The Influence of N+N English Loanwords on Romanian Morphosyntax Facilitated by Cognates

Abstract

This study examines the morphosyntactic influences of English on Romanian, through English compound loanwords of the type noun/adjective-modifier + noun-head (N/AMOD + NHEAD). Some of these loanwords undergo a transformation process in the Romanian language, which involves changing the English head with a Romanian cognate (e.g. stand-up comedy becomes stand-up comedie), but especially changing the order of the elements of the compound so that two variants coexist: NMOD + NHEAD (e.g. stand-up comedie) and NHEAD + NMOD (e.g. comedie stand-up). These variants, if interpreted as having free order, can create a new syntactic pattern with English characteristics. In order to assess the degree of expansion of this phenomenon, the evolution of 241 compound loanwords (listed in the Annex) is followed quantitatively and qualitatively.