UNIVERSITATEA DIN CRAIOVA

FACULTATEA DE LITERE

Use and frequency of technical and highly technical

terms in Romanian vs. English fashion and wellness
magazines

AMZA ANA-MARIA
CICHI ALEXANDRA
Master- Studii de limb englez i literaturi anglo-americane
Modul limb
Anul II

Coordinating Proffessor:
Conf.univ.dr. Titela Vilceanu

Introduction
In this paper we present corpus-based results that attest the use and frequency of technical and
highly technical terms in Romanian vs. English fashion and wellness magazines.
Employing quantitative and qualitative approaches, we compare English and Romanian texts of
advertisements in fashion and wellness magazines , the most sellable female fashion magazines,
with the study focused on lexic, thematic and cultural intertextuality. It is found that the
globalization of advertisement for female products and services are dependent on local culture
and language. The analysis of intertextuality between texts both in English and in Romanian will
contribute to researches.
A growing segment of Romanian women are becoming passionate about fashion, therefore they
are increasingly interested in fashion magazines and products. The incredible prevalence of
English in Romanian media both in written and spoken form is at first shocking to a native
English speaker. Phrases that seem to make no sense or that are not relevant to what they are
attached to are seen everywhere: on t-shirts, as part of television advertisements, and in
Romanian magazines. In this paper we assert that the English technical terms in Romanian media
(fashion magazines) is more complicated than that; sometimes it is mainly decorative but it is
able to communicate as well.
There are many reasons for which Romanian has not only adopted English technical words with
new meaning and usage, but also incorporates other forms based on English patterns which users
seem to consider more attractive or more accurate. More specifically, this paper analyses how
English mixing contributes to self-distinction through fashion. We will analyze the Romanian
language of fashion in three Romanian fashion magazines- ELLE, Harpers Bazaar and Marie
Claire -, which has for some time been using English technical words for different areas of
fashion and wellness with different meanings, or even created Romanian words that look like and
are pronounced like English words. The findings of this study imply that English is regarded as
a stylish language and that this general recognition leads to the acknowledgement of the
prestigious status of English in Romania.
The contemporary Romanian society is characterized by extreme social, economic and technical
dynamism that favours the borrowing of foreign technical words. As English is the foreign

language most frequently learned and used by native Romanians, it is no wonder that many
English words have entered the everyday Romanian language. Our preliminary point is that
lifestyle magazines, and other media are in an important role in different phases of a product
development process. They offer stages for goods, they are used as source of inspiration, and
they are "passages" where journalists, advertisers and readers meet. These actors have one thing
in common: everyone follows what is up-to-date. What is up-to-date is created in the pages of
magazines when these actors speak to each other and create "realities". When the product
character is not primarily function but also a lifestyle, lifestyle magazines are in a central role of
inspiration for product managers and art directors. When it comes to lifestyle, company's view of
end-users is rarely based on direct and systematic communication with "real" end-users.

Corpus Linguistics
In the contemporary complex societies the relevance of the mass media is such that the
knowledge and information about everything that surrounds us, about the others and about
ourselves is more and more a mediate knowledge. The globalisation of the processes, of the
emotions and most of all of the flow of information leads as a consequence to the redefinition of
the nowadays concepts, typical of the journalism, to the logic of the market and marketing.
According to this principle, the "journalistic products" assemble the advertising and
entertainment foundations, which induce a particular realism of the everyday. The development
and establishment of the mass consumption in the contemporary societies have implications on
the social relations through the consumptions and life styles.
Magazines
Belch and Belch divide magazines into three varieties: consumer (e.g., Reader's Digest,
Newsweek, People ), farm (e.g., Farm Journal, National Hog Farmer, Beef ), and business
(professional, industrial, trade, and general business publications). Magazines have several
strengths, including audience selectivity, reproduction quality, prestige, and reader loyalty.
Furthermore, magazines have a relatively long shelf lifethey may be saved for weeks or
months, and are frequently reread, and passed on to others. Magazine reading also tends to occur
at a less hurried pace than newspaper reading. Health messages, therefore, can receive repeated
exposure.

