“wat is de kracht van fashion - ghent...
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Universiteit Gent
Faculteit Letteren & Wijsbegeerte
Academiejaar 2012-2013
“Wat is de kracht van fashion?”
The use of English in Dutch-language women’s magazines.
Masterproef voorgelegd tot het bekomen van de graad van
Master in de Taal- en Letterkunde: Twee talen
Marie-Aline Kruydt
Promotor: professor Stef Slembrouck
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Acknowledgements
This thesis would not have been possible without the support of my supervisor, family and
friends. First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, professor
Slembrouck, who always gave his honest advice and opinions, and helped to overcome
several difficulties. In addition, I want to thank professor Theissen for providing me with the
notes of his lecture on foreign languages.
I owe my deepest gratitude to my parents for giving me the opportunity to go to university
and for supporting me in every possible way. Moreover, I want to thank Kwinten for helping
me, believing in me and heartening me when I needed it the most.
A special acknowledgement goes to Ans, Goedele and Greet, who gave their advice for
improving this dissertation. In addition, I want to thank Elke, and Jennifer for making the past
four years memorable and for their mental support. Finally, Thomas, Emilie and Stefanie
deserve an expression of gratitude for the moments of diversion and for encouraging me
ceaselessly.
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Abstract
English is more and more prevalent in several domains of the Dutch-speaking society. It is
interesting to verify whether this development is also reflected in the language use in popular
magazines. Therefore, we investigated the presence of English in various magazines, and
more specifically, whether there is a difference between the occurrence of English in
magazines from the Netherlands (CosmoGirl!, Glamour) and magazines from Flanders
(Joepie, Feeling), and between magazines for teenagers ( CosmoGirl!, Joepie) and magazines
for adults (Glamour, Feeling). The English words, both established and unestablished loan
words, which occur in these magazines were quantitatively and qualitatively analysed. It was
found that English is more frequently used in Dutch than in Flemish magazines. However, the
difference between the amount of English in magazines for the young and in magazines for
adults is not as distinct. Furthermore, a correlation was discovered between the subject of the
article and the number of English words that are used in it. In addition, the number of
established loan words was compared to the number of direct borrowings, which revealed
that, in total, more unestablished loan words are used, but that the group of established loan
words is more varied.
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Table of contents1
Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................. i
Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... ii
1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 0
2. Literature review ............................................................................................................................. 2
2.1 The use of English in Dutch .................................................................................................... 2
2.1.1 Code-switching ................................................................................................................ 3
2.1.2 Lexical borrowing ........................................................................................................... 5
2.1.3 Northern Dutch versus Southern Dutch........................................................................... 9
Characteristics ............................................................................................................................. 9
Language policy in the Netherlands and Flanders ..................................................................... 11
The status of English ................................................................................................................. 13
2.1.4 Historical evolution ....................................................................................................... 15
2.1.5 Youth language .............................................................................................................. 17
2.2 Contact with English ............................................................................................................. 20
2.2.1 Education ....................................................................................................................... 20
2.2.2 Media ............................................................................................................................. 21
2.3 Attitude towards English and English proficiency ................................................................ 23
2.3.1 Attitude towards English ............................................................................................... 24
Purism ........................................................................................................................................ 24
Opinions of speakers of Dutch .................................................................................................. 27
2.3.2 English language proficiency ........................................................................................ 31
2.4 Advantages of using English ................................................................................................. 36
2.5 Summary and hypotheses ...................................................................................................... 42
3. Methodology ................................................................................................................................. 45
4. Data analysis .................................................................................................................................. 47
4.1 Corpus ................................................................................................................................... 48
4.1.1 Magazines ...................................................................................................................... 48
Selection .................................................................................................................................... 48
Description ................................................................................................................................ 48
4.1.2 Data acquisition ............................................................................................................. 53
1 “Wat is de kracht van fashion?” (Glamour 2012: 84-85).
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Articles ...................................................................................................................................... 53
Procedure ................................................................................................................................... 54
4.2 Data ....................................................................................................................................... 60
4.2.1 Analysis of direct borrowings ....................................................................................... 60
Quantitative analysis ................................................................................................................. 60
Qualitative analysis ................................................................................................................... 65
4.2.2 Analysis of established loan words ............................................................................... 67
Quantitative analysis ................................................................................................................. 67
Qualitative analysis ................................................................................................................... 70
4.2.3 Combination of direct borrowings and established loan words ..................................... 71
4.2.4 Single occurrences ......................................................................................................... 74
4.2.5 Summary ....................................................................................................................... 75
5. Discussion ..................................................................................................................................... 76
5.1 Similar research ..................................................................................................................... 76
5.2 Motivations for using English ............................................................................................... 78
6. Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 80
References ............................................................................................................................................. 83
List of academic references ............................................................................................................... 83
List of texts used as primary data ...................................................................................................... 89
Appendices ............................................................................................................................................ 92
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Lists of tables and figures
Table 1 Corpus size (number of words) ................................................................................... 54
Table 2 Absolute numbers of English words ........................................................................... 62
Figure 1 Research apporaches for lexical variation (Van Bezooijen 2002) ............................. 10
Figure 2 Age readers CosmoGirl! ............................................................................................ 51
Figure 3 Age readers Glamour ................................................................................................. 51
Figure 4 Age readers Joepie ..................................................................................................... 52
Figure 5 Age readers Feeling ................................................................................................... 52
Figure 6 Screenshot of lists with English words ...................................................................... 58
Figure 7 Screenshot of lists with Englis words divided into groups ........................................ 59
Figure 8 Percentage of direct borrowings grouped per magazine ............................................ 63
Figure 9 Percentage of direct borrowings grouped per category ............................................. 63
Figure 10 Percentage of direct borrowings grouped per target group ...................................... 64
Figure 11 Percentage of direct borrowings grouped per country ............................................. 64
Figure 12 Percentage of establish loan words grouped per magazine ..................................... 68
Figure 13 Percentages of direct borrowings and established loan words ................................ 70
Figure 14 Percentage of established loan words grouped per target group.............................. 69
Figure 15 Percentage of established loan word grouped per country ...................................... 70
Figure 16 Percentage of English words (in total) ..................................................................... 72
Figure 17 Percentage of direct borrowings (DB) and established loan words (EL) grouped per
target group .............................................................................................................................. 73
Figure 18 Percentage of direct borrowings (DB) and established loan words (EL) grouped per
country ...................................................................................................................................... 73
1. Introduction
There has been interaction between the English language and Dutch language for centuries,
but a rapid growth of the presence of English in Dutch occurred during the past sixty years
(Van der Sijs 2005). The English language is clearly gaining importance in the Dutch-
speaking societies of the Netherlands and Flanders. It needs to be kept in mind that different
varieties of Standard Dutch are spoken in these areas: Northern Dutch in the Netherlands and
Southern Dutch in Flanders. This goes hand in hand with a different policy and attitude
towards, and proficiency in English in both regions. Moreover, the use of English is a
significant characteristic of the specific register of teenagers. Although there is a whole range
of different varieties of youth language, they all share the lexical borrowing from English
(Van den Braak 2002). Given these facts, it would be interesting to investigate whether the
growing influence of English is also reflected in the language of popular women’s magazines
for different age-groups.
A lot of research has been carried out about the use of English in the Dutch and
Flemish media, and especially in advertisements in magazines. The majority of the
researchers focus on modern media, such as television and internet, but there is a lack of
attention for the use of English in actual articles in print media in general. More specifically,
the few studies that have been conducted on English in Dutch print media are centred on
newspapers. This trend is also reflected in the literature about code-switching and code-
mixing: the bulk of the researchers investigate these procedures in spoken language use, but
research on these phenomena in articles in print media is lacking.
The purpose of this research paper is to discuss the use of English in articles of Dutch
and Flemish women’s magazines for teenagers and for adults. First, several theoretical issues,
such as the distinction between code-switching and lexical borrowing, the differences
between Northern and Southern Dutch, the characteristics of youth languages and the
advantages of using English instead of Dutch will be addressed in the literature review. This
will enable us to formulate several hypotheses.
Since there are differences between the Netherlands and Flanders with regards to the
attitude towards English and the English language proficiency, the occurrence of English in
magazines from both countries will be compared. It can be hypothesized that English is more
frequently used in Dutch magazines (a). In addition, attention will be paid to the differences
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between the presence of English in magazines for the young and magazines for adults.
Because English is an important feature of youth language, it is expected that English is used
more often in magazines that are aimed at teenagers (b). An additional assumption is that the
English words which occur in Dutch and Flemish magazines will mainly be established loan
words, in contrast to unestablished direct borrowings (c). It is also expected that, when every
word is only counted once, there will be established loan words than unestablished
borrowings (d). Finally, it will be investigated whether there is a relationship between the
subject of an article and the amount of English that occurs in it (e).
In the methodology, the selection of the magazines and articles will be briefly
explained, and a summary of the procedure and a few restrictions will be given. In the data-
analysis, the methods will be clarified in more detail. Subsequently, the findings will be
meticulously explicated. In the discussion, the results will be commented upon, with special
attention to results of previous research. Finally, a conclusion will follow, answering the
research questions.
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2. Literature review
English is a lingua franca with a high social status. It is the most important language for
(international) communication in most of the academic, scientific and industrial world, and in
sectors such as computer technology and advertising (Van der Sijs 1996). In addition, the
language occurs regularly in the everyday lives of the majority of inhabitants from the
Netherlands and Flanders. In order to discover whether there is a difference in the use of
English in the Netherlands and Belgium, the presence of English in the Dutch-speaking
language area will be discussed in 3.1. This entails a focus on practices of code-switching,
forms of lexical borrowing, a comparison of Dutch in the Netherlands and Flanders, as well as
attention to the historical evolutions towards the importance of English, including a discussion
of the phenomenon of youth language. In 3.2, the worlds of education and the media will be
explored as the most important contact points with the English language. Both the attitudes
towards English and the English language proficiency will be discussed in 3.3. Finally, in 3.4,
the advantages of using English will be explained.
2.1 The use of English in Dutch
In order to examine the use of English in magazines, a theoretical framework for the study of
code-switching and lexical borrowing is necessary. In 3.1.1, code-switching will be
distinguished from code-mixing and lexical borrowing. Lexical borrowing in its own right
will be discussed in section 3.1.2. This not only entails a description of the different stages of
borrowing, but also a discussion of different types of borrowing. In addition, attention will be
paid to the number of English loan words in Dutch and the conditions which make them
successful.
In 3.1.3, the differences between Northern and Southern Dutch will be highlighted.
Furthermore, the linguistic situation in the Dutch-speaking area will be clarified, with special
attention to the Dutch Language Union. We will also compare the actual status of English in
both countries by applying the concentric circles model of Kachru, and by illustrating the
different statuses with examples from research about the use of English in Dutch and Flemish
advertisements in the print media.
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The historical relation between the English and Dutch language will be investigated in
3.1.4, so as to make clear why exactly the English language is of great importance in the
Dutch-speaking area nowadays. Finally, in 3.1.5, the specific register of teenagers will be
discussed, because youth language is known for incorporating English vocabulary.
2.1.1 CODE-SWITCHING
In order to establish the difference between code-switching and code-mixing, several
definitions were compared. The first important note to make about the literature on code-
switching and code-mixing is the fact that the majority of the researchers focus on bilingual
speech. No research articles have been found about code-switching in magazine articles.2
Therefore, the following definitions and terminology, which concern spoken language use,
will be transferred onto the practices of code-switching in written texts. Gumperz for instance
defines code switching as “alternation among different speech varieties within the same
event” (Gumperz 1996: 365, cited in Kelly-Holmes 2000: 69). Muysken (2001: 1) explains
code-switching as “the rapid succession of several languages in a single speech event […].”
Another possible definition is “the use of more than one language in the course of a single
communicative episode” (Heller 1988: 1). With regard to the written texts in this research,
these definitions can be interpreted as ‘the succession of Dutch and English in a single turn’.3
Others use the term ‘code-switching’ for inter-sentential switches, i.e. between
sentences instead of within a sentence (Boztepte 2003). This use will not be applied in this
research paper. Code-mixing, on the other hand, is defined by Muysken (2001: 1) as “cases
where lexical items and grammatical features from two languages appear in one sentence”.
This definition makes clear that, in our research, code-switching, as opposed to code-mixing,
will be the most relevant process, because we focus on lexical items only. There are two
major approaches to code-switching:
The structural approach […] is primarily concerned with its grammatical aspects. […] The
sociolinguist approach […] sees CS primarily as a discourse phenomenon focusing its
attention on questions such as how social meaning is created in CS and what specific
discourse functions it serves. (Boztepe 2003: 3)
2 Even though there is a lack of research about code-switching or borrowing in magazine articles, a lot of
attention has been paid to these processes in advertisements in print media. 3 It is hard to properly define a single turn in magazines, since, in most cases, an article is not a conversation in
turns. Therefore, the majority of the articles could be seen as one extended turn.
4
Particularly the functions of code-switching are relevant. For instance, a connection has been
made between the ability to accomplish conversational tasks and the development of
relationships between speakers. This means that language users “who are part of the same
[…] speech community share both general background knowledge and conventions
concerning communication within and about the context” (Heller 1988: 14). However, this is
not the only motivation to code switch; another important reason could be the particularity of
the situation. The speaker could for instance try to include people who speak another
language. Code-switching can also be applied in order to mark or adopt a certain identity, to
give a speech mark for a quote in a foreign language, to add some dramatic effect, to vary or
because of a certain topic (Kelly-Holmes 2000).
Importantly, it is not always clear how to distinguish between code-switching and
borrowing (Boztepe 2003).The most important difference between lexical borrowing and
code-switching is that they rely on different mechanisms. Poplack has proposed three
different criteria to determine whether non-native material should be seen as code-switching
or borrowing; “[t]hese include whether or not single lexical items from a donor language in
code-switched utterances were (1) phonologically, (2) morphologically, and (3) syntactically
integrated into what she called the base language” (Boztepe 2003: 6).4 Cases where there is no
integration into the base language, or where there is only syntactic or phonological
integration, are instances of code-switching. When lexical items show phonological,
morphological and syntactic integration, they are instances of (established) borrowings
(Boztepe 2003).
However, the majority of scholars claim that the distinction between both processes is
not critical to analyses of bilingual speech, and therefore consider both single-word and
multiple-word occurrences as code switching (Boztepe 2003). They emphasize that code-
switching and borrowing are related processes, and in a way part of a single continuum.
Frequency would therefore be the best criterion to make a categorical distinction between
code-switching and borrowing (Boztepe 2003). Because there are no clear-cut definitions, we
will not distinguish explicitly between code-switching and borrowing.
4 The base language is the main language in a code-switched utterance (Boztepe 2003).
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2.1.2 LEXICAL BORROWING
It is important to realise that there is a difference between established loan words and foreign
words or direct borrowings, as they will also be called in this research paper. In Van Dale
Groot Leenwoordenboek (Van der Sijs 2005), the different stages of borrowing words are
described. In the first stage, a foreign word or expression is borrowed directly, which means
that it is not yet considered a loan word (Van der Sijs 2005). The borrowing takes place in a
certain group of people, who often know the foreign language, or use it in a specific context.
In this stage, the foreign words are often italicized in written texts. In the second stage, more
groups of people start using the word, in new contexts and with adjectives. In this stage, the
word can already be seen as a loan word, but it is still foreign because the sound, spelling or
morphology deviates from Dutch (Van der Sijs 2005).
In the third stage, where the word is seen as an established foreign word, it is adapted
to the Dutch rules and characteristics, because it is frequently used (Van der Sijs 2005).5
Often, foreign suffixes are replaced by indigenous forms, as can be seen in for instance
‘empirisch’ instead of ‘empirical’. In general, the longer a foreign word is established in the
Dutch language, the more it will become adapted to it, on different levels such as sound and
spelling. In the fourth and final stage, the originally foreign word has become indigenous and
it is no longer recognizable as a loan word (Van der Sijs 2005). In conclusion, loan words can
be defined as “the words which Dutch borrowed from another language, so words which were
taken from another language and added to the ‘erfwoordenschat’, which is roughly the
vocabulary dating from the Indo-European language” (Van der Sijs 1998).6 A foreign word
does not necessarily go through every single stage, because for instance their spelling or
sound is already identical to that in the indigenous form. Moreover, foreign words could
remain stuck between two stages or in a certain register, for example in a dialect or in
technical jargon (Van der Sijs 2005). Another point worth noting is that there is only a thin
line between foreign words and established foreign words, and that the majority of the
scholars do not explicitly differentiate between them.
5 In Dutch, words in this stage are called bastaardwoorden, which can be literally translated as bastard words. In
English, however, there is no separate name for these words. 6 Erfwoordenschat can be literally translated as ‘inherited vocabulary’.
6
In our research, there will be a distinction between established loan words and direct
borrowings, which are not (yet) officially established. These direct borrowings can be linked
to so-called nonce borrowings or “single lexical items or bound morphemes which are
syntactically and morphologically integrated into the base language, but which may or may
not show phonological integration” (Boztepe 2003: 6). Moreover, these nonce borrowings
differ from established loan words because they are, in theory, not as frequently used or
because they do not attain the same degree of acceptance (Boztepe 2003). The words that will
be considered as direct borrowings in this research paper are not always already
morphologically adapted to the base language. It can be expected that authors of articles
prefer established loan words above direct borrowings, because the former are generally
accepted and therefore less controversial.
Since the majority of literature mainly focuses on established English loan words, we
will pay less attention to the unestablished direct borrowings in the literature review. It should
be kept in mind that borrowing foreign words is only one of the three types of borrowing. The
others are loan translations and borrowing meaning (Van der Sijs 2005). These will not be
considered in this research paper. The most important difference between borrowing words
and the other types of borrowings, such as the borrowing of meaning and loan translations, is
that loan words are the most conspicuous, because they can have foreign sounds and/or
spelling, especially in the earlier stages (Van der Sijs 2005). Foreign expressions belong to
this category as well.
According to Van der Sijs (2005), loan words should not be confused with
Anglicisms. Anglicisms are words, expressions or constructions that go against the Dutch
rules and that are English or literally translated from English. Another possible view on this
matter is that Anglicisms are also a type of borrowings which are often the result of structural
influences, and are only distinguished in a prescriptive framework. Either way, loan words are
in most cases almost immediately adapted to the Dutch grammar, spelling and pronunciation.
Van Oostendorp (2002) gives an example of this adapted pronunciation:
We do not pronounce English loan words in the proper English way, we do not say: ‘would
you turn off the [khumpjoe:tuh].’ You turn off your [kompjoetur]. And you do not offer your
[kredditka:hd] when you had a nice meal, you hand over your [kredditkart]. (Van
Oostendorp 2002: 96).
