A taxonomic approach to the use of English in the Italian media

Abstract

AbstractInvestigating English borrowings in Italian media, this study analyzes various uses of English in headlines of the online version of the popular Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera. It addresses the pervasiveness of English borrowings in contexts where their use does not seem motivated by necessity. The analysis disambiguates informative loans from loans of manner (as well as pseudo‐Anglicisms from integral loans) in different topic domains. Findings show that non‐specialized borrowings are especially abundant in domains where the advertising power of English is exploited, and that borrowings are often hybridized in a systematic way, adapting to Italian morphosyntax. Moreover, this study responds to language ideological debates about the alleged ‘invasion’ of English into Italian and, by taking a taxonomic approach, demonstrates that such uses of English are associated with distinct pragmatic functions within the hybridized genre of news‐as‐advertising discourse.