Sociosemantics of Ethnic Lexicon: Evidence from American Czech

• Published in: American speech 1988-07, Vol.63 (2), p.99-111
• Main Author: Rakusan, Jaromira
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ethnolinguistics; Language; Languages in contact; Linguistics; Loan words; Morphemes; Semantics; Slavic culture; Sociolinguistics and ethnolinguistics; Syntactics; Textual collocation; Words
• ISSN: 0003-1283; 1527-2133
• DOI: 10.2307/454414

The influence of Eng on the onomasiological system of American Czech is examined using a series of letters published in 1960 in the American Czech monthly Hospodar (The Husbandman). Implications concerning the role of innovations in a recipient lang are discussed. A study of the texts reveals 280 onomasiological units consisting of loan forms, loanblends, loanshifts, & creations. In general, the borrowings appear to be used to designate things & concepts for which there is no term in the native lang (eg, peanutbutter, horke psy 'hot dog'). Others represent integration of the immigrants into US life (eg, truk, biznis). Other borrowings serve an interpersonal function, & involve attitudinal modifiers, emotive terms, etc (eg, bagger 'bugger', fun). The ethnic authors of the texts examined here appear to be motivated by borrowing factors, including a tendency to simplify, enrich the text, get their message across, & a metalinguistic tendency that involves commenting on the origin of the borrowed terms. Some general characteristics of the onomastics of ethnic texts are outlined, including continuous use of two linguistic systems; discreteness of function of the systems; iconic motivation for the choice between systems; revocation of some functions typical of first-lang acquisition; a high frequency of metalinguistic elements; & deflections in typical patterns of co-occurrence in both systems. 1 Figure, 21 References. B. Annesser Murray