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Van der Sijs (1998, 2005) listed different language families from which the Dutch language
borrowed words: Germanic languages, Romance languages, other Indo-European languages,
non-Indo-European languages in Europe, languages from Africa and the Middle-East, Asian
languages and Indian languages. It is clear that, the overwhelming majority of the loan words
in Dutch are borrowed from Romance languages (15,460), while ‘only’ 4,210 words are
borrowed from Germanic languages. However, the number of borrowings from Germanic
languages increases almost every century, while the number of borrowings from Romance
languages fluctuates per century. Not surprisingly, the most influential language of the
Germanic languages is English, with a total of almost 2,030 words, which is still only a
fraction of the 9,130 words borrowed from French.7 It should be noticed that not only British
but also New Zealand, Scottish and, to a greater extent, American words are borrowed (Van
der Sijs, 1998).8
In comparison, there are more than 3,600 English loan words in Peptalk. De Engelse
woordenschat van het Nederlands (1992) (Van der Sijs 1998). The authors estimate the
number of commonly used English words in Dutch at 5,000, which is approximately 10 per
cent of the total vocabulary of the average language user. In comparison, almost 7 per cent of
all words in the Etymological Dictionary (Etymologisch woordenboek or EWB) is an English
loan word (Van der Sijs 1998). When comparing the percentages of English loan words in
random newspaper articles to the percentage in the EWB, it can be concluded that quite a few
loan words are rarely used. This is not only the case for English borrowings, but also for loan
words from other languages (Van der Sijs 1998).
Also in a more recent article, Van der Sijs (2009) discusses the influx of foreign words
into Dutch. The most important point is that in comparison to loan words borrowed from
French or Latin, the group of English loan words is rather small, even though during the past
century, the largest influx of loan words into Dutch was coming from the English language. It
was calculated that only 8 per cent of all words in the Etymological Dictionary of 2005 is
borrowed from English, while 51 per cent is borrowed from a Romance language. The author
recognizes the fact that in some semantic areas, the percentage of English loans is higher, for
instance in words related to ICT. However, these should be considered as jargon and therefore
7 It needs to be kept in mind that these loan words are the ones that have been included in the dictionary Van
Dale and that, according to the editors, a word needs to have occurred frequently in the entire Dutch-speaking
region for the past three years, in order for it to be taken into account (Van der Sijs 1998). 8 In this research paper, we will not differentiate between these variaties, because we approach English as lingua
franca, which does not belong to a specific nation.
8
as a transitory part of the Dutch vocabulary (Van der Sijs 2009). In addition, it should be kept
in mind that English loan words are often replaced by Dutch equivalents over time.
It is stands out when a new, foreign word pops up in Dutch, but those who complain
about them, seem to forget that a large share of them quietly disappears eventually (Gerritsen
& Janssen 2001). The researchers compared a list of English loan words from 1951 to Van
Dale 1984. On the basis of this comparison, they formulated different characteristics which
make a loan word successful in Dutch (Gerritsen et al. 2001). In general, it was found that
nouns and verbs are more often kept than adjectives and phrases. Moreover, words with a
concrete meaning are better preserved than those with an abstract meaning. In addition, loan
words which contained sounds that do not occur in Dutch are more likely to disappear than
English loan words that are pronounced with sounds that also exist in standard Dutch. In
addition, the length of the Dutch equivalent is important: when the Dutch counterpart of an
English loan word is at least one syllable longer than the English word, it is more probable
that the English word will survive. The final characteristic is similarity between the loan word
and another existing Dutch word. When these words are much alike, the loan word will have a
higher chance of disappearing. Of course, the influence of these characteristics is not to be
understood in absolute terms.
Gerritsen & Janssen (2001) investigated the actual use of loan words, in comparison to
their Dutch equivalents. The results showed that three quarters of the respondents prefer the
Dutch equivalent instead of the English loan word. However, this number is an average; in
some cases the majority did prefer the English word, while in other cases almost no one chose
the loan word. The analysis showed that the interviewees preferred Dutch over English
because of several reasons. A first reason is that Dutch words are “easier for the speaker and
easier to understand for the listener” (Gerritsen et al. 2001: 41, own translation). Moreover,
nationalism and image were a motivation as well: “we live in the Netherlands” and “if you
use English, you are pompous” (Gerritsen et al. 2001: 41, own translation). Reasons to prefer
English instead of Dutch are “Anglophilia”, “ease”, and “normative usage” (Gerritsen et al.
2001: 41, own translation).9
9 An example of “ease” is a shorter or easier pronunciation. An example of “normative usage” is the fact that
some words are used on television.
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2.1.3 NORTHERN DUTCH VERSUS SOUTHERN DUTCH
Characteristics
During the centuries following the Fall of Antwerp in 1585, which separated the Netherlands
from Flanders, the Dutch language was supressed in Flanders by the French language, while
Dutch became the official language in the North (De Caluwe 2002). From the second half of
the nineteenth century onwards, there was a growing body of opinion that native language
Dutch should also be the official language in Flanders, but the problem was that the Dutch
language at that moment was only a collection of multiple dialects in Flanders. Therefore,
various initiatives and policies were enacted in order to teach the Flemings Standard Dutch as
it was spoken in the Netherlands (De Caluwe 2002). During the last two decennia of the
twentieth century, Belgian Dutch was recognized as an official variety of Dutch (De Caluwe
2002).
In both the Netherlands and Flanders, Algemeen Nederlands or Standard Dutch is the
variety of Dutch which is the official norm, and which is the language of education and the
media. However, there are important differences between the Northern variety of Standard
Dutch and the Southern variety of Standard Dutch (De Caluwe 2002). Even though the
differences are most prevalent in spoken language, there are obvious differences in written
language as well, especially on a lexical and semantic level. In addition to lexical and
semantic differences, syntactic differences occur (De Caluwe 2002, Van Bezooijen 2002). Of
course, lexical variation entails not only variation in the meaning of words, but also variation
in the phonetic, phonological, morphological, and/or lexical form of a word, which are easier
to notice (Van Bezooijen 2002).
The lexical differences between the Northern and Southern variety of Standard Dutch
can take many forms. For instance, speakers of Northern Dutch sometimes use different
words than speakers of Southern Dutch. Moreover, the application of a particular word can
differ; it could, for example, have another meaning, connotation, stylistic value or valency
(De Caluwe & Geeraerts 2002). It is a common view that the English lexicon is used more
frequently in the Northern Dutch variety. Although no evidence in literature has been found to
support this view, the higher levels of proficiency and the more positive attitude towards
English in the Netherlands might indicate that this idea is correct.
10
Van Bezooijen (2002) has outlined a model of four possible research approaches to
lexical variation, which is visualised in figure 1. Approach A focuses on the distribution of
lexical varieties across regions, social groups (for instance based on sex, age, and social class)
and situations (Van Bezooijen 2002). Approach B focuses on the comprehensibility of lexical
variations, i.e. the perception of speech. This entails an orientation on the relationship
between the listener and the lexical varieties. When approaches A and B are combined, they
give an idea of how lexical usage functions (Van Bezooijen 2002). Approach C discusses the
appreciation of certain lexical varieties, which also covers an examination of norms,
associations and emotions with regard to lexical varieties. Finally, approach D focuses on the
same aspects as approach C, but with regard to the speaker instead of to the lexical varieties
(Van Bezooijen 2002).
Figure 1 Research approaches for lexical variation (Van Bezooijen 2002: 21, own translation)
For this research, approach A is the most important one, because it is a means “to gain
an insight into the use of lexical variants and to specify [this use] in terms of geographical
distribution, social groups and communicative situations” (Van Bezooijen 2002: 21, own
translation). In other words, it makes clear which variants are used where, by whom and
when. However, indirectly, and mainly in the literature review, the appreciation of variants
(C) will also be discussed.
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Furthermore, “the magnitude of the lexical variation is directly proportional to the
informality of the language use” (De Caluwe et al. 2002: 14, own translation). This means
that informal and spoken conversations between speakers of the same nationality will show
more lexical peculiarities than formal, written texts, such as newspaper articles or books (De
Caluwe et al. 2002). Because of this characteristic, it could be expected that the articles in
women’s magazines will not contain much lexical variety. However, since the writers of
magazine articles try to approximate the language of their target group, it could also be argued
that the language in magazines contains more oral language characteristics, and therefore
more lexical variation.
Language policy in the Netherlands and Flanders
In general, it can be expected that the official language policy and attitude in the Netherlands
is very similar to the one in Flanders. The main reason is the existence of the Dutch Language
Union (Nederlandse Taalunie). The Dutch Language Union is “a common governmental body
which is responsible for the policies of both countries with respect to the Dutch language,
language education and literature” (Van Oostendorp 2007: 78, own translation). The
Language Union Treaty (Taalunie verdrag) was established in September 1980 between the
Netherlands and Belgium, in order to “integrate the Dutch and Dutch-speaking community in
Belgium in the field of the Dutch language and literature in its broadest sense” (Renkema
1984: 414, own translation). Flanders and Suriname, a former colony of the Netherlands
where Dutch is the mother tongue, play a more central role in the Dutch Language Union than
the Netherlands (Van Oostendorp 2006). Moreover, in spite of the unity of the language
policy of Belgium and the Netherlands, the linguistic situation in Belgium strongly differs
from that in the Netherlands:
Belgium is a trilingual state (Dutch, French, German) in which at least Dutch and French have
been in competition for a long time. On the contrary, even though the Netherlands in some
respects is a bilingual nation, one of those two languages, Frisian, […] is [officially] limited to
the province of Frisia. Therefore, the role of Dutch in national public life is uncontested and
has been so for a long time, whereas the situation is different in Belgium. (Van Oostendorp
2007: 80, own translation)
12
It needs to be kept in mind that in Belgium, the linguistic situation has been complicated for
several centuries:
Tensions among French- and Dutch-speaking Belgians going back at least to the 13th century
were caused by and contributed to alternating periods of prestige and power for each language.
[…] In the 20th century, two sets of laws were passed that determined the country’s linguistic
future from the 1960s onwards. One set fixed the linguistic border, which has been flexible;
the other resulted in laws concerning the use of languages in education, administration, and
justice. (Berns, Claes, De Bot et al. 2007: 18, own translation).10
Moreover, the official Standard Dutch has been considered for a long time “to be closely
related to indigenous varieties of the Netherlands, not of Belgium” (Van Oostendorp 2007: 4).
The inhabitants of Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, are characterized by
diglossia, with at one end of their continuum Standard Dutch and dialects at the other end.
Because of this reason, the speakers of Dutch in the Netherlands probably feel less threatened
by other languages (Van Oostendorp 2007). This situation could be an additional reason why
the Belgian magazines are slightly more hostile towards English than the Dutch magazines, as
is stated in hypothesis a. Because it has been a struggle for Dutch to become recognized as an
official language, it could be expected that Dutch-speaking authors are more reluctant to use
foreign languages in their Dutch articles.
As far as the policy about the use of English in Dutch is concerned, there are several
choices the government could make (Mamadouh, Soetaart & Top 2002). For instance, it can
be attempted to restrain the use of English in domains such as advertising and media, while
the use of the native language can be stimulated. Another possibility is teaching foreign
languages which are spoken in the European Union in secondary school, or advancing the
introduction to English by teaching it in primary school (Mamadouh et al. 2002).
10
Dutch used to be unsuitable as a language of education, religion, and other official concerns. Instead, French
or Latin were used, and both languages had a great, but less notable influence on Dutch (Bennis et al. 2004). The
most important difference between French and Latin on the one hand, and English on the other, is that the first
two languages were prestigious, while English is to a greater or lesser extent spoken by almost every Dutch-
speaker (Bennis et al. 2004).
13
The status of English
The concentric circles model by Kachru locates the use of English in different parts of the
world on the basis of three different circles (Van Oostendorp 2002). The inner circle contains
countries where English is the native language of the majority of the inhabitants. Examples
are Great Brittan, the United States, Ireland, Canada, New Zeeland and Australia. The outer
circle consists of countries which are former British colonies, such as India, Singapore and
Malawi. In these countries, English is the second language of a great part of the population,
and it is also dominant with regards to official matters, often in a nativised variety. Finally, in
the countries in the expanding circle, it is acknowledged that English is an important
international language. The inhabitants of these countries, such as the Netherlands and
Belgium, take English classes or have, in theory, (imperfect) knowledge of English.11
The
inhabitants of the countries that do not belong to any circle, do not speak English at al.
The three circles correspond with three varieties of English (Van Oostendorp 2002).
English of the inner circle is called Standard American-British English (SABE). The varieties
of English in the middle circle are Oral and Vernacular Englishes (OVE), which are a mix of
English and a particular local language. Finally, International Colloquial English is the variety
spoken in countries in the expanding circle. This implies that the concept ‘English’ is a
complicated whole of different varieties (Van Oostendorp 2002).12
The model by Kachru has
been used to identify the status of English in several countries of the European Union in 1995.
In the Netherlands, English is considered to be developing into a second language (L2), while
English in Belgium was seen as a foreign language (FL) (Gerritsen, Nickerson, Van den
Brandt et al. 2007). According to Graddol too, English is growing towards an L2 in the
Netherlands, while it is only used as an international language in Belgium (Graddol 1999, in
Gerritsen, 2007).13
This view is also explained in the research article by Gerritsen (2005)
about the status of English in the Netherlands and Flanders.
11
It should be noted that, in practice, it is possible that the proficiency levels of English are higher in countries
from the extended circle than in countries from the outer circle. In addtition, because the varieties in the outer
circle are nativized and often have their own characteristics, ‘perfection’ of the knowledge of English is not an
ideal criterion. 12
There are different ways to distinguish between several types of English. Booij (2001) for instance, emphasizes
that one should differentiate between English as it is spoken by British and American native speakers, and
English as a lingua franca. The lingua franca or ‘cosmopolitan English’ would be easier to understand by non-
native speakers of English and is not linked to a particular English-speaking country. The author suggests that “it
would be good to further develop an international lexicon that is easily accessible, and in which the lexical
differences between the different Englishes of the world are neutralized as much as possible” (Booij 2001: 356). 13
It needs to be emphasized that the Dutch-English language situation cannot be defined as diglossia because
English does not have a stable function in different domains of society, while Dutch has. For instance, the
14
Because researchers find it more likely that English will develop into an L2 status in
the Netherlands than it is in Belgium, several assumptions can be made. One expectation is
that English is more often used in print media in the Netherlands than in Flanders. In order to
confirm this assumption, Gerritsen (2005) analysed a corpus of advertisements in the Dutch
and Flemish edition of Elle. In both countries, English was used in the majority of the
advertisements. Most of the ads were partly in English (70 per cent in the Netherlands and 68
per cent in Belgium), and the percentage of ads which was entirely in English was 11 per cent
in the Netherlands, compared to 15 per cent in Belgium. This is striking because it is not in
accordance with the expectation that there is more English in the Dutch advertisements.14
The
authors do not give possible explanations for this result. Less than a fifth of the ads did not
contain any English in both countries. Lastly, the place in the advertisements where English is
used is very similar in both countries.
The majority of English occurs in titles, slogans, image sand names, but it rarely
occurs in the body of the advertisements (Gerritsen 2005). As for the number of English
words, the percentages are roughly similar in both countries: 13 per cent in the Netherlands
and 11 per cent in Belgium. It is emphasized that, because these ads are aimed towards a very
specific target audience, young and dynamic women, the results are merely an indication of
the actual use of English. It was concluded that English is used as much in Dutch as in
Flemish advertisements (Gerritsen 2005). Of course, it needs to be kept in mind that
advertisements are a specific genre, and that the figures reported here are not necessarily a
reflection of language use in other situations, either written or spoken.
Gerritsen’s research from 2005 proved that there are no apparent differences between
the Netherlands and Flanders in the attitude towards, and the use and comprehension of
English. The idea of Berns and Graddol that English is becoming a second language in the
Netherlands, while it remains only an international language in Belgium, either is not correct
or it is not reflected in the advertisements in women’s magazines. To be certain whether
English is becoming a second language or whether it is still used as an international language,
more research is necessary. Either English is becoming an L2 exclusively in the Netherlands,
or this is the case in both countries. The latter is suggested by the increasing use of English
dominant language in higher education remains Dutch, and proposals to change this still raise vehement protest
and discussion. In other domains however, English is very present, for instance on television (Booij, 2001).
14 The most probable reason why no attention is given to the higher percentage of English in Belgian
commercials, is the fact that there is only a small difference between both countries, and the fact that it only
applies to advertisements which are entirely English. Moreover, it needs to be kept in mind that there is a
difference between the language in advertisements and the language in magazine articles.
15
and the positive attitudes towards English in both Belgium and the Netherlands (Gerritsen
2005). Another possible outcome is that we continue to situate English at the level of an
international language for both the Netherlands and for Belgium. This is suggested by the
results of a comprehension test, which is discussed below. For now, suffice it here to add that
further research by Gerritsen et al. (2007) confirmed that English does not have an L2 status
in the Netherlands, but that the situation nevertheless is changing. English is becoming more
embedded in Dutch society, as several comprehensibility tests show.
2.1.4 HISTORICAL EVOLUTION
It is important to question why exactly English is the most influential foreign language
nowadays, used in countless domains and situations throughout Europe, and more specifically
in Belgium and the Netherlands. The explanation is mainly historical: The influence of
English was strengthened in Europe because of the presence of the United States after the
First World War. This American presence “attributed to a linguistic innovation introduced in
1919 with the Peace Treaty of Versailles” (Berns, Claes, De Bot et al. 2007: 17). From then
on, French was no longer the only language of official matters. After 1945, the American
influence increased even more so, since it was taught in secondary and primary education in
Europe. After the Second World War, the ‘American way of life’ was an example for the rest
of the world (Van der Sijs 1996). Changes such as the import of English popular music, the
use of English among scientists and in multinational companies, and the participation of the
United Kingdom in the Common Market also increased the importance of the English
language (Berns et al. 2007).
The English influence after the Second World War had its percussions on the Dutch
vocabulary. Immediately after 1945, the number of English loan words in the Etymological
Dictionary declined slightly because of puristic reasons (Van der Sijs 1998). A few years later
and especially from the sixties onwards, however, the Dutch vocabulary experienced a drastic
increase in the number of English loan words (Van der Sijs 2009, Van der Sijs 1998).15
This
increase was caused by the new products and habits which were adopted from Great Britain
and the United States (Van der Sijs 1996). However, it should be noted that until a few
centuries ago, English is the language which borrowed the most from the Dutch vocabulary
15
It is possible that the increase of loan words in Dutch dictionaries is (partly) caused by a more flexible
selection procedure (Van der Sijs 1998).
16
(Van der Sijs 2009). Based on the Oxford English Dictionary, which entails words from the
second half of the twelfth century until the present day, it was determined that approximately
1,500 words were borrowed from Dutch. Some of these words have become obsolete or
restricted in their application.
