The Influence of English on Croatian Hip-Hop Language

master's thesis

• Title (croatian): Utjecaj engleskog jezika na hrvatski hip-hop jezik
• Author: Marija Kozjak
• Mentor: Anđel Starčević (mentor)
• Committee member: Višnja Josipović-Smojver (predsjednik povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Marina Grubišić (član povjerenstva)
• Committee member: Anđel Starčević (član povjerenstva)
• Granter: University of Zagreb; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences; (Department of English language and literature); Zagreb
• Defense date and country: 2019-09-09, Croatia
• Scientific / art field, discipline and subdiscipline: HUMANISTIC SCIENCES; Philology; Anglistics

Abstract

Language changes and develops along with the contexts it is used in and the purpose it is used for. It has been a major part of American hip-hop culture since its beginning and has been thoroughly examined. Since the English language has been the staple of hip-hop nation language, Croatian artists heavily depend on it when creating their work. In the thesis, I provide an overview of the English words and the words influenced by English in Croatian hip-hop lyrics. The items are separated into two groups: foreign items, which are embedded into the lyrics in their original form and the borrowed items, which are adapted to a certain degree to the Croatian language. The focus is on the four linguistic levels: orthographic, syntactic, morphological and semantic, with the presentation of the most common forms used by the Croatian hip-hop artists. The orthographic analysis shows various examples of writing words, including the original English spelling and more integrated items influenced to differing degrees by the English pronunciation or the English spelling. The syntactic analysis focuses on the clausal switching of the English items, specifically of noun phrases within clauses, of clauses themselves and extra clausal items, such as interjections. It also gives examples of literal translations known as calques. The Morphological analysis shows the usage of Croatian inflections on English words. Finally, the semantic analysis provides and overview of the most prolific semantic domains from which Croatian artists tend to borrow.

• Keywords: language contact; language transfer; foreign element; hip-hop language; code-switching
• Language: english
• URN:NBN: urn:nbn:hr:131:347107
• Study programme: Title: English Language and Literature (double major); specializations in: Linguistics, Literature and Culture, Translation, TEFL; Course: Linguistics; Study programme type: university; Study level: graduate; Academic / professional title: magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti (magistar/magistra engleskog jezika i književnosti)
• Type of resource: Text
• File origin: Born digital
• Access conditions: Open access
• Created on: 2019-10-02 14:50:18