The English used in Romanian magazines can be understood to serve two main functions: a
decorative function and a communicative function. The decorative function of the English
incorporates characteristics such as font size, font colour, and placement on the page. In this
sense the English functions visually, and does not need to be read or understood.
With respect to the technical terms used by Romanian fashion magazines from the English ones,
we notice the existence of nouns that seem defective of plural; they either have determinants
which require the use of plural or belong to a string of nouns put in plural and, still, they have a
form of singular: Ctig i tu una din cele 100 de mascara! ad for Rimmel in Cosmopolitan,
Apr. 2009) which in his English form would be Win one of the 100 mascara!. This example
shows that English language uses a technical term from the area of cosmetics and this term is not
changed in Romania even though the sentence seems not natural if we take into account the
English grammar.
When the neologism has a graphic form identical to its Romanian equivalent, it can borrow
from the latter the form of plural it happens, in the following example, with the linguistic
sequence top models: ndreapt-i prul ctre centrul ateniei! Descoper secretul celor mai
faimoase top modele, graie acestui aparat de ndreptat prul cu plcue ceramice, pentru o
ndreptare perfect i sistem de ionizare, pentru un par remarcabil de strlucitor. (ad for Roventa
in Joy Celebrity, Nov. 2008) which in his English form would be Direct your hair to the center
of attention! Discover the secret of the most famous top models, due to this hairstraightening
device with ceramic plates, for a perfect straightening and ionization system, for a remarkably
shinny hair. As one may see, the use of the technical fashion term top models is found in both
languages, but with a little change in grammar in the Romanian advertisement due to this
language own grammar.
Another illustrative example of this exchange of English technical terms is this advertisement:
Rembrac fibra capilar ntr-o suprafa topseal mpotriva agresiunilor. (ad for Krastase in
Cosmopolitan, Apr. 2008) which in his English form would be Redress the capillary fiber in a
topseal surface against aggressions.

A relatively high number of technical English words comprised in the Romanian commercials
seem to have been adopted by the Romanian language, because they are inventories by DEX

2009 without the mention English word, indicating, however, their pronunciation, specific to
the English language, and their etymology, by means of the mention din engl. (from Engl.). In
this category there are: bestseller, bonus, card, cash, internet, mall, party, shop, shopping etc.
The noun mascara is contained by many commercials with the sense of cosmetic product used
for making up the eye-lashes, while in DEX 2009 it appears defined only as 1. (nv.) buffoon,
comic, clown; person not serious, brat; 2. (pop.) insult, mockery, while the definition cosmetic
product presented in the form of paste of different colours, used for making up the eye-lashes is
assigned only to the noun rimel. Also in this category should be classified the wellness technical
word cocktail, seen in several ads (such as Cocktail-ul de energie din 10 fructe + 10 vitamine
(ad for Frutimine in Bolero, Sept. 2007) which in his English form would be The energy
cocktail of 10 fruit + 10 vitamins.
Other specific fashion terms used in both Romanian and English magazines are: antiage, beauty
case, look maker, nude look, trend maker. This group would include brands too due to the fact
that brands are the result of compounding or derivation taking place in non-English-speaking
countries;
Other fashion specific terms as body (body corp, trup), smart-casual (smart elegant, ic,
modern), smoking/smoching (smoking, to smoke a fuma) and top (vrf, parte de
sus/superioar) . In fashion magazines, as a piece of clothing the body is similar to a tight
bathing suit, made of an elastic fabric which shows off the figure. For example: Rochii
feminine au fost mixate cu piese urbane, precum jachete parka, blazere minimaliste, trenciuri i
boyfriend jeans cu petice sau piese sporty: body-uri, pantaloni strmi de jogging i hanorace
(Marie Claire, 20.02.2014) which in his English form would be Feminine dresses were mixed
with urban outfits, such as parkas, minimalist jackets, trenches and patches boyfriend jeans or
sporty outfits: bodies, jogging leggings and anoraks. and Stilul smart casual - Inspir-te din
imaginea iconic a lui Diane Keaton din Annie Hall. (ELLE, 05.09.2012) which in his English
form would be The smart-casual style find inspiration in the iconic image of Diane Keaton in
Annie Hall.

