English loanword use in Greek online women's magazines

1. Introduction

Owing to the extensive spread of English around the globe, English words have penetrated the lexicon of many languages. Modern Greek has been no exception as various English loanwords are used daily by its native speakers. The present paper discusses the use of English loanwords on the Greek web and more specifically in three online women's magazines. The focus, however, is not on all types of borrowings, but solely on what Myers–Scotton (2002: 239) calls core borrowings, which are defined as ‘words that more or less duplicate already existing words in the L1’. Essentially, core borrowings do not serve genuine communicative needs as they do not fill any lexical gaps in the speakers’ native language (Bybee, 2015). Nonetheless, they are borrowed as a result of the cultural pressure exerted by the more prestigious and dominant donor language (Myers–Scotton, 2006). On the other hand, cultural borrowings are words used for new objects and concepts for which there is no equivalent in the recipient language. It should also be noted that the loanwords examined in this paper have not been morphologically or orthographically assimilated into the Modern Greek language, but maintain their distinctive foreign features.

More specifically, the scope of the paper is twofold. Firstly, to evince the nature of the loanwords used and the degree of linguistic competence their comprehension requires; and secondly, to demonstrate how the use of English lexical items can contribute to the construction of a modern and cosmopolitan female identity. However, before presenting the methodology of the study and analysing the data from the three magazines, it is imperative to provide an overview of the role of English as a global language and its status in Greece.

2. The symbolic power of the English language

Over the last few decades English has cemented its role as the world's global language or lingua franca spoken by millions of speakers as a first, but principally as a foreign language in the countries belonging to Kachru's (1985) Expanding Circle. It is also perceived as the dominant language in many domains such as politics, communication, entertainment, technology, media, and fashion (Crystal, 2003; Xydopoulos & Papadopoulou, 2018). The pre-eminence of the English language has not ensued from an actual linguistic paramountcy of English over other languages, but from its cultural and social associations. Particularly, English has been widely regarded as the language of success, modernity, and power because of the technological, economic, and scientific achievements which have taken place in the Anglophone world, predominantly in the USA (Anastasiadi–Symeonidi, 2001; Myers–Scotton, 2006). It has also been largely promoted in media and advertising ‘as connoting success, influence, consumerism and hedonism’ (Phillipson, 2003: 65). Furthermore, its role in globalisation has been pivotal. More specifically, Phillipson (2003: 64) considers English ‘an integral dimension of ongoing globalisation processes in commerce, finance, politics, military affairs, science, education, and the media’.

Undoubtedly languages carry a distinctive symbolic value for the people who use them. According to Hudson (1996) speakers borrow words from other languages to pretend to be native speakers of those languages and by extension to obtain all the characteristics associated with native speakers. In a similar vein, Myers–Scotton (2006) postulates that the purpose of loanword use is not restricted to borrowing only the words themselves, but also the connotations they carry. Taking into consideration the incontestable prestige of the English language and the positive associations it carries, English has tremendous power in Bourdieu's (1991) symbolic marketplace. A speaker who borrows words from the English language also adopts the positive features of the native English speaker, including their successful, modern, and powerful identity.

The role of language in the construction of identity has been widely discussed in the fields of sociolinguistics, social psychology, and anthropology. Significant emphasis has been placed on the effect communicative phenomena have on the control of power and the formation of social identities (Gumperz & Cook–Gumperz, 1982). In other words, the language used by a person is central to their personal or group identity (Eastman, 1985; Joseph, 2004). The same idea has also been expressed through the notion of indexicality ‘the process by which particular ways of using language point towards, or indicate, culturally recognisable identities’ (Jones, 2016: 213). This is also true for the use of loanwords as according to Blom and Gumperz (2000: 113) ‘linguistic alternates within the repertoire serve to symbolize the differing social identities which members may assume’. To a certain extent so does the language addressing a person, which may serve as an index of in-group membership or portray the desirable linguistic identity of the addressee.