There were almost no English loans in the Dutch language before 1800, except for
names for typically English inventions and discoveries (Van der Sijs 2009). Examples are
words from the shipping industry, exotic animal names, names for religious belief systems
and certain sport terms. During the same period, the Dutch influence on the English language
was at its strongest (Van der Sijs 2009). This influence was not only the result of the trading
relationships between Great Britain and the Netherlands, but also of the presence of the
Flemings in the entourage of William the Conqueror. They were settled in Great Britain in the
twelfth century and until 1700, handicraftsmen of the Low Countries immigrated to England
because their skills were superior to those of the endogenous workers. Because of these
manual labourers, quite a few Dutch names for industrial instruments in the area of brewery
and weaving have been introduced into English.
The majority of Dutch words was borrowed during the sixteenth and seventeenth
century, since the inhabitants of the Low Countries fled to England because of the Eighty
Years’ War (Van der Sijs 2009). The seventeenth-century Dutch painting influenced the
English language as well. As from the eighteenth century, the English influence on the
international trade increased, and with it its influence on the Dutch culture. Since then, “the
stream of loan words has reversed” (Van der Sijs 2009: 13, own translation).
In the end, it is not easy to determine which language influenced which the most. In
the Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, 3.3 per cent of the words originated from Dutch.
In the Chronological dictionary (Chronlogisch Woordenboek) about ten per cent of the words
are borrowed from English. This would mean that Dutch has borrowed three times the number
of English words. However, while the Dutch loan words in English are firmly established,
much of the English words in Dutch are rather new. Dutch is the fourth language of which
English has borrowed the most, after Latin, French and Scandinavian. The other way around,
English is third on the list of donor languages, after French and Latin. It is clear that English
and Dutch are mutually influenced by one another.
17
An important reason why English is increasingly used during the twentieth and
twenty-first century, is the expectation that “the future will be dominated by ICT and the e-
economy, and thus by English” (Salverda 2001: 6, own translation). Moreover, the
Netherlands are economically dependent on their export products, including knowledge and
culture. With for instance English-language films, songs and books, they aim at the
international English-language world market (Salverda 2001). It can be said the situation in
Belgium is very similar.
2.1.5 YOUTH LANGUAGE
Besides the horizontal or geographical variation in Dutch, there is the vertical or internal
stratification, consisting of different registers (De Caluwe et al. 2002). Language and
language variation should be seen as a means of expressing identity other than a
communication medium (Bennis, Cornips & Van Oostendorp 2004). Speakers can alternate
different aspects of language, pronunciation, choice of words and syntax, to mark their
position in society. Therefore it is necessary to differentiate between an external norm and an
inherent norm (Bennis et al. 2004). The external norm is Standard Dutch, which is enforced
externally by society, while the inherent norm specifically belongs to a particular group,
which one belongs to through birth or choice. The American sociolinguist Labov showed that
children’s language is influenced by the parents until the children are four years old (Bennis et
al. 2004). From that moment onward, they are more influenced by their peers. They will
develop a language norm which slightly differs from their parents’ norm, for instance by
means of a particular pronunciation or the use of a certain word or sentence structure. In this
way, the speaker labels himself as part of the group and speakers who do not speak according
to this particular norm will be excluded (Bennis et al. 2004).
Teenagers are socially mobile in different groups and subgroups, and every teenager
develops their own way of speaking, which is a variety of youth language (Van den Braak
2002). In doing so, they distinguish themselves from other youngsters and adults. Therefore, it
is important for teenagers that the use of a certain variation of youth language remains
confined. One of the most striking characteristics of youth language is that it contains a lot of
English borrowings and loan translations. Examples are ‘shit’, ‘cool’ and ‘zie je later’, which
is the literal translation of ‘see you later’. Moreover, youth languages often appropriate
English and American slang:
18
Half of the American top 20 slang words from between 1997 and 2000, is regularly used by
the youngsters in the Netherlands, for instance ‘chill’, ‘dope’, ‘phat’, and ‘da/the bomb’.
Music, television, internet, magazines and other media have a large share in this quick spread.
(Van den Braak 2002: 22, own translation)
The vocabulary that occurs in youth language can be classified into a few specific categories:
relationships, sex, money, violence, cursing, value judgements, and naming of persons (Van
den Braak 2002).
There is no obvious definition for youth language, because the majority of the
literature on this topic focuses more specifically on street language or chat and text message
language. Moreover, there is no such thing as “the Dutch youth language” (Van den Braak
2002: 20). Den Ouden and Van Wijk (2007) discuss two types of adaptations which are
defined as typical of youth language: lexical adjustments, which are based on meaning or
form, and orthographic adjustments, which are based on spelling or pronunciation and which
mainly occur in text messages. In this research paper, only the lexical adjustments will be
discussed. There are three types of lexical adjustments: lexical borrowing, abbreviation, and
broadening of meaning. The lexical borrowing is the most relevant adjustment for this paper.
English is the most important donor language nowadays, in contrast to Turkish, Arabic,
Moroccan or Sranan, which are often more prevalent in street language than English.
In the Van Dale Groot Leenwoordenboek, which describes the influence of a variety of
languages on Dutch, Van der Sijs (2005) mentions that “youth language and student language
are imbued with English words, picked up from films, pop music, music videos, chat rooms,
raps.” (Van der Sijs 2005: 242, own translation). The English influence on youth language is
rather recent; exactly a decade ago, only ‘down zijn’ (‘being down’) was an expression typical
of youth language, which originated from English. Especially American names for clothing
and names for peers seem to be popular: ‘bodysuit’, ‘designer-jeans’, ‘legging’, ‘outfit’,
‘sneakers’, ‘asshole’, ‘babyface’, ‘buddy’, ‘creep’, ‘loser’, and ‘freak’. Examples which
occurred in a dictionary from 1990 are ‘biker’, ‘break’, ‘chilling’, ‘cool’, ‘fake’, ‘freaken’,
‘high’, ‘impressed’, ‘lifestyle’, ‘moven’, ‘een must’, ‘sneaky’, ‘stressen’, and ‘trendy’ (Van
der Sijs 2005).
19
English exclamations are booming in Dutch youth language, most likely because they
sound less explicit or strong in a foreign language (Bakker 1987, De Raaij 1997, Van
Oostendorp 2002). Examples are ‘bullshit’, ‘no way’, and ‘rubbish’. ‘Shit’, ‘fuck’, and
‘dammit’ would even be more frequently used by speakers of Dutch than by native speakers
of English (Van der Sijs 2005). These words are no longer restricted to youth language, as is
the case for ‘act’, ‘stressen’, and ‘trendy’. Words such as ‘chick’, ‘chillen’, ‘dope’, ‘flowen’,
‘player’, ‘relaxen’, and ‘what’s up’ originated from rap music (Van der Sijs 2005). Moreover,
American words exert a large influence on the so-called gay language as well. Examples are
‘gay’, ‘straight’, ‘darkroom’, ‘queer’, ‘one night stand’, and ‘coming out’. Furthermore, a
variety of Dutch words or expression which are considered youth language are derived from
English, for instance ‘opfokken’ from ‘fuck’, ‘zie je’ from ‘see you’, ‘piepelen’ from
‘people’, ‘trubbels’ from ‘troubels’, ‘mijn kopje thee zijn’ from ‘to be my cup of tea’, ‘uit de
kast komen’ from ‘coming out of the closet’, and ‘kipje’ from ‘chicky’ (Van der Sijs 2005).
The difficulty in listing the vocabulary of youth language is that it is quite transitory
and therefore impossible to list exhaustively (Den Ouden & Van Wijk 2007). The importance
of young people and their language lies in the fact that a lot of the English words which are
borrowed by young people become more widely used, eventually. Furthermore, the younger
generation are key players in “acting upon and reacting to” globalisation (Berns 2007b: 43).
Therefore, it needs to be kept in mind that English plays an important role in most of the
global youth culture (Berns 2007b).
De Bot, Evers and Huibregtse (2007) describe how young people get into contact with
English, what their attitudes are towards English and how proficient they are. As for the
educational level of the parents, there is no difference between the Netherlands and Belgium.
Moreover, the respondents from the Netherlands and Flanders also indicate that the
proficiency level of their parents is good or rather good. The non-Dutch speaking
respondents, Walloons, Germans, and Frenchmen, all indicate lower levels of proficiency.
The main media through which the respondents come across English are music,
television, the English teacher, computers and travelling abroad. Interestingly, for the Dutch-
speaking students, television and cinema are more important mediums than for respondents
with other native languages. This is motivated by the difference in national network policies:
“Dutch and Belgian networks often subtitle rather than dub English language programs,
thereby offering students in these countries more opportunities for contact with English
through TV” (De Bot et al. 2007b: 60).
20
2.2 Contact with English
Since the English language exercises influence on the Dutch vocabulary, it is interesting to
question what the most important sources are via which the speakers of Dutch come into
contact with the English language. In 3.2.1, we will briefly discuss English in the educational
system of the Netherlands and Belgium. In 3.2.2, attention will be paid to various types of
media in which English frequently occurs, for instance radio, television and internet. This will
be supported by empirical data from research carried out in 2002.
2.2.1 EDUCATION
In thirteen countries of the European Union, English is a mandatory subject. English is also
the first foreign language taught in these countries (Berns, Claes, De Bot et al. 2007). Flanders
is an exception, where the first foreign language is French, since it is one of the three official
languages of Belgium. If pupils have a free choice what their first foreign language is, 90 per
cent chooses English (Berns et al. 2007). At secondary level, a second foreign language is
introduced in multiple countries, among which are Belgium and the Netherlands.
In the Netherlands, English classes are compulsory in secondary school and in the last
years of primary school (Berns et al. 2007). The fact that students from the Netherlands
follow English classes in primary school is remarkable because it is not officially a national
language (De Bot 2002). Moreover, several bilingual schools in the Netherlands offer
education in English, which should improve the proficiency in English. In higher education,
English is taught at six Dutch universities (Berns et al. 2007). In addition, English classes are
part of various programmes such as American studies and Business communication studies. In
Flanders, English is generally taught from the second year in secondary school, i.e. to
fourteen-year-olds, onwards. Interestingly enough, Flemish pupils appreciate their English
classes more than their French classes, and feel more accomplished when they successfully
learn English (Berns et al. 2007). In Belgium, 95 per cent of the students in higher education
study English, which is close to the 98 per cent who study French (Berns et al. 2007). Both
languages are considered equally important by the students.
21
2.2.2 MEDIA
English is quite established in different types of media throughout Europe (Berns, Claes, De
Bot et al. 2007). First of all, it should be noted that the majority of literature about English in
non-English media focuses on songs, television and internet. Little has been written about
English in non-English print media, and the researchers who did, focused on newspapers.16
The success of English in non-English media is not always positively assessed, as becomes
clear from this description: “During the past years, the English disease went through the
media as a high-speed multiplying virus. Products and commercials suffer from it the worst”
(Smits et al. 1989: 10, own translation).17
The fact that English is becoming more often used
in several domains is illustrated by the titles of magazines:
The publishers of magazines also noticed [that English is more and more preferred over
French]. Avenue and Elegance used to be the crème the la crème, but now they have to
compete every month with a new glossy magazine with an English title. What begun with
‘Quote’ and Dutch versions of American magazines (Cosmopolitan, Playboy, Penthouse)
persevered with ‘Money’, ‘Newlook’; ‘Bodylijn’, ‘Pure Syle’ and ‘Personality’. But an
English name on the cover does not guarantee anything: early 1989, ‘Personality’ folded after
four issues, and ‘Newlook’ did not last a year either. ‘C’est la vie’ or ‘such is life’? (Smits et
al. 1989: 16, own translation)
It is not correct that the rise of English was mainly caused by mass media such as radio and
television, as Labov claimed (Van Oostendorp 2002). Interactive media, on the other hand,
such as the telephone in the twentieth century, and the internet would be more influential with
regards to English. However, the presence of English in Dutch-language media or English
media in the Dutch and Belgian culture should not be underestimated because “audiovisual
media play a fundamental role in the development and transmission of social values and in the
transmission, development and even construction of cultural identities” (Berns 2007a: 3).
English language media hold a central position in the lives of teenagers.
16
On the other hand, a lot of attention has been given to advertisements in print media, but these advertisements
differ from common articles in that they have another goal, which is mainly persuading the receiver instead of
informing or entertaining. 17
It is a fact that English is very common in television commercials and advertisements in print media. In 1998,
already about 40 out of a corpus of 128 television commercials consisted partially or entirely out of English
(Gijsbers et al. 1998). However, this is not always regarded positively, but it has been proved that “the use of
English is less negative than it was a decade ago and that the use of English does not have a negative impact on
the image of the product” (Gerritsen, Nickerson et al. 2007: 12).
22
This could make us question whether or to what extent the Anglo-Saxon culture influences
the young people who come into contact with these media. These media are able to “transmit
representations of other cultures” and to create culture or cultural change, and are therefore an
important factor in the formation of cultural identity (Berns 2007a: 11):
The media do more than provide information or entertain, do more than convey knowledge
and representations of other cultures or provide an opportunity to have a direct look at the
products of another culture. They also play formative role [sic] in society by informing, or at a
deeper level, by forming concepts, belief systems and verbal, visual, and symbolic languages
that citizens use to make sense of the world and their place in it. (Berns 2007a: 11).
English occurs in different types of media, but probably the most frequently in music: “The
vast majority of music listened to by young people in all of the countries studied is English
language music. Since music plays a crucial role in the definition of youth cultures, and as
such, forms one important element in the process of young people’s identity construction, the
English language is closely linked to the basic processes of defining cultural orientations and
values” (Hasebrink et al. 2007: 113). The spread of other types of English media is not as
universal. However, the computer and internet with its new media “lead to a substantial
change in the presence of English” (Hasebrink et al. 2007: 113).
Research by De Bot (2002) about contact with English showed that, with the exception
of the French, the respondents of every country in the research often listen to English-
language songs, sometimes up to thirty hours per week. However, the students find the lyrics
only mildly important, and there are no indications that they also comprehend what is said in
the English song texts. Besides music, radio, television, English teachers, the computer and
travelling are the most important means through which the respondents get into contact with
English (De Bot 2002). The fact that English functions as a lingua franca is confirmed by the
fact that the respondents say they come into contact with English at non-English destinations,
for instance Spain and France. Television has a more significant influence in the countries
where English programmes are not dubbed but subtitled, which is the case in the Netherlands
and in Belgium (De Bot 2002).
Because of the variety of national languages in Belgium, the country also has multiple
media landscapes. The largest ones are Flanders and Wallonia, where respectively Dutch and
French are spoken. The Belgians not only receive several national channels, both private and
public, but also channels from other European countries. Obviously, there are also numerous
English-language programmes, not only on the national channels, but also in the foreign
23
channels such as the BBC, and National Geographic. The current digitalization of television
will probably amplify this trend. Berns et al. (2000: 34-35) give a detailed overview of
English language media. However, mainly English-language newspapers are discussed. Not
only is there no attention for English-language magazine, but also, there is no discussion of
the influence of English on Dutch-language magazines. This would be interesting, because
[n]ewspapers contain more and more untranslatable English quotes, words and concepts.
Sometimes still cursive or between quotation marks […], but it appears that most of them are
supposed to be a part of our language knowledge. (Smits et al. 1989: 12, own translation)
It is clear that there is somehow a correlation between contact with English-language media
and English proficiency and attitude towards English. However, “[r]esearch which aimed at
analysing media effects in terms of clear causal relationships between independent variables
(e.g., the amount of television use) and dependent variables (e.g., proficiency in English) has
not been very successful in the past” (Hasebrink 2007: 89). A survey proved that watching
more television does not increase the amount of contact with English via television. This is
however the case for internet; there is a “fairly high correlation between the amount of use
and English contact in all research groups” (Hasebrink 2007: 92).
2.3 Attitude towards English and English proficiency
An important aspect of the presence of the English language in the Dutch-language society is
the attitude towards this presence. This issue will be discussed in 3.3.1. Firstly, attention will
be paid to purism, which is the most hostile attitude possible towards the English influence. A
brief historical overview of purism in the Low Countries, the distinction between the
Netherlands and Flanders, and several arguments against the English influence will be
included. Secondly, we will expound the opinions of speakers of Dutch, with special attention
to the differences between the Dutch and the Flemings. In 3.3.2, the English language
proficiency will be examined. This is important because it is possible that there is a link
between one’s proficiency in a foreign language and the attitude towards this language and its
speakers.
24
2.3.1 ATTITUDE TOWARDS ENGLISH
Purism
The attitude towards English, and foreign words in general, can be divided into two main
movements. Either foreign words can be accepted, or they can be reacted against because of
puristic motivations (Van der Sijs 2005). In periods of tolerance, the advantages of borrowing
words are highlighted. The puristic reaction can entail suppression of foreign words or
looking for an indigenous alternative. The majority of the negative reactions only take the
foreign words which are still recognizable as foreign into account, and not the less eye-
catching or integrated loan words or foreign sentence constructions, even though these are
more likely to influence Dutch on a deeper level (Smits et al. 1989; Van der Sijs 2005).
Moreover, speakers of Dutch are more irritated by English words that are rather long, when
there is an obvious Dutch alternative, or when the English word is rather new (Redactie Onze
Taal 2009: 19).
It should be noted that extreme purists do not only condemn foreign words, both
established and unestablished, but also foreign phrases, expressions, literal translations and
incorrect syntax, among others (Van der Sijs 2005). The arguments that are put forward most
often against borrowings are the loss of individual character of Dutch, the degeneration of
Dutch, the redundancy of foreign words, and that borrowing words is a sign of snobbism (Van
der Sijs 2005).
Through the ages, periods of extreme purism have alternated with periods of moderate
purism or even tolerance (Van der Sijs 2005). The first important puristic movement arose
during the sixteenth century, as a reaction against French and Latin loan words. The number
of these loan words increased strongly because of the influence of Latin and French literature
on the new literature in the mother tongue (Van der Sijs 2005). Until the nineteenth century,
the Northern Dutch purism was mainly aimed against the influence of French. During the
nineteenth century, purists tried to take action against the German influence, not only because
of the number of German loan words, but also because of fear for their economic and political
power. The resistance against the German language was the most important motive to found
the Genootschap Onze Taal in 1931.
25
Van der Helm (2009) analyses a puristic booklet from 1899, which mainly reacts
against the French influence. He concludes that even though French and Latin had a great
influence on Dutch, it cannot be said that the Dutch language has Gallicized or deteriorated.
Therefore, the question rises whether English loan words in Dutch will undergo a similar
future. The expectation is that eventually, English words will be filtered out and that only the
most useful and enriching words will remain (Van der Helm 2009). Van der Helm (2009: 6,
own translation) concludes that the pursuit of a ‘pure’ language is impossible: “To exclusively
allow words which are of a pure origin is depriving the language of the chance to measure
itself with and strengthen because of these influences. Therefore, it is a not a desirable goal to
pursue […].”
The Southern Dutch purism partly has its own characteristics (Van der Sijs 2005).
Because Flanders had to fight the Roman, mainly French dominance, the purism aimed
against French loan words. The reaction entailed replacing French words by indigenous
words, often via translation. Moreover, Southern Dutch purism comprises spelling purisms
and pronunciation purisms. This means that the foreign spelling or pronunciation is disposed
of. This type of purism occurs less in Northern Dutch (Van der Sijs 2005). Finally, Southern
Dutch fought the German influence less than Northern Dutch. Interestingly, Southern Dutch
also reacts against the Northern Dutch variant, and especially against its large number of
foreign (French) words.
