Translating business cultures: anglicisms in German discourse

Abstract

The paper explores assimilation strategies employed to integrate anglicisms into German written business discourse. The study was carried out on the textual level, which gives valuable insight into the rules and norms governing business communication and thus contributes to a better understanding of written conventions deemed appropriate within business discourse communities. The authors hold the view that assimilation problem can be treated as translation problem. In accordance with this view anglicisms were evaluated in respect to the strategies of foreignisation and neutralization understood as different degrees of assimilation. The results show that neutralizing strategy aimed at mixing borrowed and native language units outweighs quantitatively the foreignising strategy, which indicates the overall trend towards a balanced approach to the incorporation of anglicisms. The authors conclude that assimilation strategies applied to anglicisms should be consistent with the purposes and objectives of professional communication. Thus developing adequate assimilation strategies ensures optimal transmission of ideas and improves text coherence.