i actorul Hugh Jackman, ctigtor la categoria Cel mai bun actor

comedie/musical, pentru rolul din Les Misrables, a purtat Louis Vuitton la Golden Globe
Awards un smoking bleumarin. (Marie Claire, 14.01.2013) which in his English form would
be And the actor Hugh Jackman, the winner of the Best Actor category comedy/musical, for
the part in Les Misrables, wore Louis Vuitton at the Golden Glove Awards a dark blue

smoking. Etymologically the term smoching comes from the gesture of smoking, the reference
being made to that moment when gentlemen used to retire quietly, enjoying a brandy and a cigar
in one of the corners of their club. As a sign of acknowledging their belonging to the select group
in the corner, they had to wear a certain type of outfit, the dinner jacket, smochingul. Optati
pentru un mix de efect format dintr-o fusta extravaganta, un top cu joc grafic si un mantou clasic
ce va echilibra ansamblul. (Harpers Bazaar, 01.12.2014) which in his English form would be
Choose a mix of effects made up of an extravagant skirt, a graphic printed top and a classical
coat which will balance the outfit. Though it does not refer strictly to a piece of clothing, the
top designates the upper part of an outfit, a garment worn on the upper half of the body.
Some examples of the usage of technical make-up terms are rimmel or wonderbra: Acest contur
cat-eyes mat, creat doar din tu i rimel, este ascuit (ELLE, 25.09.20147) which in his
English form would be This mate cat-eye contour, created only with liquid eyeliner and
mascara, is sharp and o vedem pe Dita von Teese transformndu-se dintr-o cercettoare
care lucreaz n laborator ntr-o starlet irezistibil cu ajutorul unui Wonderbra. (ELLE,
15.04.2014) which in his English form would be we can see Dita von Teese turning from a
researcher working in a lab into an irresistible starlet with the help of a Wonderbra.
The English used in Romanian media can be understood to serve two main functions: a
decorative function and a communicative function. The decorative function of the English
incorporates characteristics such as font size, font colour, and placement on the page. In this
sense the English functions visually, and does not need to be read or understood.

Results
The total amount of English words occurring in the Romanian version of ELLE is 174. In
addition there are 8 slogans and 5 counted words in the advertisements on a total of 132 pages.
The majority of the English words are found in Fashion, Trend & Lifestyle category. The
magazine contains many texts which fall under the four categories only few texts dealing with
Travel, Business, Entertainment and Other. There were only few advertisements in the magazine.
The Romanian version of Marie Claire contains in total 189 English words, 6 slogans and 8
single words on a total of 160 pages. Similarly to ELLE, the greater part of words falls under the

category Fashion, Trend & Lifestyle. It is similar to ELLE. This is a mark that the two magazines
deal with similar themes and topics and they target the same group, the female population.
The Romanian Harpers Bazaar has an entry of 502 English words in total. 147 single English
words as well as 36 English slogans can be found in advertisements on a total of 170 pages. The
largest category refers to Fashion, Trend & Lifestyle terms. The category containing the smallest
amount is Health & Fitness. Regarding the advertisements, the number of entries of single words
is much higher than the number of exclusively English slogans. One can argue that a decline in
the usage of English words is related to the main focus of the magazines and the importance of
the articles to the reader which reduces the number of English words in the category Health &
Fitness to only 6 as it is apparently not the main feature of the magazine. As the advertisements
of this magazine are mainly concerned with fashion or fashion accessorize they contain many
English words.
Fashion, Trend & Lifestyle is the category containing most English words in the magazines
analysed, yet this is no surprise considering the magazines mainly address this topic. Womens
magazines, like Harpers Bazaar, which are mainly focused on fashion tend to use a lot of
English words as they are subject to the most important influence from outside Europe, America
for example, due to the power of its fashion business and its impact as a trendsetting culture on
the rest of the world. Therefore, new English words of what is in or out appear quickly and
in a great variety which apparently makes Fashion, Trend & Lifestyle the category that contains
the most English words.
Therefore, according to Manfred Grlach, who tackled the use of technical English terms in
foreign languages in his book English words abroad, we can establish a set of four factors for an
international comparison of the American/British magazines and the Romanian versions:
Different phonological and morphological structures of the individual languages mean that the
alienness of words, and therefore their acceptability and ease of integration, are greatly enhanced
by structural similarities, whereas borrowing may be delayed or obstructed by divergences. [...]
The functional status of English in a speech community is important because of the expected
differences in the frequency of language contacts and the specific domains affected by it
(possibly also speakers attitudes to the English language and to potential or existing loanwords).
[...]