Van der Sijs (2005) concludes that puristic reactions are unnecessary. Language
evolves constantly, and borrowing words is an essential characteristic of this evolution.
Either, loan words become established and enrich the native language, or they disappear
automatically. Purism is often an excuse to fight against political, economic and cultural
influences (Van der Sijs 2005). Smits et al. (1989) concur with this view; even though their
tone when speaking about English loan words is rather negative, they decide that it is one of
the characteristics of a language to evolve constantly, to be flexible and instable. Moreover,
even though the position of English in the Netherlands is quite strong, it is not threatening the
Dutch language because it mainly influences the vocabulary, i.e. on the lexical level, in
contrast to the phonological or grammatical level (Booij 2001).
In the Netherlands and Flanders, several language organisations fight against the
influence of foreign languages, and particularly English. The multitude of language
organisations which oppose the supposed Anglicization of Dutch is an indication of a negative
attitude towards English (Grezel 2007). The majority of these organisations were started up
during the past decade. The most striking characteristic of these language organisations, such
26
as stichting Nederlands, het Ampzing Genootschap and Stichting Taalverdediging, is that they
are specifically set against the use of English words, but have less attention for other aspects
of language such as pronunciation, declension, conjugation and sentence structure.
Furthermore, they fight against English as communication language in certain domains, such
as education and business (Grezel 2007).
Their stance is that the Dutch language suffices to express oneself and that it has been
functioning great for centuries without English. Speakers of Dutch would suffer from
anglomania and use an English word whenever they have to name something. Moreover, it
would be a shame to use English when so much effort has been invested in the learning of the
mother tongue (Grezel 2007). However, the organisations want to distinguish themselves
from ‘actual’ language purism and state not to have an aversion towards English, but that
English should not be used instead of Dutch (Grezel 2007).
Van Oostendorp (2002) gives an overview of several reasons to oppose lexical
borrowing. In general, the people who are against the use of English loans in Dutch can be
divided into three different groups. The first group is irritated by the corruption of their
mother tongue. The second group is more politically than linguistically motivated and
believes that their Dutch language needs to remain pure, and that therefore, no foreign
language should be spoken in the Netherlands. Moreover, this group often thinks about the
Netherlands and Flanders as a linguistic union. The third group contains creative people who
enjoy playing with words and invent Dutch equivalents for English words. Most of these
“complainers” are not taken seriously (Van Oostendorp 2002: 7). However, the complaints
about the use of English for ‘internal’ use in the Netherlands are more credible.
According to Van Oostendorp, the most important argument against the use of English
is “the linguistic imperialism [of] the language of Mickey Mouse and the Bush family” (Van
Oostendorp 2002: 7). It would be unfair for children to learn English, while their English-
speaking peers are able to spend time on other courses. In addition, the use of English at
international meetings would be a disadvantage to non-native English speakers, because a
discussion which is quite technical or heated might be more difficult to participate in. The
final argument is that, with the English language, also the English culture affects the
indigenous culture (Van Oostendorp 2002). People who come into contact with Anglo-Saxon
music and programmes, would unconsciously take over the Anglo-Saxon, and mainly the
American norms and values. In the end, only the culture of the United States would remain
(Van Oostendorp 2002). These arguments indicate that the English threat should not be
underestimated, but eventually, Van Oostendorp (2002) considers them invalid.
27
To conclude, it can be said that the supposed Anglicization of Dutch has not gone
unnoticed; in numerous genres and media, the use of English is discussed or criticized:
It has been commented on in scholarly publications […], in non-specialist articles about the
Dutch language […], in news magazines […], newspapers […] and also in magazines about
advertising […]. All of these publications note an increase in the domains in which English is
used (education, science, business, advertising), as well as an increase in the number of
English words and phrases that are used […]. […] On the whole, the attitude of these
publications towards Anglicization is a negative one; they [the publications] strongly advocate
the use of Dutch. (Gerritsen et al. 2000: 4).
Notwithstanding the general idea that the Dutch language is Anglicising, most remarks and
opinions are based on ‘incidental observations’ (Gerritsen et al, 2000, 4). Moreover, puristic
ideas pass by the strength of languages (Van der Helm 2009). Usually, languages do not
disappear as a result of foreign influences. Languages do become extinct when every single
word and every grammatical rule is replaced by foreign ones. Eventually, the main advantage
of borrowing foreign words, which is often disregarded by the purists, is that it can stimulate
the precision, elegance and originality of the Dutch language (Van der Helm 2009).
Opinions of speakers of Dutch
The opinion of speakers of Dutch towards English, or foreign languages in general, has been
discussed a lot and from different perspectives. The majority of literature about the position of
Dutch focuses on the relationship between Dutch and English (De Bot 2002). The prevalent
opinion is that, in a multilingual society, each language will coexist and be used in specific
domains. It has already been proved that English is important in several domains in Dutch-
speaking areas, but that Dutch remains the language which is spoken at home (De Bot 2002).
Even though the threat of English is a popular subject of discussions or arguments, empirical
research is rarely conducted (De Bot 2002).
In addition, there is a lack of a serious public discussion about the English influence
(Van Oostendorp 2002). It is important to realize that the opinions about this matter differ
between the cultural elite, such as writers, politicians, and journalists on the one hand, and the
‘everyday language users’ which do not belong to this cultural elite on the other (De Bot
2002). This was discovered in research by Flaitz (De Bot 2002) about the attitudes of English
used in France:
28
Our informants neither feared the impact of American culture nor believed that speaking
English would result in the adoption of American values. [The power elite] has found success
in convincing much of the English-speaking world that the majority of French men and
women find English and its native speakers offensive, [but] this study suggests this to be a
conclusion of questionable validity. (Flaitz 1988: 199, cited in De Bot 2002: 193)
The situation in the Netherlands, and by analogy Flanders, is quite similar. A majority of
opinion leaders consider English as a threat to their language. Therefore, research needs to be
conducted in order to record the opinion of the general public (De Bot 2002). Other
researchers have connected the influx of English vocabulary into Dutch to the globalisation,
digitalisation, post-industrialisation, and political and economic unification (Mamadouh,
Soetaert & Top 2002). These changes in language and society provoke contradictory reactions
in multiple countries or groups, due to their cultural implications: “The attitudes vary between
fascination and concern, between openness and defence” (Mamadouh et al. 2002: 213).
Because it is a common view among researchers that it is more likely that English is
developing into an L2 status in the Netherlands, Gerritsen (2005) assumes that Dutchmen also
have a more positive attitude towards English than Belgians. To compare the attitudes
towards English in the Netherlands and Belgium, the opinions of women from both countries
were investigated about an English campaign and the same advertisement in Dutch. There
were no significant differences between the opinions of the Dutch women and the Flemish.
Moreover, the Dutch-language advertisement was judged as positive as the English version.
Therefore, it cannot be concluded that the Dutch are more positive towards English than the
Belgians (Gerritsen 2005).
In his own research, De Bot (2002) investigated the attitude of respondents of multiple
origins, Dutch, German, English and Turkish, towards several languages. The interviewees
had to indicate which one of the four respective languages in the research, they consider the
most important. Respondents from the Netherlands believe that their native language is the
most important, which could indicate that English is not seen as a threat. However, the same
respondents would gladly take English classes and say to worry about losing their own
language, in contrast to the English respondents. The German and Turkish interviewees share
this concern, but none of the respondents see English as a threat to their own language. All of
the respondents think that the preservation of their own language and culture is important.
29
On the one hand, the respondents believe that English has a high status; on the other hand,
the status of Dutch (and German) is seen as similar to the English one. De Bot (2002) finally
concludes that Dutchmen are not as indifferent about their language and culture as is often
assumed.
English is especially successful among the younger generation.18
It was found that the
Dutch younger generation consider English the foreign language which is learned the easiest.
There is no linguistic prove to confirm these opinions: “this preference […] has an attitudinal
rather than a linguistic basis because the older generation in their 60s and 70s considered
English more difficult than German” (Berns et al. 2007: 38). Moreover, the European youth is
more linguistically able than their parents’ generation (Berns 2007a)19
. It is important that the
positive attitude towards learning and using English does not necessarily imply “widespread
acceptance and positive attitudes toward the pervasive presence of English” (Berns et al.
2007: 39). There is a “tension between fear of English influence and the general perception of
the necessity of English” (Berns et al. 2007, 39): mainly older people express their concerns
about the expanding role of English in multiple domains, even though they also recognize the
advantages of being fluent in English. They fear that English eventually will replace the
mother tongue. This view is quite common throughout Europe, and not confined to a specific
country (Berns et al. 2007).
These results are confirmed in a small research with two groups of interviewees, a
younger age group (20 to 30 years old) and an older age group (older than 50) (Withagen &
Boves 1991). Moreover, there was a distinction in each age group between respondents who
had secondary education and respondents who are higher educated. The older group preferred
a ‘pure’ Dutch language. Especially the best-agers with lower education stated to be able to
express themselves without English (Withagen et al. 1991). The younger group does not mind
the use of English in Dutch, but surprisingly, the ones with the lower education find that they
need English the most in order to express themselves (Withagen et al. 1991). However, the
idea that people of lower classes appreciate English more is contradicted by Gerritsen et al.
(1999: 24). Another test showed that nowadays, highly educated young persons would be less
impressed by English and that the prestige of English is slowly decreasing, but this view is
not confirmed by other research (Withagen et al. 1991).
18
Research from 2003 made clear that especially older people believe that Dutch is deteriorating. One of their
concerns is that adolescents borrow very often from other languages and that they punctuate their language with
English (Bennis et al. 2004). 19
For instance, in research about the comprehension of English in Dutch television commercials, it was proved
that younger people, aged between fifteen and eighteen, are more positive towards English in television
commercials than older people, aged between fifty and fifty-seven (Gerritsen et al. 1999).
30
In research about language change and language corruption, the authors assessed nine
popular ideas about the evolution of the mother tongue (Bennis, Cornips & Van Oostendorp
2004). Examples of these believes are ‘language change is language degradation’, ‘language
change is the simplification of language’, ‘language change implies a lack of norms’ and
‘people who do not speak or write according to the norm, despise their audience’. As the
authors make clear in the preface, their intention is to nuance or contradict these popular
believes, but they add that different visions are possible and that linguists disagree on the
majority of the topics.
In the research by De Bot et al. (2007b), which has already been mentioned
previously, the opinions of young people from different countries have been investigated and
compared. The respondents had to answers questions about likeability, the importance of
English and the advantages of English. The results of the assessment of the likeability and the
importance of English are very similar for the Dutch and Belgian pupils. The greatest
advantages of English, according to the respondents, are “[c]ommunication abroad,
comprehension of song texts, books and TV programs and working with computers” (De Bot
et al. 2007b: 64). It is surprising that the respondents do not really see advantages in the fact
that “some things might sound better in English or that […] some things cannot be expressed
adequately in the national language” (De Bot et al. 2007b:64). Other research by De Bot and
Evers (2007) proved that the link between contact and attitude is also important: “[t]here is a
clear effect of contact through personal network and in particular through music/TV on
likeability and importance of knowing English. Contact through Media II [radio, newspapers
and journals] only affects the extent to which advantages of knowing English are mentioned”
(De Bot et al. 2007a: 85).
Next to having an opinion about lexical varieties in terms of appropriateness and good
or bad, language users also find that words have certain connotations; “they think that some
words sound more refined or cultivated than others, prettier or more appealing, pleasant or
familiar, coarser or funnier, or characteristic, full of atmosphere or enriching” (Van Bezooijen
2002: 32, own translation). This matter will be discussed in more detail below, as one of the
advantages of using English (2.4).
31
2.3.2 ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY
From 1976 onwards, the European Commission has been canvassing polls about the attitudes
from the inhabitants of European member countries about various aspects of European
integration (Quell 2002). The results about matters such as mother tongue and acquired
languages are gathered in the so-called Eurobarometer. Eurobarometer 41 (1994) shows that
here are only three languages in which more than 5 per cent the 13,000 respondents say to be
able to maintain a conversation: English, French and German. The growth of knowledge of
foreign languages in the European Union has been measured and the increase was the
strongest for English (Quell 2002). There are still large differences between the different
European countries with regard to the knowledge of foreign languages. Almost 75 per cent of
the inhabitants in the Netherlands speak English, while this is only 35 per cent in Belgium. As
for the importance of foreign languages, 90 per cent of the respondents indicate English as
one of the most useful languages. This percentage is even higher in Belgium (90.9) and the
Netherlands (96.1). Note that the percentage of the Netherlands is almost the highest of all
countries (Quell 2002). Only in Spain and Denmark, more inhabitants indicate English as an
important language. Data from Eurobarometer 54 (2002) show an upward trend:
75% of the respondents believe that knowledge of English is practical, as opposed to 40% for
French and 23% for German. English is also by far the language which is spoken, and taught
at school most often. (Mamadouh et al. 2002: 216, own translation).
Since the majority of researchers believe that English is becoming an L2 language in the
Netherlands, in contradiction to Belgium, Gerritsen (2005) assumes that inhabitants from the
Netherlands will have higher English proficiency levels than the Dutch-speaking Belgians. In
order to verify this assumption, respondents had to indicate the general meaning of several
English advertisements, which were taken from the Dutch and Flemish editions of Elle.
Similar to the other tests Gerritsen executed, there were no clear differences between the
results of the Dutch and the Flemish interviewees. Both groups indicated the wrong meaning
for a third of the advertisements.
32
De Bot et al. (2007b) made students of different countries make an English vocabulary
test and fill in several self-assessment questionnaires. In general, the self-estimations are
higher for listening and reading proficiency, than for speaking and writing. Overall, the scores
for global self-assessment from bilingual students from the Netherlands and Belgian French-
speaking students were the highest. However, in earlier tests, it was proved that students from
the Netherlands and Flanders have the best linguistic skills in English by far (De Bot 2002). In
addition, it is noteworthy that “the receptive skills are in general higher than the productive”
(De Bot 2002, 195).
The pupils also had to indicate to what extent they can perform several communicative
tasks. The bilingual Dutch pupils again had the best results, while the French-speaking have
the lowest results (De Bot et al. 2007a). The vocabulary test examined the passive English
word knowledge. The bilingual Dutch pupils once more had the highest scores, followed by
the Dutch-speaking Belgian students. The mean of the Dutch-speaking Dutch students lies 15
per cent lower than the mean of the Flemish students. The French-speaking Belgians achieved
a higher mean than the German pupils. It is intriguing that, even though the majority of the
inhabitants of the Netherlands know English, they suffer from an overestimation of their
abilities. The problems are expectedly larger at the level of grammar than at the level of
vocabulary. Moreover, the lack of knowledge of certain conventions might lead to a
breakdown in communication.
School is indicated as the most important source for the acquisition of English by all
groups. Interestingly, there are differences in the percentages of the importance of school:
Its portion varies from about 60% in Dutch-speaking groups to about 80% in French-speaking
groups. In all groups, except the French, school is followed by the media. In the three Dutch-
speaking groups, in particular, the proportion is rather substantial (about a quarter for students
in bilingual schools to a third for Belgian speakers of Dutch). The option [‘other ways’] was
most important for Dutch students in bilingual schools, and least important for Belgian
speakers of Dutch (18% and 3.8%, respectively), and around 10% for the other four groups.
(De Bot, Evers & Huibregtse 2007: 68).
33
Moreover, the Dutch-speaking pupils both from the Netherlands and Belgium, “have parents
with a higher level of education, parents and siblings with higher levels of proficiency, more
contact witch English through media and contacts, and they show higher scores on the
proficiency tests” (De Bot et al. 2007b: 69). The German and French groups have more
variable scores: “they have less contact with English and they show lower proficiency scores”
(De Bot et al. 2007b: 69). Research that dates from 1997 proved that both Dutch pupils in
secondary education and university students overestimate their English skills, probably due to
the wide usage of the language. Problems are “the lack of awareness of the importance of
register choice and level of politeness” and the correct intonation (Booij 2001: 354).
In a following research, it was investigated whether there are correspondences
between family background, contact with English, English proficiency and attitudes towards
English (De Bot & Evers 2007a). The most interesting finding is that “contact through
personal network, media I [music, film and television] and vacations has a direct effect on
both the self-evaluations and vocabulary scores” (De Bot et al. 2007a: 85). Media such as
radio, newspapers and journals, only affect the self-evaluations. Moreover, “[c]ontacts
through personal network and through music and TV appear to be the most influential” (De
Bot et al. 2007a: 85). It needs to be noted that the speakers of Dutch get into contact with
English language music, film and television more frequently than the speakers of French or
German. However, the frequency of contact with English language radio, newspapers and,
most importantly, journals is generally low. The speakers of Dutch score lower than the
Germans, but higher than the speakers of French. Within the Dutch-speaking group, the Dutch
students who follow bilingual education most frequently read English newspapers or journals
(De Bot et al. 2007a).
Because titles of movies and television programmes remain English in most of the
cases, an originally Dutch programmes receive an English title quite often, it can be assumed
that the consumers of several media are able to understand the English which is used (Smits et
al. 1989) However, the comprehensibility of English programme and film titles is apparently
not as high as is expected. Even linguistics students do not understand these English titles or
only have a hunch of what it means. The problem of this lack of comprehension of English is
that a kind of illiteracy is forced upon a large number of people (Smits et al. 1989).
The fact that titles are rarely translated into Dutch can affect the Dutch vocabulary.
Tens of English words which originally occurred in the Dutch language as part of a movie
title have found their way into the Dutch language during the past decades (Den Boon 2009).
Allusions are made frequently to these titles, for instance in “Diamonds are forever, de dood
34
ook”, which refers to the title of the Bond film and occurred in a financial journal of 2008
(Den Boon 2009: 22).20
About twenty English movie titles have become that recognizable that
they occur in a certain form in Van Dale. English catch phrases are sometimes referred to as
well in Van Dale. Examples are “shaken, not stirred” and “my name is Janssen, Jan Janssen”
(Den Boon 2009: 22).
It is interesting to note that “different kinds of English proficiency are developed in the
context of different media environments” (Hasebrink 2007: 109):
Our findings clearly demonstrate that young people selectively choose the media which then
build their media environment, which may differ quite substantially from group to group.
These differences correspond to differences in English proficiency and underscore that
proficiency may not be conceptualized as a one-dimensional construct. Instead, young people
develop very specific and differentiated patterns of English proficiency. (Hasebrink 2007:
109)
English also occurs in the specific context of advertising, both in print media and on
television. Numerous studies about the effect and comprehensibility of English in ads have
been carried out. The most interesting findings will be briefly discussed. Not much attention
has been paid to the use of English in articles of Dutch-language magazines, but
advertisements in these magazines aim at the same target audience and therefore, to a certain
extent, comparable. The language in television commercials is also relevant, because it often
consists of rather short English catch-phrases, product names or brand names, which also
occur regularly in magazine articles.
