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Abstract

The geographical spread of British imperialism and the emergence of the United States (US) as a superpower after World War Two enabled English to become the first global language. This dominant position of the English language has resulted in other languages assimilating anglicisms. While France’s hostility towards the influx of these English words in the French language is well documented from an official perspective, this dissertation sought to research the views of ‘ordinary’ citizens.
An online questionnaire distributed to ten French nationals in France and ten others in the UK enabled the collection and analysis of primary data in order to investigate attitudes towards anglicisms in the French language from two angles. The first angle contrasted the attitudes based on residency in France and the UK. The second angle examined the extent to which attitudes are influenced by the degree of identification as a French national, level of competence in English and exposure to anti-anglicism rhetoric.
Results suggest that, irrelevant of country of residence, French nationals mostly have quite positive feelings towards anglicisms. The study also reveals that how strongly people identify as a French national and how much they are exposed to anti-anglicism rhetoric have little impact on their perception of anglicisms. While there are signs that competence in English may have an influence, it appears that the level of integration of anglicisms, which affects their understanding, should also be taken into consideration.
In contrast with France’s long tradition of purism and anti-Americanism stance, respondents only display mild purism and do not associate anglicisms with a US domination of France. These findings, along with the generally positive views towards anglicisms observed in this study, indicate that caution should be applied about generalising the hostility towards anglicisms demonstrated by the political class and the intelligentsia to the wider French population

Course: English Language and Linguistics - BA - C2742S

Date Deposited: 2020-09-23

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13550.html