| Abstract |
This study analyzed the categories, patterns, and morphemic structure changes in the English lexical borrowings found in the opinion sections of three selected local newspapers in Iligan City: Lanao Mail, Mindanao Scoop, and The Philippine Post. After the English lexical borrowings were underlined, encoded, and cross-checked by the panel of experts, they were classified by the lexical categories and patterns of borrowing and the frequency was determined using frequency and percentage tests. Morphemic structure changes were also studied. Out of 27,100 words used in the opinion sections of the three newspapers, there is only a total of 677 English lexical borrowings found. It reveals that there are more nouns (582 or 85.97%) than verbs (55 or 8.12%), more verbs than adjectives (40 or 5.91%), no adverb borrowings, and that more word-level borrowings (424 or 62.63%) than phrase-level ones (253 or 37.37%). Aside from this, the study shows that there are affixations and indigenization. This study concludes that: a.) English lexical borrowings in the opinion section of three newspapers seems not extensive since there are only 677 borrowings out of the 27,100 words used, b.) writers perhaps borrow English words/phrases if there are no equivalent Sebuano terms and if the terms would be better understood than the terms used in the Sebuano language, c.) only affixations and indigenization are present, d.) most borrowings are direct borrowings, e.) writers tended to borrow more nouns than verbs, and more verbs
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iii than adjectives, f.) there are no adverb borrowings probably because the Sebuano language is very rich with adverbs and adverbial modifiers, and g.) there are more word-level borrowings than phrase-level ones possibly because lexicon is the most visible part of the language, thus word can be the most easily borrowed. Finally, the recommendations made are: a.) writers of the opinion sections should not consider English borrowing an issue as long as the message is conveyed accurately, b.) Sebuanos should not take negatively any language change brought about specifically by English lexical borrowing c.) people should conduct researches about the Sebuano language which would, in some way, help in the realization of the Cebuano's long-dreamed standardization of this language, and d.) a similar research would be made to: i.) examine borrowings from other languages to have a broader picture of the Sebuano language's lexicon, ii.) compare the borrowings between the Sebuano and Tagalog write-ups including all the sections, iii.) study the morphological rules on affixations involving borrowed English words/phrases, iv.) look into the mostly borrowed semantic domains, and v.) analyze the articles' level of formality/informality. |
Mindanao State
University - Iligan Institute of Technology