The most important finding about English proficiency is the advertising agencies are
wrong to believe that their target group understands English messages in advertisements
Gerritsen et al. 1999, Gerritsen et al. 2010). Even more, “the respondents’ actual
comprehension of the English texts of the ads was low: in 39% of all cases, the respondents
were not able to indicate the meaning of the English phrases [...]” (Gerritsen et al. 2010: 357).
Another study showed that, against all expectations, the comprehension of English in
advertisements was significantly low in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium; the
comprehensibility of English “was significantly higher in France, the Netherlands, French-
speaking Belgium, and Spain than in Dutch-speaking Belgium and Germany” (Gerritsen et al.
2010: 357). However, these results are in conflict with the Eurobarometer 2006 data, which
20
This sentence can be translated as ‘Diamonds are forever, so is death’.
35
showed that the inhabitants of the Netherlands thought to be able to conduct an English
conversation the most, followed by Belgium, Germany, France and Spain (Gerritsen et al.
2010).
Earlier research by Gerritsen et al. (1999) confirmed that, even though he large
majority of the Dutch viewers think he or she understands English perfectly, actually less than
half of them can explain what is meant in certain television commercials. There is also a large
difference in comprehension between younger and older people. The latter performs half as
good on the explanation test. In addition, people who are higher educated understand more
than people with a lower education. Moreover, English is better understood when it appears
on screen: the test results for understanding lay almost a third higher. For this research, this
could imply that readers of magazine experience fewer difficulties in understanding English,
not only because they can rely on written text, but also because the English in articles is
surrounded by Dutch, which might provide a clearer context for understanding.
It should be questioned whether the actual comprehension of English is that important
in commercials, especially since it is often used because of its image, as will be discussed in
3.4. Sometimes, slogans in advertisements are consciously not translated because their
symbolic value in a specific foreign language is larger than its communicative function:
It is clear from the use of language in intercultural advertising that in-depth and familiar
knowledge of the foreign language is neither displayed by the advertiser nor assumed on the
part of the advertisee [the person or group of persons to whom the advert is directed]. In
intercultural advertising […] language now seems to be used primarily for its symbolic value,
while the communicative or utility value of the words has come to be obscured or mystified
through the process of fetishization to the point where it becomes irrelevant. (Kelly-Holmes
2000: 70-71)
In other words, foreign languages can encompass a certain symbolic value, which is not
related to its communicative function, but this symbolic value is not autonomous: “it is in fact
the product of intercultural social, political, economic, historical and linguistic relations
between different countries […] (Kelly-Holmes 2000: 71).21
Of course, English might be seen
as a special case because it is a lingua franca:
21
Also Gerritsen & Janssen (2001) discuss the symbolic value of English words; because they are less
comprehensible, according to the interviewees, they “sound more interesting” and “give the impression that you
know more about it” (Gerritsen 2001: 41). This signifies that there is a relation between the incomprehensibility
36
English in intercultural advertising is quite a unique case, since the English language has
meaning, use and significance independent of the countries in which it is spoken. Thus, we see
its use as a symbol of a national identity, of globalism, of youth, of progress and modernity; at
on and the same time, it can bear the properties of pan-Europeanness/Americanness/globalism.
(Kelly-Holmes 2000: 76)
In conclusion, it is clear that quite a lot of research has been carried out into the English
proficiency and the comprehension of English in a variety of contexts by people who have a
different native language. The results for the differences between Dutch and Flemish people
are rather ambiguous. Some of the researchers pointed out that the proficiency of Dutchmen
and Flemings is almost identical, while, in other studies, the speakers of Dutch from the
Netherlands clearly attain higher scores. This matter needs to be investigated in more detail to
draw nuanced conclusions.
2.4 Advantages of using English
The fact that English words are often used instead of Dutch words indicates that there are
several advantages to these English terms. A variety of motivations has been given by
multiple researchers, both explicitly and implicitly. The majority of these advantages will be
listed, in order to assess the reasons why authors sometimes prefer English instead of Dutch in
magazine articles. Bakker (1987) sums up ten possible reasons for preferring English over the
Dutch mother tongue. The first reason is the lack of a Dutch equivalent, which is for instance
the case for ‘jazz’ or ‘limerick’. A second one can be the need of variation; an author can
choose a foreign synonym, in order to avoid too much repetition. Examples are ‘goal’ instead
of ‘doelpunt’, or ‘hey’ instead of ‘hallo’. The third possible reason is the euphemistic quality
the English equivalent of a Dutch word or sentence can offer. According to the author, using
English because of this reason is typical of the “fashionable clothing industry, where almost
no thread of textile can be found without an English product name […]” (Bakker 1987: 73,
own translation). A fourth motivation for using English is the want of shortness or
conciseness. Examples are ‘hit’ instead of ‘succesnummer’ and ‘drugs’ instead of
‘verdovende middelen’.
of a word and its attractiveness. Respondents who did not understand an English loan word, declared to use that
word more often than respondents who do understand it.
37
“[S]yntactic suppleness” is a fifth motivation to choose for English (Bakker 1987: 73,
own translation). English words would be easier to form compounds with, which are not
directly translatable into Dutch. Translating these compounds is often hard, and would in a lot
of cases result in complicated grammatical structures, for instance in ‘non-profitinstelling’,
‘eye-opener’, and ‘off-shore’. The sixth reason to use an English word is precision or
connotation. Because of certain connotations, an English word may carry a specific meaning
that the Dutch equivalent does not encompass (Bakker 1987). The fact that the connotations
of English words play an important role is described by Smits et al. (1989) as follows:
The connotation of words can shift and fluctuate. And it is not always understandable. Why do
‘forget it’, ‘why not’ or ‘so what?’ sound that nicely resolute. Why is someone who is ‘tipsy’
more cheerful than his drunken drink buddy? […] Why does ‘clean’ sound so clean? We could
talk and write unlimited about these questions, but there are no answers. (Smits et al. 1989:
8-9, own translation)
A seventh motivation is the need of a broader meaning. An English word can imply more than
its Dutch counterpart. The eighth reason is the possibility that the use of English metaphors
makes an article livelier. Examples are ‘baby boom’, ‘black box’, ‘brain storm’, ‘finishing
touch’ and ‘pin-up’. Furthermore, the ninth reason is that the pronunciation of the English
equivalent of a Dutch word can convey extra meaning or can increase the expressiveness,
especially for words which are emotionally loaded. The author gives examples such as
‘blunder’, ‘impact’, ‘kick’, ‘creep’ and ‘power’, because the plosives make them sound
stronger. Also the sibilant and abrupt stop in ‘shit’ would convey extra meaning. Finally, the
tenth advantage of English is its stylistic value, which means it can conjure up specific
associations. Examples are ‘in the mood’ and ‘godfather’. Because of the associations these
words summon, they can easily be used ironically. Even though Bakker (1987) is convinced
that these ten motives are equally estimable, some of them are probably more realistic
motivations than others. It is likely that the lack of a Dutch equivalent, the need for variation,
and specific connotations are the most important reasons to use English words in Dutch-
language articles.
38
Ten years later, De Raaij (1997) listed five reasons to use English in advertisements,
because of the complaints about the supposed excessive amount of English words in several
domains of the Dutch-language society. Most of the motivations for using English differ from
those given by Bakker (1987). This is likely caused by the focus on the specific context of
advertising. The first motivation is the fact that an English word sounds more interesting than
its Dutch equivalent. A second reason is the fact that English might look more witty and
profound, especially when the meaning of the utterance is rather ridiculous. English is able to
make a weak advert sound stronger. The third possible reason is the fact that English can help
to circumvent certain difficulties that might occur when using Dutch. For instance, to avoid
making a choice between the polite (u) and casual (je) form of the Dutch personal pronoun,
the English personal pronoun ‘you’ is used instead. The avoidance of spelling difficulties in
Dutch words is the fourth motivation. The fifth reason is similar to the fourth motivation by
Bakker (1987); English would sound better because it is more concise and contains more one-
syllabic words.
The euphemistic quality, the wittiness, and the profoundness discussed previously are
in a certain way combined in the Castorp-effect, described by Van Oostendorp (2002). The
name of this effect is derived from the name of the protagonist in Thomas Mann’s novel Der
Zauberberg. When Castorp finds the courage to confess his love after a long time of
contemplation, he expresses it in French because “parler français, c’est parler sans parler, en
quelque manière” (Van Oostendorp 2002: 93). To Dutch-speaking language users, English
could provide the same euphemistic effect. An English word might be preferred over its
Dutch equivalent because it sounds more playful, less serious and because it carries specific
connotations. This explains why “difficult conversations are sometimes larded with airy
sounding English” (Smits et al. 1989: 7). It is likely that this effect is caused by the specific
functioning of the memory. Dutch words easily summon a variety of associations, while this
is not the case for foreign words. Their associations are usually less extensive, and most
probably are made by means of translation into the native language.
Van der Sijs (2005) also lists different reasons to use English words instead of Dutch.
A few of them overlap with the advantages discussed by Bakker (1987) and De Raaij (1997),
for instance conciseness and euphemistic quality. It is important that the author differentiates
between necessary borrowings and unnecessary borrowings (Van der Sijs 2005). Borrowing
words can be necessary when they refer to a new referent, such as a new object, concept, or
technological development. These foreign words are often borrowed by multiple target
languages. On the contrary, unnecessary borrowings already have an equivalent in the native
39
language. Sometimes, a foreign equivalent can be preferred (temporarily); the meaning of a
borrowed word is never identical to its native translation. It can have a slightly different
meaning, another connotation, more prestige or a different stylistic value. Especially when the
attitude towards a certain concept changes, people tend to use a new, often borrowed, word to
name it.
Several reasons are given to motivate the use of unnecessary borrowings. The first
reason Van de Sijs (2005) names is prestige. French used to be the most prestigious foreign
language from a Dutch point of view, but English occupies this position now. This is for
instance reflected in the names of occupations, such as ‘sales manager’ or ‘consultant’. The
second reason is the fact that certain loan words are used as markers of identity. New words
are employed to distinguish from other groups or generations. This is especially the case for
greetings, such as ‘bye’, ‘so long’, ‘see you’ and ‘yo’. However, these types of words are very
transitory as markers of a specific generation. The third motivation is the fact that a loan word
might add a certain nuance that does not occur in Dutch. This also has been briefly mentioned
by Bakker (1987) and De Raaij (1979), but Van der Sijs (2005) adds that this nuance or
connotation is not necessarily identical to the possible nuance in the source language.
Typically, in technical language loan words occur, because they are more precise or already
customary in a specific field. The fifth and final reason for borrowing foreign words is to
avoid confusion between to indigenous forms. In that case, loan words can replace one of the
native forms.
It might be overlooked that in some contexts, the use of English has financial reasons.
In the advertising sector, for instance, an important motivation for using English is avoiding
translation costs (Gijsbers et al. 1998). This is especially the case with global advertising, i.e.
campaigns which are released all over the world (Gijsbers et al. 1999). English is chosen in
that case because it is a lingua franca, because the United States are a major player in the
advertising industry, and because “[t]he better-educated throughout Europe, as well as youth,
can be reached with English […]” (De Mooij 1994: 288, cited in Gerritsen et al. 1999: 3). For
instance, in more than half of a corpus of television commercials from 1998, English product
or brand names occurred. These English names are preserved not only because of the image,
but also because of financial reasons. The registration of a Dutch name can be expensive and
40
lead to confusion (Gijsbers et al. 1998). Also slogans in commercials are often English,
mainly because in this way translation costs are avoided.22
Another advantage of using a foreign language, especially in advertisements, is the
possibility to express solidarity with the target group (Hornikx & Hof 2008). This can be
extended to the language in magazines, as becomes clear in a documentary called ‘English in
our daily lives’, under the authority of the Dutch Language Union. The then editing
supervisor of CosmoGirl!, Carlijn Simons, was interviewed about the language in the
magazine. The use of English words is mainly motivated by the target audience:
Our target audience is used to English and has been brought into contact with it from
childhood onwards, through television, computer and games. Because we want to speak their
language, we use English too. The language we use to write is fluent and fast, and English is a
perfect fit for that concept, because you need way less words in English to express what you
want to say and to keep to the point. I think the older generation really needs to become used
to this idea. However, English needs to be functional. English can be used when it sounds
better and if it is more fluent. When there is a Dutch alternative that has exactly the same
effect on your text, than I prefer the Dutch equivalent. I think that teenagers are going further
and further, also because they read and write less, increasingly use television and internet, so I
guess this evolution will become stronger. (NTU 2007, own translation)
It is clear that the use of English in magazines is motivated by referring to the image it carries.
The language is associated with “a young, dazzling, international lifestyle”, exclusiveness,
and sensitiveness to trends, which, in addition explains the popularity of English in
advertisements. (Gijsbers et al. 1998, Renkema et al. 2003). Thus, publicity experts may
believe that an English name has a symbolic function, because of possible connotations and
emotions it can conjure up. In addition, they could think English is more appealing and will
seduce the target group better than a Dutch name (Gijsbers et al. 1998; Hornikx & Hof 2008;
Renkema et al. 2003). It was investigated whether the image of luxury, modernity and
expensiveness also comes across for the target audience of advertisements in magazines
(young, highly educated women), but this could not be confirmed (Gijsbers et al. 1998).
Gerritsen et al. 2007 came to the same conclusion; the respondents do not believe that English
in advertisements gives the product a more expensive image, but they did state that the
product felt more modern (Gerritsen et al. 2007).
22
However, Gijsbers et al. (1998) note that English slogans are translated in other countries, for instance Spain,
France, Italy, and Germany. This might illustrate that Dutch commercial designers use English because they
believe that consumers from the Netherlands and Belgium understand English anyway (Gijsbers et al. 1998).
41
Renkema, Vallen & Hoeken (2003) investigated the appeal of English shop and brand
names in comparison to their Dutch equivalents. Examples are ‘Fashion and Style 2000’
versus ‘Mode en Stijl 2000’, ‘Hifi Sound and Vision Centre’ versus ‘Hifi Geluids- en
Beeldcentrum’ and ‘Giftshop Marianne’ versus ‘Cadeauwinkel Marianne’. It is interesting to
note that ‘hifi’, which is kept in the Dutch equivalent, is borrowed from English, and that
‘cadeau’ is borrowed from French. Interviews with 120 speakers of Dutch proved that the
English names are rarely more associated with exclusiveness. Only ‘Fashion and Style 2000’
sounded more expensive by the respondents. The researchers conclude that English names for
shops do not carry a more modern image. However, both younger and older respondents were
of the opinion that the English names sounded more appealing and prettier than the Dutch
names, without it affecting the image of the shop itself. Moreover, the interviewees find that
the English names sound as natural as the Dutch ones. This indicates that English names for
shops are quite established, or that the respondents are more tolerant towards English proper
names (Renkema et al. 2003).
The borrowing in intercultural advertising “is being instigated in order to exploit
stereotypes about particular European countries and their perceived competencies” (Kelly-
Holmes, 2000: 79). Because of these stereotypes and the symbolic association of a language,
these multilingual linguistic items are understood through symbolic association. This means
that the form is more important than the literal meaning, which is normally the preferred
meaning in communication. “Instead, as a result of fetishisation, the symbolic and connotative
is what we reach for first in our interpretation of intercultural advertising communication”
(Kelly-Holmes 2000: 79).
42
2.5 Summary and hypotheses
In summary, the majority of researchers do not believe that a distinction between code-
switching and lexical borrowing is necessary, since the processes are rather similar and should
be seen as parts of one continuum (Boztepe 2003). In the data analysis, the focus will be on
lexical borrowing, because it enables us to distinguish between direct borrowings and
established loan words. Even though it is commonly believed that the English language
influences Dutch the most, it has been proved that French exercised a larger influence, which
is reflected in the number of words borrowed from each language. However, English has been
gaining importance in several domains over the last century in the Dutch-language society.
The official attitude towards English is as good as identical in the Netherlands and
Flanders, because of the Dutch Language Union. However, as a consequence of certain
historical evolutions, such as the suppression of the Dutch language in Flanders, the unofficial
general attitude towards foreign language might lightly differ. Moreover, there is no
consensus among researchers about the status of English in the Netherlands. It seems most
probable that English for now remains merely an international language in the Netherlands
and Belgium, in contrast to an L2 language. The relationship between the English and Dutch
language has been explained in the light of historical contact between the inhabitants of the
United Kingdom and the Low Countries over several centuries. This revealed that the
influence is not unilateral, but the influence of English on the Dutch language is more recent.
It has also been proved that youth language contains quite a lot of English vocabulary.
This possibly is connected to the more positive attitude younger generations show towards
English in comparison with older generations (Withagen & Boves 1991; Berns et al. 2007).
Several studies showed that there are no apparent differences in the opinions about English in
the Netherlands and Flanders. The attitude towards English is linked to the English language
proficiency. Compared to several other European countries, people from the Netherlands and
Flanders are most proficient in English. The high levels of proficiency can in their turn be
connected to the contact with the English language. Not only do children have the advantage
of mandatory English classes, they also come into contact with English through various
media.
43
Finally, there is a variety of motivations to use English instead of Dutch in certain
contexts. The most obvious reasons are the lack of a Dutch equivalent, the connotation or
euphemistic quality an English word has, to add variation, and because of the image it carries
out. Renkema et al. (2003) discovered that English doe sound more appealing than Dutch in
some contexts. It was found that it is not always necessary to understand a foreign word in
order to grasp its image (Kelly-Holmes 2000).
Based on the literature review, several hypotheses can be formulated with regard to the
magazine articles which will be discussed in the data analysis. The most important
supposition (a) is that English occurs more often in Northern Dutch than in Southern Dutch
magazines. This is based on the fact that there are lexical difference between the Northern and
Southern variety of Dutch, and that Northern Dutch contains more English characteristics than
Southern Dutch. Furthermore, it is possible that the Flemish language still (unconsciously)
reacts against the characteristics of Northern Dutch, based on Van Oostendorps research
(2007). Moreover, although it could not be confirmed that English is developing into an L2
language in the Netherlands, the fact that some researchers assume this development could
indicate that English is slightly more important in the Netherlands. Therefore, it has more
opportunities to influence the native tongue on several levels, such as lexicon and phonology.
In advertisements in print media, there is slightly more English in the Dutch than in the
Flemish magazines, as well (Gerritsen 2005).
The second hypothesis (b) is that English occurs more frequently in magazines for
teenagers than in magazines for adults. As discussed in 3.1.5, youth language can be
considered as a specific register which is used to establish identities and to distinguish from
other groups (Van den Braak 2002). Lexical borrowing is typical of youth language, and also
English exclamations and slang are used regularly. (Den Ouden & Van Wijk 2007; Van der
Sijs 2005). Even though variation of different registers is stronger in spoken than in written
language, it is expected that the language in the magazines will be rather pronounced (De
Caluwe et al. 2002). The reason to believe this, is the fact that writers try to align their
language with that of the target audience, and that magazines try to profile themselves as a
best friend of the reader (NTU 2007).