In particular, the language used by the media can have a dramatic impact on the audience or readers’ repertoire. Fairclough (2015: 82) stressed the hidden power of media discourse emphasising its ability to ‘exercise a pervasive and powerful influence in social reproduction’. Medialects, as Hjarvard (2004) calls the variants emerging from media, use English terms extensively to signal a more appealing lifestyle and social identity. In fact, media have been deemed as a channel contributing to the Anglicisation of the global culture and, mostly, the promotion of the American lifestyle (Hjarvard, 2003; Hjarvard, 2004). Fundamentally, the discourse used in the media promulgates an English-speaking cosmopolitan repertoire and by extension a global identity which surpasses the boundaries of the native tongue. According to Saito (2017: 277), this ‘cosmopolitan repertoire envisages the world where many groups of people belong to one community through a common language – English’. Arguably, the use of English loanwords by the media constitutes a step in this direction. More specifically, through the use of loanwords, audiences are no longer restricted within their national borders, but they gradually acquire an international repertoire which can potentially transform them into citizens of the world. Such repertoires may in fact derive from the users themselves. Therefore, when the media use the language of specific groups to reach them – as in the case of young people –, ‘this is primarily a case of youth influencing the media, not the other way around’ (Preisler, 1999: 233, cited in Hjarvard, 2004).

A number of studies have explored the use of English words in the media (Al–Athwary, 2016, in Arab Gulf states newspapers; Chesley, 2010, in French newspapers; Kuang, 2009, in Japanese magazines; Panić–Kavgić, 2017, in Serbian newspapers and magazines; Robinson, 2006, in an Italian newspaper; Rodríguez–Medina, 2016, on Spanish TV commercials; Schaefer, 2019, on the radio in Germany; Sedeeq, 2018, in a Kurdish newspaper; Tatsioka, 2008, on Greek TV shows; Zenner, Speelman & Geeraerts, 2015 on a Dutch TV programme), but the connection between loanword use and identity has not been examined thoroughly in the literature.

There are, however, a few studies on magazines in which the use of loanwords has been directly linked to the construction of the reader's identity. More specifically, Provencher (2004) and Divita and Curtis (2019) investigated the formation of a universal gay identity and an imagined community of practice through the use of English loanwords in the French gay magazine Têtu. Similarly, Marley's (2010) study on language use in women's magazines in Morocco discusses the emergence of a hybrid female identity through the use of French and English. Moreover, Machin and van Leeuwen (2005) concluded in their analysis of various non-English versions of the magazine Cosmopolitan that trendiness is largely synonymous to English confirming its cultural dominance in the fashion industry. Hence, English loanword use appears to be a driving force in the formation of modern, universal, and trendy identities. The present study wishes to examine this practice in Greek women's magazines and its contribution to the construction of their female identities. It should be stated at this point that female identities, as all identities, are undoubtedly multidimensional (Jones & McEwen, 2000) and can be formed in various ways. However, the scope of the present study is limited to identity construction through a particular medium, that of magazines, and solely as depicted by the linguistic choices of writers and editors.

With respect to the use of English loanwords by online media in Greece, Xydopoulos and Papadopoulou (2018) examine the use of fashion Anglicisms in Modern Greek by analysing data from Greek online shops, as well as social media pages of fashion magazines and online stores. Their study, however, does not draw any connections with identity construction. Also, unlike the aim of the present study which focuses on the investigation of the use of core borrowings, their research discusses all types of Anglicisms (i.e., cultural and core loanwords, adapted loans transliterated in the Greek alphabet, calques, and hybrids).

3. English language use in Greece

It is pivotal to examine the status of the English language in Greece so as to apprehend the context of the present study. To begin with, English is learned and used as a foreign language in Greece, a country of the Expanding Circle where English does not have any official status. More specifically, English was introduced in secondary schools following the war of independence in the first half of the 19^th century. Until then, French was the only foreign language taught at schools. In 1989, English also became compulsory in the last grades of primary education (Papaefhtymiou–Lytra, 2012), and, in 2010, the Greek Ministry of Education introduced English experimentally in the first and second grades of 1000 primary schools (Dendrinos, Zouganelli & Karavas, 2013). As from 2016 English is taught as a compulsory subject in all grades of primary and lower secondary education and as an optional foreign language in senior high school. Furthermore, foreign language education and notably English language learning thrives in the private sector (Angouri, Mattheoudakis & Zigrika, 2010; Papaefhtymiou–Lytra, 2012). In particular, foreign language schools offer intensive foreign language courses to learners of all ages, but mostly 8 years old and above (Mattheoudakis & Alexiou, 2009). With respect to higher education, English has only recently acquired the role of lingua franca and thus only a few university programmes are offered in English (Wächter & Maiworm, 2014). It is noteworthy that as a result of the popularity of English and its ascendancy over other languages in the field of technology, a new sociolect has emerged in Greece, the so-called Greeklish (a compound word comprising Greek and English). Greeklish is the transliterated version of Modern Greek using the Roman alphabet and is employed primarily by young people (Dimitropoulou, Duñabeitia & Carreiras, 2011; Kostoulas & Stelma, 2017; Sifakis & Sougari, 2003).

