Towards Localization of Anglicisms: a Data-driven Analysis of Anglicisms on the Best Western Italia Website

The study investigates the ways in which the use of anglicisms on the localized promotional websites of global companies may be beneficial for the companies. The study suggests that anglicisms may be used in a promotional text as a strategic device, and localization of anglicisms is defined as part of the localization process which requires the adaptation of the stylistic, grammatical, and sociolinguistic aspects of anglicisms to the target language. The data came from the Best Western Italia website, and the study focuses on the use of anglicisms in Italian. The data were collected in the period 18.12.2006-23.12.2006, and the material for the present study consists of 48 web pages that contain 10 785 words, 490 of which are anglicisms, and, consequently, anglicisms make 4.5% of the total number of words. The study performs data-driven analysis of anglicisms that means that the methods were determined by the data, and those characteristics of anglicisms which were more frequently encountered in the corpus of the present study were analysed. Thus, the present study combines quantitative and qualitative methods. Firstly, the frequency and word class distribution of anglicisms were identified. Secondly, semantic and etymological analyses of anglicisms were performed. Thirdly, grammatical analysis of anglicisms was conducted that focused on the word formation processes, the assignation of gender, the plural formation, word order and agreement of noun phrases, verbs, adverbs, spelling, and false anglicisms. The results of the present study suggest that the use of anglicisms on a localized promotional website may help to designate the target audience of the website, economize space on a website by using shorter English words, avoid the ambiguity caused by homonyms, create an authentic atmosphere of international environment, and enrich the user?s vocabulary with new vocabulary items and new concepts. However, it is necessary to acknowledge that the effectiveness of such a marketing strategy depends on certain characteristics of the target market, and the usage of anglicisms might be very popular among a particular speech community, but ineffective and harmful when considering a broader population.