ESP: The language of mobile telecommunications in English and German. With special reference to the Austrian situation. Diplomarbeit zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Magisters der Philosophie an der Geisteswissenschaftlichen Fakultät der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz vorgelegt von Markus Untergrabner am Institut für Anglistik Begutachter: Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Peter Bierbaumer Graz, 2009 Table of Contents 0 Introduction 3 1 Target Group 5 2 The Varieties of English 6 3 English, the World’s Lingua Franca 7 3.1 Who and Where are English Speakers? 7 3.2 Definition(s): ‘Lingua Franca’ 8 3.3 The Rise of English 9 4 The Emergence of ESP 10 5 Definition: What is ESP? 12 6 Mobile Telecommunications 13 6.1 The Early Stages of Mobile Telecommunications 13 7 The Mobile Phone or Cellular Phone 15 7.1 Cell Tower and Cell 16 8 Mobile Phones and the Health Issue 17 8.1 Mobile Safety – Pros 17 8.1 Mobile Safety – Cons 18 9 Facts and Figures 18 10 Linguistic Analysis 21 10.1 Semantics 21 10.1.1 The Prototype Theory 22 10.1.2 Lexical Relations 23 10.1.2.1 Homophones/Homonyms 23 10.1.2.2 Homographs 24 10.1.2.3 Polysemy 24 10.1.2.4 Synonyms 25 10.1.2.5 Antonyms 25 10.1.2.6 Retronyms 26 10.2 Word-formation Processes 26 10.2.1 Compounding 27 10.2.2 Derivation 27 10.2.3 Conversion 28 10.2.4 Back-formation/Back-derivation 28 10.2.5 Clipping 28 10.2.6 Blending 29 10.2.7 Acronyms vs. Abbreviations 29 10.2.8 Eponyms and Coinage 30 10.2.9 Borrowing 30 11 Anglicisms in Promotion Material 32 11.1 A1 33 11.2 T-Mobile 34 11.3 Hutchinson 3G Austria GmbH (3) 35 11.4 Orange 36 12 Phone Tariffs and Contracts in Austria 37 13 The Use of Foreign Words in Austrian Legal Texts 40 13.1 The Outcome 41 14 Words for the mobile phone in selected European languages 42 15 Where does the word Handy come from? 49 16 The Interviews 51 16.1 The Findings 51 17 Operating a Mobile 56 18 Conclusion 57 19 Glossary 59 20 Bibliography 78 21 Webliography 80 APPENDIX A Excerpt taken from the “Handbuch der Rechtssetzungstechnik“, Teil 1: Legistische Richtlinien 1990: „I. Rechtssprache“. 82 APPENDIX B Questionnaire 88 APPENDIX C List of Phrases and Expressions from the Field of Mobile Telecommunications 90 List of Abbreviations EFL English as a Foreign Language ELT English Language Teaching ESL English as a Second Language ESP English for Specific Purposes GE General English GPRS General Packet Radio Service GSM Global System for Mobile communications HWL Hutchinson Whampoa Limited IDS Institut für Deutsche Sprache L1 First Language L2 Second Language LAN Local Area Network MMS Multimedia Message PTA Post und Telekom Austria AG PTT Push-To-Talk SIM Subscriber Identity Module SMS Short Message Service 0 Introduction The aim of this thesis is to introduce the reader to the language of mobile telecommunications in English and German and at the same time provide useful material concerning the language of mobile telecommunications for people who are considering a career in this field. At the very beginning of this thesis I will discuss the varieties of English and the position of the English language as the world’s lingua franca. I will also have a brief look at the historical developments that contributed to the rise of the English language. I also found it quite important to briefly have a look at which kinds of English speakers there are and what their respective relationship to the English language is. As the language of mobile telecommunications belongs to the field ‘English for Specific Purposes’ a short introduction to ESP will be given. I will also try to explain and define ESP in this part of my thesis. I used the word try on purpose in the preceding sentence as it is very difficult to provide a real definition of ESP. However, by explaining what ESP is and also what it is not the reader will get a clear picture of this historically rather new approach in language teaching. In the next part I will give an overview of the historical development of telecommunications in general and how modern mobile phones work using cell towers. I will also briefly discuss the health issue. There are many scientists who claim that the use of mobile phones may be harmful to our health but there are also some who believe that mobile phone use does not affect the human body at all. Some interesting facts and figures on Austria’s major mobile network operators will round off this part of my paper. The two linguistic fields semantics and word-formation processes are of special importance for the language of mobile telecommunications. As will be seen in the course of this paper, a large number of Anglicisms