Undeniably, the popularity of the English language in Greece has also resulted from its omnipresence in the media world. Films released in Greece, which mostly come from Anglophone countries, are not dubbed but subtitled; thus, the contact with the English language is particularly strong. The same holds true for American TV series. Many TV channels also bear English names. With respect to magazines, as Oikonomidis (2003: 56) argues ‘the majority . . . have an English title and introduce an unpredictable number of English words in their pages, mostly spelled in Roman characters within a traditional text in Greek orthography’.

English loanwords are also encountered in various other domains such as sports, technology, and fashion (Xydopoulos & Papadopoulou, 2018). Regarding the field of fashion, which is the focal point of the present study, French was the primary donor language between the 1960s and 1990s and was viewed as a highly prestigious language by Modern Greek speakers (Anastasiadi–Simeonidi, 1994). As the French language gradually devolved its power to English due to globalisation, English loanwords became more prominent in Modern Greek.

After having examined the global role of English, its status in Greece as well as its association with success, modernity and power, the methodology employed for the study will be presented and key findings will be discussed.

4. Methodology

The aim of the present paper is to investigate the nature of the loanwords used in three online women's magazines and the degree of linguistic competence their comprehension requires, as well as to examine how female identities are constructed in these magazines through English loanword use. To this purpose, articles from three popular women's magazines published in the summer months of 2018 were collected and analysed. More specifically, data were collected from ELLE (ELLE, 2018), Madame Figaro (henceforth MF) (Madame Figaro, 2018) and Marie Claire (henceforth MC) (Marie Claire, 2018). All three magazines, whose main focus is fashion, are international and widely known in Greece. Their printed versions address young women (18–44) belonging to high socioeconomic groups (Attica Media Group, 2018; Gough–Yates, 2003). Their online versions are expected to target a similar audience who also need to be technology literate.

For the purposes of the current study, data were collected from three articles categories, namely beauty, fashion, and people (or celebrities) in order to explore various usages of English instead of focusing only on fashion-related terms. Moreover, these article types were selected as they were the only common menu options the three magazines shared. Regarding the procedure, the ten most recently published articles from each category were collected three times on a fortnightly basis over a period of six weeks. ELLE, however, did not publish as many articles as MC and MF did, which resulted in an unbalanced, albeit representative sample comprising 320 articles in total as can be seen in Table 1. Apart from the three categories of articles, the use of English borrowings is also explored on the websites’ menu options to demonstrate whether English is present on the home pages of the magazines, thus reflecting a corporate decision.

Table 1: Number of articles per magazine and category

The methodology employed for the purpose of this research is qualitative content analysis. This research methodology is not associated with a particular field of study (Bengtsson, 2016), but it has gained increasing popularity in social sciences, humanities, and health-related research. According to Cole (1988: 53) content analysis is used for the examination of ‘written, verbal or visual communication messages’. It has been characterised as a flexible method of analysing textual data (Cavanagh, 1997; Elo & Kynsäs, 2008; Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) by classifying text into categories to ‘provide knowledge and understanding of the phenomenon under study’ (Downe–Wamboldt, 1992: 314). More importantly, qualitative content analysis was employed in this study as it is not only used for the analysis of manifest content, namely the explicit meaning of a word, but also of covert meaning also known as latent content (Drisko & Maschi, 2016; Mayring, 2000).

