CATEGORIES OF CONVERGING AND DIVERGING LEXICAL ITEMS IN ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN – REVISITED
CATEGORIES OF CONVERGING AND DIVERGING LEXICAL ITEMS IN ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN – REVISITED

Summary/Abstract: This paper aims to once more revisit some of the principal and most interesting issues relating to the presence of similar lexical items in Romanian and English – a result of the globalizing lexical process through which the English language continues to gain supremacy as a world language. It was not the purpose of the authors to specifically refer to lexical (and, more widely, linguistic) standardization – so, the remarks having to do with such concepts as barbarism or solecism are only illustrative of the broader process of lexical borrowing (especially, insofar as adaptation and usage are concerned). On the other hand, the sheer variety or this profuse process urged us to make (mainly illustrative) remarks on comparatively recent Anglicisms coming into the Romanian language; thus, we dealt with lexical types and (sub)classes, semantic, style- and domain-related Anglicisms, various patterns of decalcomania, (bad) translation from English into Romanian (mainly in the mass media), meaning usurpation and False Friends, technical jargon and stilted speech, buzz-words and cultural (plus ideological) pressure. The main subtypes and (theoretical as well as practical) arguments are supported by abundant illustrations from the Romanian press and also from the Internet. Of course, in such matters as lexical change and linguistic norm conclusions can only be tentative – or, else, rather hasty.

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