44
The third assumption (c) that can be made is that the majority of the words which occur in
the magazines are established loan words, in contrast to direct borrowings. As was mentioned
previously, we will not explicitly distinguish between code-switching and lexical borrowing.
Lexical borrowing happens in different phases, and foreign words are called loan words when
they are added to the inherited vocabulary (Van der Sijs 2005). Established loan words are
more broadly accepted, and therefore it is likely that writers show a preference towards these
words. The fourth hypothesis states that, when every different word is only taken into account
once, there are more established loan words than direct borrowings. The fifth expectation is a
correlation between the number of English words and the subject of the article they occur in.
45
3. Methodology
It is our goal to compare the use of English in magazines, and verify whether more English
words are used in magazines from the Netherlands than in magazines from Belgium, and in
magazines for teenagers than in magazines for adults. Therefore, four magazines were
selected based on their country and their target audience: CosmoGirl!, Glamour, Joepie and
Feeling. CosmoGirl! and Glamour are Dutch magazines, written in Northern Dutch, while
Joepie and Feeling are Flemish, written in Southern Dutch. To compare the differences
between the presence of English in the magazines for the young to magazines for adults, the
results from CosmoGirl! and Joepie (teenage magazines) on the one hand, were compared to
the results of Glamour and Feeling (magazines for adults) on the other.
In total, 9 articles per magazine were chosen, adding up to a corpus of 36 articles. The
articles were divided into three different categories based on their content: beauty and fashion,
international celebrities and psychological issues. This division into categories gave us the
chance to investigate whether the occurrence of English is connected to the subject of the
articles. It should be noted that the length of the articles was not taken into account in the
selection process. The consequence is that the total number of words varies per category and
per magazine, but percentages were calculated in order to make them comparable. Moreover,
this enables us to draw conclusions on the relationship between the length of an article and the
number of English words that occur in them.
In every article, the English words were manually indicated and afterwards
automatically listed. The online dictionary Van Dale (2011) was consulted in order to separate
the established loan words from the non-established loan words or direct borrowings. When a
word occurred in the Dutch dictionary, it was considered an established loan word, but when
it was only in the English section of the dictionary, it was regarded as a direct borrowing.
Using a dictionary to determine whether a word is established in the everyday language use is
rather arbitrary, but a condition had to be stipulated in order to be able to distinguish
consistently between established loan words and direct borrowings.
46
Some problems were encountered using Van Dale (2011). For instance, several words
were not found in the dictionary. When this was caused by the compounding of separate
English words, the compound was seen as a direct borrowing. However, when it was caused
by another reason, the word was listed under ‘special cases’. Words which are the result of
wordplay were classified in this category as well. Furthermore, it was important to distinguish
between compounds and separate words (for instance in a phrase or sentence), because a
compound counts as one word only. English titles of films, television programmes, songs and
books caused a problem as well. They are not only often repeated within one article, but also
quite long. Because this could possibly influence the results too strongly, it was decided to
group these words separately, i.e. not among the direct borrowings.
Both the absolute and relative number of direct borrowings and established loanwords
were calculated, per category per magazine, to verify hypotheses a and b. In addition, it was
examined how much unique established loan words and direct borrowings occurred in our
corpus, counting only one occurrence of each word. This not only enables us to verify
hypothesis c, but also to investigate how frequently the English words are repeated. In
addition to these quantitative analyses, a brief qualitative analysis was made of the direct
borrowings and established loan words, in order to explain where and how English is used.
The selection of the magazines, the procedures and the results will be elaborated upon
in the data analysis (4).
47
4. Data analysis
As explained previously, four magazines will be explored to verify several hypotheses about
the use of English in Dutch-language magazines:
a. English occurs more frequently in Northern Dutch than in Southern Dutch magazines.
b. English occurs more often in the language used in magazines for the young language
than in magazines for adults.
c. The English words that occur in magazines are in the majority of the cases established
loan words, in contrast to direct borrowings.
d. There are more single occurrences for established loan words than for direct
borrowings, and is the share of single occurrences of loan words larger than the share
of single occurrences of direct borrowings.
e. There is a connection between the subject of an article and the number of English
words in the article
Firstly, the corpus will be discussed, beginning with a description of the selected magazines
and their target readers in 4.1. We will give attention to the content of the articles and the
relationship between this content and the amount of English in 4.1.1. The specification of the
corpus will be followed by an explanation of the procedure in 4.1.2. Secondly, we will
describe and discuss the data in 4.2. The direct borrowings and established loan words will be
quantitatively and qualitatively analysed in 4.2.1 and 4.2.2. In 4.2.3, we will discuss the
results all the English words combined, and in 4.2.4, we will pay attention to the single
occurrences of the direct borrowings and established loan words. Finally, in 4.2.5, we will
draw conclusions with regard to the hypotheses.
48
4.1 Corpus
4.1.1 MAGAZINES
Selection
In order to verify hypotheses a and b, the language in the magazines used in the research
needs to be Northern Dutch on the one hand and Southern Dutch on the other hand, and youth
language on the one hand and adult language on the other. Therefore, the following four
magazines are chosen as subject of this research: CosmoGirl!, Joepie, Glamour and Feeling.
They are selected on the basis of various criteria: target audience, country and content. A first
requirement was the age of the target audience: two of the magazines have to be aimed at
teenagers, while the other two magazines must have women in their twenties and thirties as
target audience. This is necessary to verify whether articles for teenagers contain more
English than those for adults. CosmoGirl! and Joepie are teenage magazines, Glamour and
Feeling are mainly written for adult women.
The second criterion is the country where the magazine is published: there has to be a
division between Dutch and Flemish magazines; the Dutch ones are CosmoGirl! and
Glamour, the Flemish Joepie and Feeling. In that way, the differences between the use of
English in Northern Dutch and Southern Dutch can be examined. Finally, it seemed
interesting to examine if there is a relationship between the content of an article and the
number of English words that occur in the article. Therefore, the third criterion in the
selection of the magazines is that they need to contain articles about international celebrities,
psychological and behavioural issues, and fashion and beauty. This way, a comparison can be
made between these categories in different magazines and hypothesis d can be investigated.
Description
CosmoGirl! is originally an American magazine which is a spin-off from women’s magazine
Cosmopolitan (Profielwerkstuk CosmoGirl! 2012). CosmoGirl! has been publishing in the
Netherlands from 2003 onwards and the current publisher is Audax publishing. It is a monthly
magazine, but every year one extra edition is released. The intended readers are girls between
13 and 19 years old who are schoolgoing and interested in “fashion, beauty, fun, mind, celebs
[and] boys” (Profiel CosmoGirl! 2013). Indeed, according to NOM Print Monitor (2011-
2012), 94 per cent of the readers are female and 67 per cent is aged between 13 and 19. 16 per
49
cent of the readers are between 20 and 34 years old, 11 per cent is aged between 35 and 49
and 6 per cent is older than 50, as is visualised in figure 1 (Bereik regionale dagbladen
2012).23
The estimated read range is about 250,000 readers. CosmoGirl! describes itself as:
an older sister for its reader. It offers a good combination of fun, human interest, celebs, boys,
and focus on fashion & beauty. Comsogirls are born to lead and CG! offers its reader
inspiration, information and self-confidence to live life to the fullest and to develop into
positive, independent young women. As for content, tone of voice, design and social media,
CG! as a brand fits the experiences of its readers perfectly. (Profiel, nlmag.com, 2013, own
translation)
Glamour is originally an American women’s magazine that was launched in the Netherlands
in 2005 and is published monthly by G+J Uitgevers (Glamour adverteren 2011). Research by
NOM Print Monitor from 2011-2012 showed that the magazine approximately reaches
304,000 readers, of which 88 per cent is female and 12 per cent male. 29 per cent of the
readers is aged between 13 and 19; over a third is between 20 and 34 years old while 18 per
cent is aged between 35 and 49 and finally 18 per cent is older than 50 (Bereik regionale
dagbladen 2012). Glamour envisions its readers as trendy young women who see the
magazine as a fashion bible:
with more than seventy fashion pages, from best budget buys to high-quality, international
shoots, Glamour is the ultimate shopping and inspiration guide. They [the readers] consider
their favourite magazine a unique mix of fashion, beauty and lifestyle. (Glamour adverteren
2011, own translation)
Joepie is a Flemish magazine for teenagers and is published weekly by de Persgroep
Publishing. Almost 80,500 issues were printed in 2011-2012, but the estimated total audience
is 322,100 readers. The majority of those readers are girls, 70 per cent, and almost 30 per cent
are boys. 17 per cent of the readers are younger than 15, 60 per cent is aged between 12 and
24, 15 per cent between 4,7 per cent, 20 per cent is aged between 35 and 45, 10 per cent
between 45 and 54 and finally 5 per cent is older than 55. Joepie is the most well-known
Flemish magazine for the young (Febelmag Joepie, n.d.). According to its own description, it
stands out because of its direct contact with the readers:
23
NOM stands for ‘nationaal onderzoek multimedia’ (national research multimedia).
50
the magazine is situated in the core of the living environment of adolescents and is therefore
not only a benchmark, but also a true soul mate. Joepie is like a second best friend. Somebody
you can gossip with and who keeps you abreast of music and handsome boys. But also
someone you can trust your problems to. (Febelmag Joepie n.d., own translation)
Feeling is a Flemish monthly magazine which has been published from 1990 onwards by
Sanoma Media NV (Belgium). It is owned by the Finish mediaconcern Sanoma (Febelmag
Feeling n.d.). Approximately 113,500 issues were printed in 2011-2012, while the average
read range is estimated at 284,700. According to CIM statistics from 2011-2012, 83 per cent
of the readers are female and only 17 per cent male. 98 per cent of the readers is older than
15, while 13 per cent of the readers is aged between 12 and 24. 15 per cent is aged between 25
and 34, 24 per cent between 35 and 45, 21 per cent between 45 and 54, and finally 25 per cent
is older than 55 (Febelmag Feeling n.d.). Feeling describes itself as:
the biggest luxurious glossy in Flanders, which has a heart in Belgian fashion and a good nose
for the latest trends in the field of gastronomy, beauty, living, travelling, culture and society.
With well-founded emo-section and cultural diary. The fashion guide for the contemporary
woman who wants to blossom in every aspect of her life. Style, substance, class and quality as
way of life. (Febelmag Feeling n.d., own translation)
It should be kept in mind that the institutions responsible for media research are subordinated
to their country and do not cooperate. Therefore, the research by NOM Print Monitor, which
stands for ‘Nationaal Onderzoek Multimedia’, from the Netherlands differs slightly from the
research by CIM, or ‘Centrum voor Informatie over de Media’ from Belgium.24
This entails
that in the numerical data about the reader demographics, different categories, such as age
groups, are applied. Furthermore, the results of the research, conducted by the CIM, about the
Belgian magazines, are orderly displayed on Febelmag’s website, which stands for Federation
of Belgian Magazines.
24
‘Nationaal Onderzoek Multimedia’ can be translated by ‘National Research Multimedia’ and Centrum voor
Informatie over de Media’ means ‘Centre for information about the media’.
51
Summarized, CosmoGirl! is the selected teenage magazine from the Netherlands while
Joepie is the magazine for the youth from Belgium. Glamour is the Dutch magazine for
women in their twenties, and Feeling is its Belgian equivalent. The description of the four
magazines shows that the intended readers are young and educated women. This needs to be
kept in mind because the language used in the magazines for this specific target group might
not be representative for the Northern Dutch, Southern Dutch, Dutch youth language or adult
language in general. However, it is our goal to verify whether the general tendencies of
English words in Dutch also apply to the language in women’s magazines.
Figure 2 Age readers CosmoGirl!
Figure 3 Age readers Glamour
67%
16%
11%
5%
1%
Age readers CosmoGirl!
13-19
20-34
35-49
50-64
65+
28%
36%
18%
13%
5%
Age readers Glamour
13-19
20-34
35-49
50-64
65+
52
Figure 4 Age readers Joepie
Figure 5 Age readers Feeling
60%
5%
20%
10%
3% 2%
Age readers Joepie
12-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65+
14%
15%
24%
22%
16%
9%
Age readers Feeling
12-24
25-34
35-44
45-54
55-64
65+
53
4.1.2 DATA ACQUISITION
Articles
One random issue from each magazine, CosmoGirl!, Joepie, Glamour and Feeling were
selected and their articles were divided into three categories, based on their content:
‘international celebrities’, ‘fashion and beauty’ and ‘psychological and lifestyle issues’. The
articles in the celebrities category contain direct speech at least in one article per magazine.
The text considered in this category is not only the body of the article but also titles, subtitles,
captions accompanying pictures and quotes which were not written in the text itself. The
fashion and beauty category contains articles about fashion trends and beauty products. These
articles are often editorials which mainly consist of pictures with concise captions or
descriptions. Similar to the celebrities category, all text, including titles, notes and captions is
examined. Finally, the psychology category contains articles with a broad array of subjects,
among which friendship, relationships and emotional, social and financial wellbeing.
The boundaries between different categories are not always clear-cut. For instance,
some articles discuss the fashion style of celebrities. In those cases, the emphasis of the
article, either on fashion or on the portrayal of a person, was the main factor to be assigned to
a particular category. Moreover, differences between the content of the magazines have to be
taken into account because they might influence the results. Feeling for instance is less
oriented on international celebrities than the other magazines. Furthermore, the fashion
editorials in Feeling and Joepie contain remarkable fewer words than most of the other
articles. Another example is the lack of long articles in Joepie. Its longest article considered in
this research contains approximately 780 words, while the longest articles from every other
magazine contain well over 1,000 words.
Per magazine per category, three articles were randomly chosen, adding up to a total
of 36 articles or 25,100 words. The articles from CosmoGirl! contain the highest number of
words, 8,000, and Feeling’s articles follow with 7,000 words. Glamour is represented by
5,800 words, while Joepie has the least words, 4,300. The largest categories are psychology
(10,400) and celebrities (9,300). Fashion articles unsurprisingly contain the least words,
5,400. Since the articles were picked arbitrarily the number of words per article is very
variable, between 52 and 1,852 words. However, the results will be comparable using
percentages. Furthermore, it would be impractical and distorting to look for and use articles
from the same length. In addition, the number of words per category offers a clear view on the
54
focus of the magazines. For instance, it is obvious that fashion articles in Feeling are much
shorter than those in the other magazines. Finally, by attributing the same number of articles
to each category, similar numbers of titles, introductions and conclusions will be included.
Corpus: 36 articles (25,099 words)
Category/Magazine CosmoGirl! Joepie Glamour Feeling Total
Celebrities 3,861 1,000 1,955 2,523 9,339
Fashion 1,312 984 2,684 411 5,391
Psychology 2,819 2,268 1,154 4,128 10,369
Total 7,992 4,252 5,793 7,062 25,099
Table 1 Corpus size (number of words)
Procedure
Each selected article is typed out in a separate MS Excel sheet. One sentence was written per
row, with one word per cell. Per article, every word with an English form was manually
indicated with a double colon and afterwards listed in a separate MS Excel sheet by a
computer programme.25
In such way, two lists were formed per article: one row with the
words that have not been indicated and one row with the English words, as can be seen in
Figure 6. The computer programme that listed the words, also counted how many words there
are in total in every sentence and in every article, and how many of the words are indicated.
In order to indicate the English words in the articles, several rules were observed. The
most important rule was that proper names were not indicated. For instance, we chose not to
indicate any toponyms such as ‘Hollywood’ or ‘Los Angeles’, because there is no Dutch
equivalent for the English toponyms that occurred in the articles. If the toponyms happened to
occur in compounds, they were placed on the list of English words. Brand names have been
disregarded as well, except when they occur in a product name. The reason why product
names have been indicated, in contradiction to brand names, is the fact that product names are
often a description of the product, which are in a lot of cases regular nouns. Examples of the
disregarded brand names are ‘Topshop’ and ‘River Island’. These brand names would never
be translated into Dutch but are always adopted in their English form. Examples of product
names that are on the English word list are ‘So bright hair balm’ and ‘Surrealist Everfresh
25
The double colon (::) is an arbitrary symbol which is recognized by the self-written computer programme.
55
Mascara’. It is interesting that these names are not adapted to the reader’s language, because
they actually could be literally translated. Finally, personal names, such as ‘Pink’ or ‘Lady
Gaga’, were not indicated to be on the list of English words, because they are independent of
the language in which they are used.
The next step was verifying that the words which are indicated are indeed established
loan words. For that purpose, the online dictionary Van Dale (2011) was consulted. The
online dictionary was chosen to facilitate and quicken the search. The reason why specifically
Van Dale (2011) was chosen is both availability and the fact that it is a multilingual dictionary
and explanatory dictionary in one. Van Dale (2011) not only provides an overview of the
languages in which a search term occurs, but also contains bilingual dictionaries for several
languages such as English, German, Spanish and French on the one hand, and Dutch on the
other. When an English word appeared in the Dutch section of Van Dale (2011), it was
considered to be an established loan word that is borrowed from English. However, if an
English word only occurred in the English section of the dictionary, and not in the Dutch
section, it was labelled as a ‘direct borrowing’. In figure 7, the established loan words are
indicated in blue, the direct borrowings are in yellow.
The image also shows green cells. The English words in the green cells belong to film
titles, names of albums, songs, television programmes, magazines and books. They were
attributed to a different group because they, with the exception of book titles, are rarely
translated in the Belgian and Dutch culture, contrary to the translation habits in for instance
France or Germany. If they would be considered as direct borrowings, they would distort the
results since they are often quite wordy. For instance ‘Journey 2: The Mysterious Island’,
‘Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief’ or ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians’
would raise the number of English words drastically, while they should be seen as one entity.
The reason they were still taken into account is the fact that Dutch readers are supposed to
understand the meaning of these words, while comprehension is less important in the case of
toponyms and brand names. Not surprisingly, these are most often used in articles about
celebrities, in the first place to mention what the actor or singer is known for, and in the
second place to talk about their new projects. A few times, these titles occur in fashion
articles, when the fashion style of a certain celebrity is described, as matter of background
information.
56
Even though using a dictionary to examine whether English words are established loan
words is useful, it needs to be realised that the dictionary is rather arbitrary to some extent. On
the one hand, it is possible that it lacks words which are actually used very often; on the other
hand, it can contain words that are well-known by the general language user. According to the
policy of Van Dale (2011), a word needs to be frequently and widely used for at least three
years in order to be taken into account (Van der Sijs 1998). Anyhow, a condition needed to be
established in order to be consistent, and Van Dale (2011) was the best option. It was not
possible to interview the readers of these magazines about the comprehension and usage of
the English words within the span of the research.
