The Impact of English Borrowings on Modern French: Lexical, Grammatical, and Stylistic Perspectives (Based on Mass Media Materials)

Abstract

This study examines the integration of English borrowings into contemporary French media discourse, focusing on their lexical, grammatical, and stylistic functioning across different media platforms. Drawing on a structured corpus of 120 media texts published between 2011 and 2025, including print newspapers, television broadcasts, digital news platforms, and social networks. The analysis combines qualitative content analysis with quantitative frequency and grammatical assessment. The results demonstrate that Anglicisms constitute a stable and functionally differentiated layer of modern French media language. Fully adapted borrowings account for 37% of the corpus, partially adapted forms for 34%, and non-adapted items for 29%, with clear variation depending on the institutional status and communicative purpose of the medium. Grammatical integration is manifested through systematic gender assignment (predominantly masculine), plural formation according to French norms, and high derivational productivity, particularly in digital and youth-oriented discourse (e.g., liker, tweeter, booster). Stylistically, Anglicisms serve distinct functions: terminological precision in print and television media, and identity construction, expressiveness, and irony in online platforms and social networks. The findings indicate that English borrowings do not undermine the structural integrity of French but interact dynamically with its grammatical and stylistic systems, contributing to lexical innovation and media-driven language change. The study highlights the central role of media environments in regulating the degree of adaptation of borrowings and offers insights relevant to media linguistics, sociolinguistics, and the analysis of language change under conditions of globalisation.