and pseudo-Anglicisms, respectively, can be found in the language of mobile telecommunications. Semantics is very important when discussing these aforementioned Anglicisms and pseudo-Anglicisms. Many (seemingly) English words and expressions that are used in German do not have exactly the same meaning for English native speakers. Sometimes such words and expressions have a totally different meaning and - 3 - some do not even exist in English. There are linguists, including the supervisor of this thesis, who claim that every Anglicism is actually a pseudo-Anglicism. I will also have a look at arguments supporting this idea. As already mentioned I will provide an overview of the various word-formation processes there are because a large number of neologisms can be found in the language of mobile telecommunications. The advertising language of Austria’s major mobile network operators is especially susceptible to newly created words and expressions. After analysing Anglicisms in promotion material and the names of phone tariffs and contracts in Austria I will have a detailed look on the status of not only Anglicisms but foreign words in general in Austrian legal texts. As some countries do have a very strict and clear-cut language policy and others do not, my aim was to find out if there are any laws which regulate the use of words from foreign languages in Austrian legal texts. I also generated a list of the term mobile phone in all major languages of those member states of the Council of Europe which are geographically actually within Europe. This will be followed by an attempt to explain where the word Handy comes from. In the next part I will present the results of the survey I did as part of my research. My aim was to find out in how far people are actually aware of English expressions in the field of mobile telecommunications and what attitude they have towards these Anglicisms. A number of authentic and useful phrases and expressions from the field of mobile telecommunications will round off this paper. - 4 - 1 Target Group As we will see later, learners of ESP are people who know why they are studying a language. Unlike General English learners, ESP learners are not studying for exam purposes. Strevens (1988: 39) differentiates between two kinds of ESP learners. He argues that on the one hand there are those learners “[…] who already know the subject in their own language or who are already employed in their occupation but use only their own language, and on the other hand those whose learning of English is part of, or parallel with, their academic studies or part of their occupational training.” Generally speaking my thesis focuses more on operational English as nowadays almost everyone is at least to some extent familiar with the field/the language of mobile telecommunications. Even if there are people who are not particularly interested in that field, it is very likely that they are at least users of mobile phones and thus have been in mobile phone stores, have chosen a certain contract/phone tariff and probably skimmed through promotion material. Besides a general introduction to the language of mobile telecommunications the main benefit for the reader of my thesis will be an extensive collection of authentic material used by sales people and operating instructors that I created in the course of my work on this thesis. For every phrase or expression an appropriate and authentic English translation is given. As already mentioned in the introduction I am also going to provide an overview of the history of telecommunications in general as well as an overview of how cell towers and cells work. This part can be seen as instructional ESP because for most people the things I am going to explain will be rather new. Additionally I will try to make students of ESP aware that especially in the language of mobile telecommunications there is a rather high risk of using so-called false friends when they use Anglicisms. My target group then are people who already have a rather good command of English, e.g. English students, who plan to go to an English-speaking country and work in the field of mobile telecommunications, e.g. as a sales person, operating instructor or in a service department, as well as people who are simply interested in the language of mobile telecommunications. - 5 - 2 The Varieties of English As we will see later in this paper, the study of language variation is essential for ESP. The fact that there are different varieties of English is one of the key things that make ESP at all possible. Barnickel (1982: 13-14) mentions the importance of the study of language variation for linguists.