Linguistic Globalization And The New Romanian Wooden Language
As everywhere, words of English origin, used as such, as linguistic calques or adapted to the native languages, entered Romanian and settled comfortably in people’s vocabulary as a mark of democracy that had to manifest at linguistic level, too, after years of totalitarianism when communication used to be achieved in a rudimentary, inexpressive way through linguistic clichés meant to conceal reality.
Unobtrusive at first, when used just in contexts strictly related to certain fields, Anglicisms were taken by common language, gained ground and are, at present, used without discernment, becoming commonplace in everyday speech.
The paper approaches the impact the excessive use of words of English origin has lately had upon the quality of the Romanian language which takes steps from the old wooden language of communism to a new one that abounds in lexical creations imitated after English words.
Keywords: Anglicisms, globalization, wooden language, linguistic calques, lexical cliché
