Phraseological borrowing from English into German: Cultural and pragmatic implications

•This paper addresses pragmatic borrowing in German from a phraseological perspective - a topic that has not received much scholarly attention thus far.•The study gives an overview of phraseological borrowing from English into German and shows that this phenomenon has parallels in other European languages.•One part of the study deals in more detail with two routine formulae that have recently been imported from English and analyses their discourse-pragmatic functions in the recipient language. The two phraseological loans are Das gesagt (habend)/Nachdem ich das gesagt habe (cf. (Having) said that/this/that said/That being said) and Nice try/Netter Versuch! It is shown that the two formulae bring with them the pragmatic functions and speakers' attitudes they have in the donor language.

The spread of English as the dominant means of international communication is having an enormous impact on other languages, driven by massive lexical borrowing especially in the sciences, the media and popular culture. This phenomenon, generally associated with the term Anglicism, has been intensively investigated. However, studies have so far concentrated mainly on simple and complex words, and one aspect that has hitherto not attracted much scholarly attention is the borrowing of phraseological units, i.e. prefabricated items in the form of word-groups and sentences. The pragmatic and cultural implications of their use take centre stage in this article. These include the incorporation of discourse patterns, norms of interaction (e.g. the use of address terms and verbal and non-verbal routines), traditions (e.g. holidays) and symbols. In the majority of cases, the transfer of linguistic elements and the extra-linguistic entities or practices they refer to go hand in hand. This paper addresses pragmatic borrowing in German from a phraseological perspective. It analyses contact-induced change in the use of catchphrases and formulae and their particular functions in spoken and written communication and includes a comparative study that reveals parallel developments in other recipient languages.