Global Englishes and the Semiotics of German Radio—Encouraging the Listener's Visual Imagination Through Translingual and Transmodal Practices

Abstract

Due to increasing mediatisation of societies and the global diffusion of English, previous research has paid a great deal of attention to the use of English in contact with other linguistic resources. Traditionally, the focus in studies on global Englishes is predominantly on verbal resources, which are often examined in media corpora. The recent paradigmatic shift towards a conceptualisation of language as a social practice, however, also acknowledges other resources such as music, images and sounds as part of semiotic assemblages in the process of meaning-making. This paper contributes to this current debate and argues for a more holistic view on language illustrated by examples of the use of global Englishes in German radio media texts. The examples show the complexities of translingual and transmodal practices in mass media communication and how English linguistic resources are deeply entangled with other semiotic resources and thereby locally appropriated in semiotic assemblages to stimulate the listener's visual imagination and achieve communicative success in a non-visual medium.

Stylistic functions of anglicisms in German radio

“…The predominantly English-language music played (i.e. contemporary pop music mixed with popular hits of the last three decades) and the speech of journalists, which includes the use of English words and phrases on air, are aligned to create a harmonious acoustic flow of the radio programme for the listener (see Schaefer, 2022Schaefer, , 2024.…”

Embracing linguistic diversity: Global Englishes language teaching for anti-racist education

“…Therefore, instructional methods should equip learners with the skills and awareness necessary for effective communication in diverse contexts (Rose and Galloway, 2019). Digital discourse, characterized by interactive written communication in online spaces, has emerged as a potent tool for raising awareness among English language learners about the complexities of language use in diverse settings (Higgs, 2020;Schaefer, 2022). The native speaker is given a disproportionate amount of importance, which can be traced back to an underlying concept that the Inner Circle possesses ownership of the English language.…”

Jugendsprache: bahasa remaja Jerman pada akun Instagram Funk

“…Ada beberapa penelitian yang mengangkat Jugendsprache atau bahasa remaja Jerman sebagai topik (Bahlo, 2019;Brkić, 2021;Cotgrove, 2023;Könning, 2020;Narimane, 2023;Schaefer, 2022;Shabidinova, 2023;Shcherbina et al, 2022). Salah satu aspek Jugendsprache yang banyak dieksplorasi adalah bentuk internal bahasa, seperti munculnya leksem baru akibat fenomena neologisme (Shabidinova, 2023;Shcherbina et al, 2022) dan adopsi kata-kata dari bahasa asing, khususnya bahasa Inggris (Narimane, 2023), serta proses komposisi atau pembentukan kata dengan menggabungkan dua kata atau lebih (Brkić, 2021).…”