More specifically, each article was examined for the use of English loanwords which were then classified into three categories: everyday vocabulary, advanced vocabulary, and fashion terminology. Everyday vocabulary includes English lexical items which are frequently used and whose comprehension requires a basic knowledge of the language, while advanced vocabulary necessitates a higher level of proficiency. With respect to fashion terminology, it requires a degree of familiarity with the field and its jargon as well as with the English language. The first category, namely everyday vocabulary, consists of words that belong to Cambridge English A2 and/or B1 vocabulary lists using the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (UCLES, 2012a; UCLES, 2012b), and thus they can be perceived as basic vocabulary items. Words which were not included in these lists were considered to be more advanced vocabulary items (B2 and above) and as a result were assigned to the second category. On the other hand, fashion-specific terminology includes words used to describe a fashion trend such as army boots and mom jeans. For the identification of fashion trends, two websites were used, namely Sew Guide (Sew Guide, 2021) and We Connect Fashion (We Connect Fashion, 2021), each one offering a glossary of more than 150 fashion-related words.

As mentioned earlier, the current research only focuses on core borrowings which are words that already have an equivalent in the recipient language and thus do not serve any tangible communicative needs. Speakers who use such borrowings could opt for the native language equivalent, but they prefer to use the foreign lexical item driven by their desire to be associated with the prestige of the donor language (Myers–Scotton, 2006) or other features which characterise it such as success, modernity, and globalisation (Phillipson, 2003). Furthermore, linguistic choices such as the use of core borrowings carry social meaning and contribute to the construction of a social identity (Zenner, Rosseel & Calude, 2019). As explained by Haspelmath (2009: 48) ‘the way we talk (or write) is not only determined by the ideas we want to get across, but also by the impression we want to convey on others, and by the kind of social identity that we want to be associated with’. Linguistic choices also signal group membership, which in the particular case is membership in the readership of the magazines under scrutiny. According to Divita and Curtis (2019: 6) magazine readers form ‘an imagined community of practice, in which membership is achieved in part through the adoption of ways of speaking that include linguistic forms and the discourses that they invoke’. In the context of the specific study, the use of English loanwords by the fashion editors and writers of the three women's magazines will be examined as well as the extent to which it contributes to the construction of the readers’ female identity.

5. Findings and discussion

Before proceeding to the identification and analysis of individual lexical items, a more comprehensive picture about loanword use in the three magazines should be provided. As can be seen in Table 2, loanwords are encountered in most of the articles, especially fashion (92.2%) and beauty (70%), whilst they are only employed in half of the articles about celebrities (51.1%). ELLE uses English loanwords in 79.3% of the collected articles, followed by MC (75.8%) and MF (64.4%).

Table 2: Number of articles containing loanwords per magazine and article category

Regarding the overall number of loanwords used, as shown in Table 3, a total of 1,205 words have been recorded. Most of them are used in articles pertaining to fashion, followed by articles about beauty and people. The highest number of loanwords can be found in MC followed by MF (479 and 433 respectively), while ELLE has used only 293 English loanwords. ELLE, however, published fewer articles than MC and MF during the data collection period. Moreover, although most borrowings appear only a few times, some loanwords have been employed repeatedly. For example, the word look(s) appears 88 times (as in summer looks), the word beauty 31 times, the word fashion 26 times and the words outfit(s) and brand(s) 25 times each. Interestingly, some loanwords have been misspelled (e.g. fities instead of fifties) or their use is ungrammatical (e.g. singular instead of plural form), which shows that the authors themselves might not be fluent in English, although they wish to be perceived as such. Also, in one case the English loanword used is actually a Modern Greek word borrowed into English (i.e., monochrome) which emphasises the need to adopt the language of trendiness. It should be noted that the flagging of English borrowings, a practice of the word being marked as foreign in the text (Levendis & Calude, 2019), is done by using the Roman script instead of the Greek alphabet. More specifically, only 29 borrowings out of the 1,205 encountered have been transliterated in Greek. As the present study focuses solely on loanwords which maintain their foreign features, these lexical items will not be analysed. Finally, the use of loanwords, in a few cases, is followed by a translation into Modern Greek.

