 inspected ads, an overwhelming 83 contained at least some form of English. Including the 101 English or clearly English-sounding company names (like comdirect) and product names (like Smover), a total of 348 lexical items of English could be found... , abstract: Gemanagte Dachfonds Die Office in your Pocket-Lösung Power ist nichts ohne Kontrolle To any native English speaker, the slogans above have to seem remarkable, mostly because of the obvious mix of English and German. What might be most remarkable about them, however, is the "very lack of remarkability with which they are received" (KELLY-HOLMES 67) by German consumers when they are encountered as parts of magazine advertisements. Along with numerous other examples, these three items were extracted from the acclaimed weekly German news magazine 'Der Spiegel' in order to get a clear picture of which effects English has and which role it plays in German advertisement. This paper will argue that English has an effect on virtually all of the 114 ads examined in the Spiegel issues of 4/11 and 4/18 2005, even on the ones that do not contain any English themselves. Furthermore, it will show that the effect English has on German ads extends beyond the concepts usually related with English, like technology, modernity, or science. This is a finding similar to the one suggested by MARTIN in a study on English influences on French advertisements. In her study, she also stresses that the register of advertisement is a very special one due to