 The official encouragement or stigmatization of the English language and of anglicisms in

particular [...] obviously serve to promote or reduce the number of loanwords. [...]
The degree of ausbau (functional range) of the receptor language is important because
individual speakers as well as governmental and educational authorities of an underdeveloped
language may be tempted to borrow terminologies wholesale from English, for reasons of
international comprehensibility, of greater acceptance by the speakers or in order to avoid the
cost involved in the development and implementation of new lexis. [...] (Grlach 2003)
aqua

discount

jeans

pocket-size

park

dress

job

pony tail

baby

shop

jogging

pool

banner

entertainment

hair-stylist

powder

label

supermarket
sex-appeal

beauty

eye-liner
Facebook

blush

Facebook-feeds

life

body

fashion

look

boyfriend

freestyle

love

cardigan

fun

make-up

career

glamour

marketing

casting

hair

catwalk

hippie

club

hobby

college
designer

home
infinity

shopping
showbiz
skill
social

mascara

travel

modeling

trench

must-have

trend

nails

T-shirt

outfit

vintage

party girl

voucher

Table 1. English nouns and noun phrases used in some Romanian online newspapers and
magazines

Conclusion
The present article pointed to the context in which English became a lingua franca, and as such
adopted also by Romanians for their private and professional communication. We showcased
various factors that influence the borrowing of foreign words by a recipient language, and
defined loanwords, loanblends and loanshifts. Then, two hundred and two English loanwords
were singled out in thirty Romanian online newspapers and magazines analysed in September
2014. The loanwords were grouped in three classes: adjectives/ adverbs, nouns/ noun phrases,
verbs/ phrasal verbs. The result of the analysis outlined that 85% of the English loanwords were
nouns/ noun phrases, 13% adjectives/ adverbs and only 2% verbs/ phrasal verbs. It became thus
obvious that the contemporary Romanian online press abounds in English nouns and noun
phrases and that there is a tendency to accept English nouns or noun phrases more easily into the
Romanian language than any other speech category.
The quantitative analysis of Anglicisms in the studied corpus has shown that only a relatively
small proportion of these words have a high frequency of occurrence, more than 50% of all
English words being used merely once or twice in our data. Such a limited usage could reflect
the new character these words have in the language, or merely the fact that the concepts they are
used to designate were not very often discussed in the studied corpus. The relatively large
proportion borrowed words have in the total number of words in the corpus seems to testify to an
increasing intensity of contact between English and Romanian, and may point towards an
upward trend in the phenomenon of borrowing between the two languages. Although at a more
detailed level of analysis, the borrowed words can be broadly divided into necessary and
unnecessary loans, this distinction is empirically weak as the line separating the two classes
remains arbitrary and therefore difficult to draw.
The increasing international influence of English has been welcomed by many, but criticized by
many others. While some appreciate its political, economic and cultural advantages, others are
sensitive to a possible threat to other languages and cultures. The borrowing from foreign
languages facilitates and enriches communication. Sooner or later the foreign words will be
integrated into the existing language structures to such an extent that they will not be recognized
as foreign any more. Yet, the critique of the anglicisms is not so much about the fact that