While looking up every English word in Van Dale (2011), some issues occurred. An
example is homonymy: for instance, the word ‘look’ in the sense of ‘appearance’ occurs in
the Dutch dictionary, yet the verb ‘look’ does not. Another problem was that, in an English
phrase, a single word is an established loan word, while the other words are not. In that case,
the single word was not highlighted as a Dutch loan word, but as a direct borrowing. This is
justified by the fact that the cotext is entirely English. For example, in the phrase ‘female
power’, ‘power’ is in the Dutch dictionary and therefore a loan word. However, because
‘female’ is a direct borrowing from English, ‘power’ was also marked as a direct borrowing.
Another problem occurred with compounds and phrases. It was not always clear what
words should be considered as one word or a compound, and what words had to be counted as
multiple words or phrases. In order to verify which words are compounds, the monolingual
online dictionaries Oxford Dictionary and Merriam-Webster dictionary. Clear cases were
words such as ‘middle name’, ‘style icon’, ‘mind change’ and ‘peer pressure’. More difficult
were the word groups that did not occur in any dictionary as such, for instance ‘secret clubs’,
‘the place to be’, ‘rock chick outfits’, ‘star report’ and ‘serial divorcee’. There was no general
rule to assess these word groups but the aim was to be as consistent as possible. In figure 7, it
is clear that extra columns were added, in order to differentiate between compounds, which
count for a single word, and phrases, which contain multiple words.
Finally, it was possible that a certain English word or word group stood out for a
certain reason or did not belong to the established loan words or direct borrowings. These
were assigned to the ‘special cases’ group, which are in red cells in figure 7. The words in this
group are very variable: some of them do not appear in any section of the dictionary, for
instance ‘flirter, ‘blogster’, ‘overknee’, ‘colorpop’, ‘blogster’, ‘bodywear’ and ‘oldskool’.
Others are spelled incorrectly, both according to the Dutch and English grammar rules.
Furthermore, some of the words in this category are the product of word play, for example
57
‘Rock-‘n-Royalty’, ‘glamourama’ or ‘Lady PukeGa’. Finally, this category contains some
eye-catching words such as ‘Facebook’ and ‘Hermione’. ‘Facebook’ is recorded in the online
Oxford Dictionary as a verb. In Van Dale (2011), it only occurs as a Dutch verb:
‘facebooken’. The noun ‘Facebook’ is in neither of the dictionaries, however, it does occur in
the online Cambridge Dictionary. As for ‘Hermione’, it is curious that the author did not opt
for Dutch alternative ‘Hermelien’, which is the character’s name in the Dutch versions of the
Harry Potter books and films. These special cases will not be analysed, since they are not
relevant enough
The fact that direct borrowings occur, in contrast to established loan words, immediately
dismisses hypothesis c, which states that in Dutch magazines in the Netherlands and Belgium,
only established loan words are used. However, it should be questioned how much repetitions
occurs, and how much different words are used, when only one occurrence is counted,
henceforth also referred to as ‘single occurrences’. The single occurrences of both direct
borrowings (here including film titles et cetera) and established loan words were investigated
for the entire corpus and not per article, in order to investigate hypothesis e.
It is expected that the percentage of single occurrences of the established loan words will
be higher than the percentage of single direct borrowings. It is also possible that, if direct
borrowings are used very often, they are in the process of becoming an established loan word.
58
Figure 6 Lists of words that were indicated
59
Figure 7 Lists with English words divided into groups
60
4.2 Data
The direct borrowings are analysed extensively in 4.2.1. In 4.2.2, the established loan words
are discussed quantitatively and qualitatively. Afterwards, we will reflect on the English
words in general, which means the results from the direct borrowings and the established loan
words will be compared and combined. Finally, the single occurrences of both the direct
borrowings and the established loan words will be discussed. In order to be able to verify
hypotheses a and b, the results and percentages will be discussed mainly per country and per
target group. Furthermore, the results in 4.2.3 and 4.2.4 will make clear to what extent
hypothesis c is disproved. In 4.2.5, the results will be briefly summarized.
4.2.1 ANALYSIS OF DIRECT BORROWINGS
Quantitative analysis
When the absolute numbers of direct borrowings in the different magazines are compared, it
is clear that they occur the most in the nine articles from the Dutch magazines, CosmoGirl!
and Glamour, as is shown in table 2. There are fewer direct borrowings in the Flemish
magazines, Joepie and Feeling. In addition, the number of direct borrowings in the Flemish
magazines is very similar. Only two articles in the corpus did not contain any direct
borrowing, an article in Feeling about celebrities and one in Joepie about psychological
issues. Moreover, when the different categories are compared, it is clear that the articles about
fashion and beauty contain the most direct borrowings.
However, as was mentioned before, the length of the articles is quite variable.
Therefore, it is more useful to express the numerical data in percentages than in absolute
numbers. Moreover, the results per category, country and target group will be more
comparable. Figure 8 confirms that the Dutch magazines contain the highest number of direct
English borrowings, 3.4 per cent in CosmoGirl! and 3.3 per cent in Glamour. This means that
per 100 words in an article in CosmoGirl!, 3.4 words are direct borrowings. The Flemish
teenage magazine Joepie contains 1.1 per cent direct borrowings. This is only a third of the
amount of direct borrowings in Dutch magazines, but it is still more than the 0.7 per cent in
Feeling.
61
Hypothesis a stated that the Dutch magazines contain more English than the Flemish
ones. When we only take the direct borrowings in consideration, this is clearly the case. As is
visible in figure 10, in CosmoGirl! and Glamour combined, more than three out of hundred
words are direct borrowings. In Joepie and Feeling, there is less than one direct borrowing out
of hundred. Once again, the highest scores are noted in the fashion category: there are 7.2 per
cent direct borrowings in the Dutch and 3.1 per cent in the Flemish magazines.
In addition, the data in figure 11 show that the magazines for the young also contain
more direct borrowings than the magazines for adults within the same country, but the
difference is quite small in the Dutch magazines. The difference between Joepie and Feeling
is larger; the 1.1 per cent in Joepie is almost halved in Feeling. However, the percentage of
direct borrowings in Glamour is still three times higher than in Joepie, which is rather
unexpected since Joepie is a teenage magazine. It seems that the criterion ‘country’ is stronger
than ‘age of audience’.
Hypothesis b, which states that there is more English in magazines for teenagers than
in magazines for adults, has been examined by calculating the percentages of the magazines
with the same target group combined. Figure 11 shows that, in total, the magazines for the
young (2.6) contain almost 1 per cent more direct borrowings than the magazines for older
women (1.8). In the articles about fashion, the difference between both is the largest: in
CosmoGirl! and Joepie, almost 8 out of hundred words are direct borrowings, in Glamour and
Feeling almost 5. Also in the celebrities articles from the teenage magazines, there is 1 per
cent more direct borrowings than in the articles from the magazines for adults. However, there
are slightly more direct borrowings in the psychology articles in Glamour and Feeling, than in
CosmoGirl! and Joepie. In summary, hypothesis b is only partially confirmed when
exclusively the direct borrowings are considered: in general, the teenage magazines do
contain more direct borrowings than the magazines for adults, but this is not the case in every
category.
When the percentages of the different categories overall are compared, as is visualised
in figure 9, it becomes clear that articles about fashion and beauty contain much more direct
borrowings than the other articles, which concurs with the absolute numbers. In total, fashion
articles contain 6.1 per cent direct borrowings, while celebrities articles contain 1.4 per cent
direct borrowings and articles about psychology only 0.6 per cent. The highest percentage of
direct borrowings is unsurprisingly found in the fashion articles from CosmoGirl!, almost 12
per cent, while the closest follower is Glamour with almost 5 per cent, also in the fashion
category. Interestingly, the articles about celebrities in the magazines for the young contain
62
almost 1 per cent more direct borrowings than the articles about psychological issues.
However, in the magazines for adults, the psychology articles contain more direct borrowings
than the articles about celebrities.
Finally, next to the total percentage of direct borrowings in each magazine, the average
percentage was calculated. This number shows the average percentage of direct borrowings
per article. When these averages are higher than the totals, which is the case for CosmoGirl!,
Joepie and Feeling, it means that the largest articles in these magazines relatively contain less
direct borrowings than the smaller articles. In Glamour however, the average number of direct
borrowings is higher than the total number of direct borrowings, which implies that the
longest articles also contain the most direct borrowings, in terms of percentage. It is not
surprising that three out of four magazines have a higher percentage of direct borrowings in
their shorter articles: the median of the length of all articles is 657 words, and out of the 17
articles which lie under this median, 8 articles or almost half belong to the fashion category.
As was mentioned previously, it is in fashion articles that the highest percentages of direct
borrowings are noted.
It can be concluded that CosmoGirl!, the Dutch magazine for the young, contains the
most direct borrowings, 3.42%. Furthermore, the Dutch magazines clearly contain more direct
borrowings (3.35%) than the Flemish (0.84%), but the difference between magazines for
teenagers (2.61) and for adults (1.84) is smaller. Finally, articles about fashion and beauty
(6.13) have the highest percentage of direct borrowings, while celebrities (1.41) and
psychology (0.86) articles contain noticeable fewer English words which are not established
loan words.
Number of English words
CosmoGirl! Joepie Glamour Feeling Total
Fashion 156 27 133 21 337
Celebrities 84 11 28 9 132
Psychology 33 9 28 19 89
Total 273 47 189 49 558
Table 2 Absolute numbers of English words
63
Figure 8 Percentage of direct borrowings grouped per magazine
Figure 9 Percentage of direct borrowings grouped per category
64
Figure 10 Percentage of direct borrowings grouped per country
Figure 11 Percentage of direct borrowings grouped per target group
65
Qualitative analysis
In fashion articles, direct borrowings are very often used in titles and subtitles, which often
express a certain content, style or theme. Examples are ‘Look of the month’, ‘From catwalk to
closet’, ‘xxl trend report’, ‘granny chic’, ‘English tea party gone mad’, ‘eclectic hippie’,
‘pretty preppy’, ‘color blocking’ and ‘New season fashion guide’. Also section names can be
direct borrowings: ‘Lookbook’ and ‘CG Look: Trend special’. Furthermore, some expressions
recur often within one certain article and function as a subtitle, for instance ‘Look for’, ‘How
to’, and ‘editor’s note’. When English occurs in titles or subtitles, they are rarely italicized.
The reason could be that titles are often written in capital letters, and that the editors prefer a
uniform look for the words in the title. In addition, it is striking that most articles use an
English word or phrase, which are not established as loan words, in the introduction.
Examples are ‘think big’, ‘female power’, ‘sport feel’, ‘first class’ and ‘working girl look’. In
contrast to the titles, these word groups are often (partly) italicized.
The fact that direct borrowings are written in italics might imply that the author
expects the reader to have some difficulties with understanding these words. On the website
of Genootschap Onze Taal, advice is given about the italicization of English words:
They [English words] do not have to be italicizes, except when there is a good chance that the
reader does not know the word. In that case, it can be useful to italicize the word the first time,
are to put it between quotation marks, and provide with a short clarification. (Genootschap
Onze Taal n.d., own translation)
Interestingly, in none of the magazines such an explanation is given. English catch phrases
which are not part of the full text but appear in an enlarged quote, occur, as in ‘inspire and be
inspired’ or ‘share what you wear’. Besides, when direct borrowings are used in the body of
the text of fashion articles, it often concerns names for clothing or fashion styles, for instance
‘tie-dye shirts’, ‘style icon’, ‘funky’, ‘chunky heels’, ‘edgy’, ‘peeptoe’, ‘boots’ and ‘power
suit’. Finally, also the names of beauty products are often English non-established
borrowings, while a translation to Dutch is not impossible. Examples are ‘Shine So Bright
Hair Balm’, ‘Tinted Cinnamon Lip Balm’ and ‘B.B. Cream Miracle Skin Perfector’. Note that
there is no consistency in the italicization of these words.
66
In the articles about celebrities, English borrowings are often used in titles, subtitles
and section names as well. Examples are ‘CG! Stars’, ‘Happy and healthy’, ‘fashion style’,
‘californian beauty’, ‘food favourites’ and ‘All in the family’. In this category, English titles,
which consist of direct borrowings, are more common in the Dutch magazines. Also in the
introductions, a lot of English word groups appear: ‘move over’, ‘de zusjes to watch’, ‘on
fire’, ‘kick-ass’, ‘Olsen-twins’, and ‘redhead’. Except for ‘Olsen-twins’, every one of these
examples is typed in italics. Typical of the celebrities articles is that there are a few quotes
from the interviewee, and sometimes some English words or sentences are not translated.
Examples are ‘I love it!’, ‘cliff jumping’, ‘wish list’, ‘secret clubs’, ‘crazy stuff’, ‘let’s make it
happen’, ‘It’s a cool view isn’t it? It looks like a painting.’, ‘guilty pleasure’, ‘mind change’
and ‘in no time’. In most of the cases, these examples italicized. Direct borrowings are also
used in the other parts of the articles. In most cases, these are words or small word groups, but
occasionally short English sentences are used. Examples are ‘Little Monsters’, ‘Blow her one
last kiss’, ‘body revolution’, ‘in shape’, ‘think again’, ‘Fashion week’, ‘fashionable twins’,
‘very hip and happening’, ‘down to earth’, ‘flirty’, ‘middle name’, ‘bohemian chic’, ‘pretty
fabulous life’ and ‘combat boots’. Some of these examples are italicized, but not all of them.
Parallel to the fashion and celebrities articles, also in the psychology category, direct
borrowings are often used in titles, subtitles and section names. Examples are ‘cg! get real:
food for thought’, ‘cg! Body & soul: health check’, ‘youyouyou money’, ‘in the pocket’,
‘your gay best friend’, ‘start to flirt’, ‘serial divorcee’, ‘sweat it out!’, ‘Be healthy’, ‘Tease me
baby’ and ‘what’s on a (wo)man’s mind?’. Furthermore, direct borrowings are used in
introductions, but less in the Flemish articles than in the Dutch. Examples are ‘BFF’, the
abbreviation of ‘Best Friends Forever’, ‘stop right now’, ‘Mr Right’ and ‘money sickness
syndrome’. Surprisingly, these examples are less often italicized than in the other categories.
Finally, direct borrowings also occur randomly in the rest of the text, for instance: ‘hey’,
‘crush’, ‘up to you’, ‘give it a try’, ‘wedges’, ‘too much information’, ‘peer pressure’, ‘next,
please’ and ‘body clock’.
It can be concluded that direct borrowings are utilized quite often in titles, subtitles,
section names, introductions and quotes. They are rarely italicized in the titles, in contrary to
the introductions and quotes, where they are italicized more frequently. Words, phrases and
sentences directly borrowed from English also occur in the body of the text, but not as
common as in titles.
67
4.2.2 ANALYSIS OF ESTABLISHED LOAN WORDS
Quantitative analysis
Originally, it was expected that the English words in the magazines would be mainly
established loan words. This hypothesis was disproved by the striking number of direct
borrowings. Hypothesis c can be even further dismissed when the number of established loan
words which are borrowed from English are compared to the number of direct borrowings.
The comparison reveals that in the corpus, there are less established loan words than direct
borrowings. However, the same tendencies between the different magazines and categories
still apply. In total, 401 established loan words were counted, versus 558 English words. Most
of them appear in CosmoGirl! (175), the least in Joepie (33). The largest category is fashion,
with 200 established loan words and the smallest psychology, in which 80 established loan
words were counted.
Figure 12 illustrates that CosmoGirl! and Glamour also have the highest percentage of
English loanwords, respectively 2.2 and 2.3 per cent. It needs to be noted, however, that in the
separate categories, CosmoGirl! scores higher than Glamour: for fashion 5.3 per cent versus 4
per cent, for celebrities 1.9 per cent versus 0.9 per cent, and for psychology 1.1 versus 1 per
cent. As for the different categories, the tendencies from the absolute amounts remain. In
fashion articles, 3.6 words out of hundred are established loan words, in celebrity articles 1.3
and in psychology articles 0.8. Figure 13 shows that the relation between established loan
words and direct borrowings is very similar in nearly every category from every magazine.
As regards hypotheses a on the level of the established loan words, the findings are
similar to the findings on the level of direct borrowings. Figure 14 shows that, in the Dutch
magazines, 2.3 out of hundred words are established loan words, while that is only 0.8 words
in Belgian magazines. These proportions are analogous to the ones that appeared for the
English words. In addition, also per category there is a higher number of established loan
words in the Dutch magazines. Interestingly, the percentage of loan words in Dutch celebrities
articles (1.6) is higher than the percentage of established loan words in Belgian fashion
articles (1.5). This is also the case for the Dutch psychology articles (1.1) compared to the
Flemish celebrities articles (0.9). In conclusion, the number of established loan words is
higher in the Dutch magazines, CosmoGirl! and Glamour, than in the Belgian magazines
Joepie and Feeling.
68
Hypothesis b can be confirmed to a certain extent at the level of established loan
words, as is shown in figure 15. There are more loan words in articles for younger readers
than in the articles for adults: 1.7 out of hundred. The highest percentage of these words
occurs in fashion articles (3.7), the lowest in psychology articles (0.85). The celebrities
articles in teenage magazines contain 1.7 per cent loan words. This is almost double the
percentage of the same category in adult magazines (0.9). The difference between CosmoGirl!
and Joepie on the one hand, and Glamour and Feeling on the other, is negligible: 0.15 per
cent difference in psychology articles and 0.04 per cent in the fashion articles. In other words,
it is correct that there are more established loan words in the magazines for teenagers, but the
differences with the magazines for adults are rather small.
Figure 12 Percentage of establish loan words grouped per magazine
69
Figure 13 Percentages of direct borrowings and established loan words
Figure 14 Percentage of established loan words grouped per country
70
Figure 15 Percentage of established loan word grouped per target group
Qualitative analysis
The most important difference between the use of established loan words and direct
borrowings is that former are more often found in the full text. They occur most commonly in
the full text, and to a lesser extent in titles.26
The most common word class which is borrowed
from English are nouns. The examples are countless: ‘shopaholic’, ‘rock chic’, ‘outfits’,
‘agent’, ‘understudy’, ‘spotlights’, ’designers’, ‘look’, ‘jeans’, ‘item’, ‘show’, ‘lipstick’,
‘foundation’, ‘eyeliner’, ‘tomboy’, ‘eye catchers’, ‘clutch’, ‘little black dress’, ‘accounts’,
‘make-up’, ‘pit bull’, ‘interview’, ‘sweater’, ‘finishing touch’, ‘creeps’, et cetera. Also
borrowed adjectives occur quite often: ‘close’, ‘online’, ‘happy’, ‘cool’, ‘oversized’, ‘skinny’,
‘vintage’, ‘preppy’, ‘lucky’, ‘metallic’, ‘sophisticated’ and ‘single’. It also stands out that the
established loan words are frequently combined with a Dutch word into a Dutch compound.
Examples are ‘shopsessie’, ‘vintagewinkeltje’, ‘merkfreak’, ‘nagelstickers’, ‘stresshormoon’,
‘navyblauw’, ‘nagellakremover’, ‘celebritygebeuren’ en ‘celebrity-nieuws’.