language is a means of communication, but rather about language being a symbol of the national
and cultural identity of a speech community. As they say, anglicisms epitomise Anglophone or
American social and cultural structures and values and many people might perceive this as a
threat to their own values. When speaking about the penetration and usage of the English
loanwords in the Romanian vocabulary, especially in the language of fashion, the picture is
complicate and blurry. The language of fashion in Romania proves to be a generous receiver,
ready to enrich itself continuously. Also, the English elements are adopted and easily adapted to
the Romanian language of fashion. Then, words that are perceived as aliens frequently keep
their foreign form, while loanwords that are used in common speech tend to adjust themselves to
the articulatory and spelling habits of the Romanian host language.
The authors are aware that one of the main strengths of English borrowings is their international
dimension, and as it can be seen in the examples provided above, they are present in various
fields. Although there are linguists concerned about the danger that Anglo-Saxon borrowings
might represent, these borrowings do not threaten the Latin dimension of the Romanian
language, since many of them are Latin themselves. On the contrary, many anglicisms could
represent an opportunity, allowing Romanian to become a language that is capable of expressing
concepts, facts, ideas that have an international scope.

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Corpus linguistics
Ctig i tu una din cele 100 de mascara!
ad for Rimmel in Cosmopolitan, Apr. 2009
ndreapt-i prul ctre centrul ateniei!
Descoper secretul celor mai faimoase top
modele, graie acestui aparat de ndreptat prul
cu plcue ceramice, pentru o ndreptare
perfect i sistem de ionizare, pentru un par
remarcabil de strlucitor.
ad for Roventa in Joy Celebrity, Nov. 2008
Rembrac fibra capilar ntr-o suprafa
topseal mpotriva agresiunilor.
ad for Krastase in Cosmopolitan, Apr. 2008
Cocktail-ul de energie din 10 fructe + 10
vitamine
ad for Frutimine in Bolero, Sept. 2007
Rochii feminine au fost mixate cu piese
urbane, precum jachete parka, blazere
minimaliste, trenciuri i boyfriend jeans cu
petice sau piese sporty: body-uri, pantaloni
strmi de jogging i hanorace
Marie Claire, 20.02.2014
Stilul smart casual - Inspir-te din imaginea
iconic a lui Diane Keaton din Annie Hall.
ELLE, 05.09.2012
i actorul Hugh Jackman, ctigtor la
categoria Cel mai bun actor comedie/musical,
pentru rolul din Les Misrables, a purtat Louis
Vuitton la Golden Globe Awards un smoking
bleumarin.
Marie Claire, 14.01.2013
Optati pentru un mix de efect format dintr-o
fusta extravaganta, un top cu joc grafic si un
mantou clasic ce va echilibra ansamblul.
Harpers Bazaar, 01.12.2014
Acest contur cat-eyes mat, creat doar din tu
i rimel, este ascuit
ELLE, 25.09. 2014
o vedem pe Dita von Teese transformnduse dintr-o cercettoare care lucreaz n
laborator ntr-o starlet irezistibil cu ajutorul

Win one of the 100 mascara!

Direct your hair to the center of attention!
Discover the secret of the most famous top
models, due to this hairstraightening device
with ceramic plates, for a perfect straightening
and ionization system, for a remarkably shinny
hair.
Redress the capillary fiber in a topseal
surface against aggressions.
The energy cocktail of 10 fruit + 10 vitamins

Feminine dresses were mixed with urban

outfits, such as parkas, minimalist jackets,
trenches and patches boyfriend jeans or sporty
outfits: bodies, jogging leggings and anoraks.

The smart-casual style find inspiration in

the iconic image of Diane Keaton in Annie
Hall.
And the actor Hugh Jackman, the winner of
the Best Actor category comedy/musical, for
the part in Les Misrables, wore Louis Vuitton
at the Golden Glove Awards a dark blue
smoking.
Choose a mix of effects made up of an
extravagant skirt, a graphic printed top and a
classical coat which will balance the outfit.
This mate cat-eye contour, created only with
liquid eyeliner and mascara, is sharp
we can see Dita von Teese turning from a
researcher working in a lab into an irresistible
starlet with the help of a Wonderbra.

unui Wonderbra.
ELLE, 15.04.2014