26
When established loan words appeared in titles of which all the other words were direct borrowings, they were
also indicated as direct borrowings.
71
In addition, when borrowed verbs are used, they are always conjugated according to
the Dutch rules. For instance: ‘claimt’ is used instead of ‘claims’, ‘downloadt’ instead of
‘downloads’, ‘kicken’ instead of ‘to kick’, ‘shoppen’ instead of ‘to shop’, ‘shopte’ instead of
‘shopped’, ‘chillend’ instead of ‘chilling’, ‘flirten’ instead of ‘to flirt’ and ‘relaxte’ instead of
‘relaxed’. In general, new English words are very quickly adapted to the Dutch pronunciation
and grammatical rules (Redactie Onze Taal, 2009). It is possible that an English verb, which
is an established loan word, is not adapted to the Dutch grammar rules. An example is ‘sky
diving’. However, ‘sky diving’ functions as a noun in its sentence, and should therefore not
necessarily be conjugated.
Finally, it is interesting that also established loan words are italicized sometimes. There is
no consistency in the italicization. It is conspicuous that established loan words are italicised,
because italics would be expected for words which might be difficult do understand for the
reader. This could prove that the editor feels that some words, even though they are
established, might cause problems with the comprehension. However, it is also possible that
the only goal was to emphasize the word.
4.2.3 COMBINATION OF DIRECT BORROWINGS AND ESTABLISHED LOAN WORDS
In order to confirm hypothesis a and b definitively, the data from the direct borrowings and
from the established loan words were combined. The result is depicted in figure 16. It is clear
that the magazines from the Netherlands contain three times more English words per 100
words than the magazines from Belgium. Moreover, it is striking that the percentages of
CosmoGirl! and Glamour are identical, and that the percentage of English in Joepie and
Feeling is also very similar. Even though this confirms that the criterion ‘country’ is more
influential than ‘age of the target public’, hypothesis b is not necessarily incorrect; in the
majority of the categories, the number of English words is higher in the teenager magazines.
In total, the magazines for adults contain fewer English words than the magazines for the
young as well. Only the articles about psychology deviate from this tendency.
Figures 17 and 18 show the percentages of both the direct borrowings (DB) and the
established loan words (EL), per country and per target group. It is clear that there are more
direct borrowings and established loan words in the Dutch magazines, in every category and
in total. However, the tendencies lightly differ when the numbers per target group are
compared. In total, there are more direct borrowings, both in the teenage and adult category.
The percentages of direct borrowings and established loan words in teenage magazines are
72
rather similar in psychology and celebrities articles. The percentage of direct borrowings in
the fashion articles in teenage magazines is doubled compared to the percentage of direct
borrowings. This demonstrates that hypothesis c is incorrect.
When analysing these percentages, it needs to be kept in mind that a percentage
expresses a certain number of words out of hundred words. The large majority of the articles
is longer than hundred words. For instance, in this corpus, the median length of the Dutch
articles is 675 words, and the average length 766 words. This means that, in the average
Dutch article, almost 43 words are English. In the Flemish magazines, the average article is
629 words long, and more than 10 of these words are English. The subject of the articles with
the most English words is fashion and beauty. Only the articles about celebrities in
Cosmogir!l approximate to these numbers.
Figure 16 Percentage of English words (in total)
73
Figure 17 Percentage of direct borrowings (DB) and established loan words (EL) grouped per country
Figure 18 Percentage of direct borrowings (DB) and established loan words (EL) grouped per target group
74
4.2.4 SINGLE OCCURRENCES
In order to get an idea of extent in which English words recur, the single occurrences of the
direct borrowings and established loan words have been counted. This means that only one
occurrence was taken into account, even though a word occurred several times in the corpus.
The difference between the number of established loan words or direct borrowings, and their
single occurrences, will provide a notion of how often these words are repeated. The larger
the difference, the more words are repeated. Finally, it should be noted that a single
occurrence entails only a lemma entry, i.e. different forms of one word, for instance ‘taggen’
and ‘getagd’. Furthermore, words which are homonyms are seen as different lemma entries,
for instance the verb ‘love’ and the noun ‘love’.
In absolute numbers, there are 244 different established loans in the corpus of 36
articles, and 291 direct borrowings. This means that the number of direct borrowings is almost
20 per cent higher than the number of established loan words. However, the results for the
non-established English words are even higher when the words from movie titles are
included, i.e. 100 words. Combined, there are 380 different direct borrowings.27
The corpus
contained approximately 25,200 words in total, of which 960 are English words. Almost 560
of these English words are direct borrowings, while 400 of the English words are established
loan words.
Comparatively speaking, approximately 48 per cent of the direct borrowings are
repetitions. For the established loan words, this is only 39 per cent. Even though this means
that there is quite a lot of repetition in both groups, it can be said that in total, the established
loans are more varied. The fact that some of the direct borrowings are frequently repeated
might indicate that they are in the process of becoming established loan words. It is likely that
the direct borrowing ‘fashion’ for instance, will be in Van Dale’s next edition, because it
occurs frequently in the corpus.
27
Note that this result is not the sum of the 291 direct borrowings and the 100 English words that are used in
film titles, because there were a few overlaps between both lists.
75
4.2.5 SUMMARY
Five different hypotheses and research questions have been postulated: The first one stated
that English occurs more often in Northern Dutch than in Southern Dutch magazines. This
was confirmed by the data in our corpus: in every category, both the established loan words
and the direct borrowings occurred more in the Dutch magazine, CosmoGirl! and Glamour.
The second hypothesis was that, in magazines, English occurs more often in youth language
than in the language of adults. In general, this is confirmed by the data, but not in every single
category. Therefore, it can be concluded that the criterion ‘country’ overrules the criterion
‘age of target group’.
The third presumption is that the English words in magazines are established loan
words, in contrast to direct borrowings. This idea is clearly incorrect; there are even more non
established borrowings than established loan words. However, the fourth research question
offers more insight into this matter. It is examined whether there are more single occurrences
of established loan words than of direct borrowings, and whether the share of single
occurrences of loan words is larger than the share of single occurrences of direct borrowings.
It can be concluded that, in absolute numbers, there are more single occurrences within the
group of direct borrowings than within the group of established loanwords. However, there is
more repetition in the group of direct borrowings, while the established loan words are more
varied, comparatively speaking.
The final question was whether there is a relationship between the content of an article
and the amount of English that occurs in it? There were no specific expectations for the
outcome, but it is obvious that articles about fashion and beauty contain by far the most
English words, both established loan words and direct borrowings.
76
5. Discussion
5.1 Similar research
It is interesting to compare the results from the data analysis to a similar research that was
carried out earlier. Theissen (1986) researched the importance of the influence of English,
French and German on the language of Dutch and Flemish print media, of which the results
were described in a lecture called Les Hollandais parlent-ils encore le néerlandais? The study
is focused on the differences between Northern and Southern Dutch in print media, and
compares the number of direct borrowings in articles in print media and in dictionaries.
With regard to the newspapers, it was found that more English occurs in the Dutch
ones; but in magazines, on the contrary, it was discovered that the Flemish ones contained
more English words. This does not align with our findings, because, in our corpus, there were
more direct borrowings in the Dutch magazines. This might be connected to the intellectual
level of the magazines and newspapers, since Theissen (1986) found that intellectual print
media uses English less frequently than popular print media. The magazines in Theissens
research were not women’s magazines but more serious news and elucidation magazines,
which might explain the higher number of English words in the Dutch magazines in our
corpus.
The large majority of the English words, which do not appear in Van Dale 1984, occur
only once: the corpus contained 1,638 different words, of which approximately 80 per cent
are hapax legomena (Theissen 1986).28
In our research, no attention was given to the number
of occurrence per word, but the fact that there were only 361 unique direct borrowings while
in total 560 direct borrowings were used, shows that there is a reasonably high percentage of
repetition. Only 2 per cent of the English words are used more than 10 times in the corpus. All
of these words were in the next edition of Van Dale. Moreover, 80 per cent of the words
which occurred between five and nine times in the corpus, were also in the next edition of
Van Dale. This supports the idea that foreign words which are frequently used in print media
are likely to be inserted in the next edition of Van Dale. It is important to note that the
elevated number of foreign words in Dutch dictionaries could be (partly) caused by a less
restrictive entry policy.
28
Hapax legomena are terms of which only one instance of use is recorded (The Oxford English Ditcionary).
77
In a recent article by Van der Sijs (2012), the number of English loan words in a
newspaper of 1994 was compared to a newspaper of 2012. The examined articles were written
in informal Dutch. In 1994, less than one third of the words in the articles were loan words
from different languages, and most of them were not recognizable as such because of
adaptations. Moreover, more than 80 per cent of these loan words were borrowed from a
Romance language. Only 2.3 per cent of the words originated from English (Van der Sijs
2012). In the articles of 2012, the proportion between indigenous words and loan words
remain the same. 3.7 per cent of the words are English loan words. This is a higher percentage
than in 1994, but the author emphasizes that the absolute amounts are rather small (Van der
Sijs 2012). In our corpus, only the Dutch magazines surpass 3.7 per cent of English loan
words.29
The fact that the percentage of English words is almost 2 per cent higher in the
Dutch magazines in our corpus than in the newspapers can have several reasons. It is for
instance possible that Van der Sijs applied different criteria, but it could also be caused by the
fact that the language in women’s magazines can be more playful. Moreover, Van der Sijs
(2012) left out repetitions of English words.
In total, only 1.5 per cent of all words in Van der Sijs’ corpus are English loan words,
which is the equivalent of 7 words out of 500. The English loan words which were used the
most dated from long before 1994 and are entirely established in Dutch (Van der Sijs 2012).
However, we found that even though there are more established borrowings in the magazines,
relatively speaking, the established loan words are more varied and have a smaller percentage
of repetition in comparison to direct borrowings. More recent loan words that only occurred in
the 2012 articles are mainly musical terms and words related to new media (Van der Sijs
2012). Even though we did not categorise the foreign words based on subject, it is very
probable that a lot of the words are associated with fashion, beauty, body and makeup, since
the beauty and fashion articles contained the highest percentage of English words.
In general, the amount of English loan words increases, but most of these words do not
often occur in ordinary language use (Van der Sijs 2012). The complaints about the increasing
presence of English would mainly be caused by English in specific fields, such as
commercials or names of Dutch television programmes, but these are also more likely to
disappear in the long run (Van der Sijs 2012).
29
Because Van der Sijs (2012) does not make clear whether she focuses on direct borrowings or established loan
words, we compared her results to the numbers of all English words, both direct borrowings and established loan
words.
78
5.2 Motivations for using English
A variety of possible motivations for preferring English to Dutch for certain words or
expressions has been discussed previously. In some cases, there is no indigenous equivalent
available: ‘it-girl’, ‘boost’, ‘clutch’, ‘pin-uplook’, and ‘rock-‘n-roll’. However, the majority of
English words in the articles in our corpus are unnecessary borrowings, because a Dutch word
with a (nearly) identical meaning exists; some random examples are ‘love’, ‘fashion’, ‘beauty
secrets’, ‘boy troubles’, ‘cinnamon’, ‘designer’ and ‘fur’ (Van der Sijs 2005). Therefore, it is
interesting to question the reasons to use English specifically in women’s magazines.
As the former editor of CosmoGirl! Simons (NTU 2007) made clear in the interview
for the Dutch Language Union that English is sometimes preferred because the target
audience is familiar with it and because it sounds modern and crisp. The first part of this
explanation aligns with the finding that in advertising, English is used to express solidarity
with the target audience (Hornix & Hof 2008). It has indeed been proved that teenagers in
particular are rather proficient in English, which possibly explains why English occurs
slightly more often in teenage magazines (Berns et al. 2007). A connection has been made
between the ability to accomplish conversational tasks and the development of relationships
between speakers. This means that language users “who are part of the same […] speech
community, share both general background knowledge and conventions concerning
communication within and about the context” (Heller 1988: 14).
Because the magazines try to reflect the environment of their readers, and be like a
‘big sister’ or ‘best friend’, according to their descriptions, it is important to signal through
language that they belong to the same speech community as the readers (Febelmag Joepie n.d;
Profiel CosmoGirl! 2013). As for the older generation the results about differences in the
English proficiency of readers from the Netherlands and Flanders were ambiguous (Quell
2002, Gerritsen 2005, De Bot 2002). Of course, this proficiency does not necessarily correlate
with the effective use of English words in everyday language. Therefore, the connection
between language proficiency of the target audience and occurrence of English in the
magazines for these readers cannot be defined.
The second part of Simons’ (NTU 2007) argument, which says that English sounds
more modern, has also been partly verified. Even though shops, brands or products with
English names are not perceived as more modern than their Dutch equivalents, the English
names sound more appealing and ‘prettier’, both for younger and older people (Renkema,
79
Vallen & Hoeken 2003). In other words, the symbolic and connotative value of English words
is an important motive to prefer them over Dutch in magazine articles (Kelly-Holmes 2000).
This explains why English is that often used in beauty and fashion articles in
particular; the symbolic value of the English names could make clothing and products more
appealing. In the celebrities and psychology categories, the goal is not as much to sell
something. Not coincidentally, it was found that more than half of the English words and
sentences are brand names, product names or designations of a product (Gijsberts et al. 1998).
It should be noted that the research of Gijsbers et al. (1998) focuses on the language in
advertisements, which by definition are about products or brands. However, a lot of the words
in our corpus stand for products and styles. Bakker (1987) has connected the English names in
the clothing industry with the euphemistic effect. He does however not explain how this
euphemism exactly works, but it can be assumed that Bakker (1987) refers to the appeal of
English, because it sounds more special.
English is sometimes preferred because it carries certain connotations or conjures up
specific associations (Bakker 1987). Because these processes take place implicitly or are
personal and subjective, there are no obvious examples of these words or expressions.
Possible examples are ‘casual chic’, ‘chillen’, ‘aliens’ and ‘edgy’. English is also used in
magazines in order to vary and avoid repetition. It is less probable that motivations such as
conciseness, avoiding spelling difficulties with Dutch words, syntactic suppleness and extra
meaning because of pronunciation play an important role in magazine articles (Bakker 1987,
De Raaij 1997). It needs to be noted that these reasons to use English do not offer an
explanation why the difference in the presence of English is larger between Dutch and
Flemish magazines, than between magazines for teenagers and for adults.
80
6. Conclusion
It is clear that English is strongly present in various domains of the Dutch-speaking societies.
On the basis of our corpus, it can be concluded in women’s magazines, too, English is often
used instead of Dutch. However, even though consumers of media complain about the
unrestrained growth of English in those media, the presence of English in women’s magazines
is certainly not overwhelming. In the majority of the articles, the percentage of English words
is rather small, i.e. less than five per cent. The number of English words peaks in certain
articles, especially in articles about fashion and beauty.
Several hypotheses have been postulated and investigated in this research paper. The
first hypothesis was that more English is used in Dutch than in Flemish magazines (a). The
second expectation was that English appears more in magazines for teenagers than in
magazines for adults (b). The third assumption was that the English words which are used in
Dutch and Flemish magazines are generally established loan words instead of direct
borrowings (c). In addition, we investigated whether there are more unique established loan
words than direct borrowings in the corpus (d). Finally, it was questioned whether there is a
correlation between the subject of an article, and the presence of English in that article (e).
Most, but not all of these hypotheses were confirmed.
The fact that, in general, the attitude towards English is more positive, and that the
English language proficiency is slightly higher in the Netherlands than in Flanders, lead to the
hypothesis that English is more frequently used in the magazines from the Netherlands (a).
This hypothesis was confirmed by the results drawn from our data: both direct borrowings
and established loan words occur more often in the Dutch than in the Flemish magazines.
The results concerning hypothesis (b) are not as unequivocal. Lexical borrowing is a
striking feature of youth language. Because English is the most important donor language, it
is expected that more English is used in magazines for teenagers than in magazines for adults.
The hypothesis holds for all the categories -fashion, celebrities and psychology- as far as the
established loan words concern. However, there are less direct borrowings in the articles
about psychology for teenagers. The combination of established loans and direct borrowings
proved that there are more English words in the magazines for the young than for adults
within either country, but the Flemish magazine for teenagers contains less English than the
Dutch magazine for adults. Therefore, it can be concluded that hypothesis (b) holds up at a
certain level, but that the criterion ‘country’ overrules the criterion ‘target group’.
81
An additional expectation (c) was that the editors of magazines have a distinct
preference for established loan words, because these are less conspicuous and therefore
probably more generally accepted than the unestablished direct borrowings. However, of the
English words in the corpus, nearly 60 per cent are direct borrowings, while only 40 per cent
are established borrowings. There are no straightforward reasons which can explain this fact.
Moreover, it is certain that the higher number of unestablished loan words is not
caused by repetition; when repetitions are not taken into consideration, there are still more
direct borrowings than established loan words in our corpus (e). However, the group of
established loan words is more varied. The fact that more repetition occurs in the group of
direct borrowings might indicate that some of the words are in the process of becoming
established loan words.
Finally, we discovered that there is a correlation between the subject of the article in
women’s magazines, and the presence of English (d). The number of English words is
remarkably higher in articles about fashion and beauty. This is particularly interesting because
these articles do not contain extensive texts in most cases. In general, the articles about
psychological issues contain the lowest number of English words.
Even though several hypotheses have been verified, a few questions remain. Our
hypotheses presuppose that the spoken language of the readers of magazines is reflected in
these magazines. Further research needs to reveal what the exact relationship is between both
factors. For instance, is the elevated number of English words in Dutch magazines caused by
the more positive attitude towards English of the Dutch, or vice versa. Moreover, it should be
investigated why there are more direct borrowings than established loan words in women’s
magazines. A possible explanation is that direct borrowings sound more fashion-forward, or
that they are more eye-catching.
The attitude and the comprehension of the readers of the magazines towards the use of
English can be questioned as well. Research has been carried out into the general English
language proficiency of citizens from the Netherlands and Flanders, into the comprehension
of English in different types of advertising and into the attitude towards the use of English in
advertising and brand or shop names. However, none of these issues have been researched in
the specific context of articles in women’s magazines. It would also be interesting to
interview the authors and editors of women’s magazines about their language choices. It was
impossible to examine these issues in the time span of this research.
82
Furthermore, it was noticed that there is a lack of literature focusing on the use of
English in print media. For instance, the research that has been conducted into the use of
English in the media almost exclusively pays attention to radio, television and internet. In
addition, the few studies that do focus on print media are about newspapers in particular.
Moreover, the code-switching and code-mixing models we encountered all revolve around
spoken language, and do not take written language into account.
In conclusion, the results in this research are a relevant addition to the discussions
about the supposed growing influence of English in the media and other domains, such as
education. Because the use of English words in the informal setting of magazines was
investigated, the results could shed a different light on discussions about these matters. Our
results showed that the speakers of Dutch should not worry about the infiltration of English
into their native language, because only in very specifically themed articles, the presence of
English is rather high.
83
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List of texts used as primary data
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Appendices