Table 3: Number of English loanwords per magazine and article category

5.1 English language use in menu options

English lexical items are prevalent in the menu options of two out of the three magazines as can be seen in Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4. More specifically, in the central menu options of ELLE only the English words video and people appear. Video, however, is a word which has been widely used by Modern Greek speakers after having been phonetically and orthographically assimilated into the language – in this case it appears in Roman characters. The English words kids, blogs and editorial also feature on the top bar options, but only the first and last are core borrowings. In fact, the Modern Greek equivalent for editorial is seldom used (i.e., translated as editor's column, main article, opinion piece). Contrary to ELLE, MC's main menu only features English words, although the site addresses Greek readers. It is noteworthy that even the drop-down menu, which offers more options, includes only one Modern Greek word, namely zódia/ζώδια (horoscopes in English) and the word sex transliterated in Greek (σεξ). Finally, as far as MF's menu options are concerned, only three of them include core borrowings: Celebrities, Good Life, and Beauty Stars. The word blogs as mentioned above is a cultural borrowing and thus falls outside the scope of the study as no alternative could have been employed. Overall, all three magazines display their content by using English as well as Modern Greek words with MC using predominantly English, thus projecting a more international image to its readership. This indicates that English loanword use may be the result of a corporate directive rather than the outcome of individual decision-making processes.

Figure 1. ELLE home page

Figure 2. MC home page

Figure 3. MC drop-down menu

Figure 4. MF home page

In the next section, the use of loanwords will be examined through representative examples belonging to the three categories described above: everyday vocabulary, advanced vocabulary, and fashion terminology.

5.2 Use of everyday English vocabulary

The data collected from the three categories of articles, namely beauty, fashion, and people, show frequent use of everyday English words. Some examples include phrases such as summer dress, on the beach, extra small (referring to braids, not clothing size), hair stylist, fashion, hot trend, sun-tanned, sun-kissed, summer glow, new entry, oh wait, R U wild enough?, all-day look, summer looks, trending now, suncare game. In some cases, these words are associated with fashion or beauty, but their comprehension does not necessitate any expertise in those fields unlike the words belonging to the third category. Moreover, these words constitute basic terms as they belong to A2 or B1 vocabulary lists (UCLES, 2012a; UCLES, 2012b) and consequently can be easily understood by the average Greek reader of the magazines, who are young and computer-literate women. In addition, trending now is widely used in social media and thus its meaning is expected to be known to the reader.

To showcase the use of colloquial English words and expressions some representative examples are presented below. More specifically, in Figure 5 in an article about a clothes iron the phrases oh wait and new entry are used. Although the topic of the article is quite trivial, the use of foreign lexical items and in particular English words creates the illusion that what is being discussed necessitates to a certain extent some basic knowledge of English and emphasises internationality and trendiness.

Figure 5. Everyday vocabulary: example 1

The next example, which is an article in MF on fashion looks, contains various English lexical items (i.e., outfits of wisdom, which is used twice, summer looks, brands, trending now, label and it-girls), but only summer looks, label and trending-now can be classified as everyday vocabulary. As mentioned above, trending-now is highly popular in social media and thus it can be easily understood.

Figure 6. Everyday vocabulary: example 2

The last indicative example of this category is an ELLE article shown in Figure 7, which contains the following English lexical items: extra small, hair stylist, fashion, and hot trend. It is noteworthy that the desire to employ a foreign term is so strong that it may even surpass any concerns over grammaticality. For example, the noun phrase hair stylist should have been used in the plural form to agree with the Greek article preceding it.

Figure 7. Everyday vocabulary: example 3

The incorporation of English lexical items, albeit basic, instead of their Modern Greek equivalents, bespeaks the editors’ need to address and concomitantly construct a linguistically educated audience who is likely to use similar vocabulary. Hence, the modern Greek woman these magazines target is portrayed as a linguistically competent individual who surpasses the boundaries of her state and becomes fashionable, trendy, and cosmopolitan through the adoption of English words.

5.3 Use of advanced English vocabulary

Turning now to the second category, namely advanced vocabulary, some articles contain words that cannot be understood by readers who only have a basic knowledge of the English language. Articles including lexical items such as dewy, effortless, polished look, posh, heat-sensitive pigments address proficient users of English, readers who have immersed themselves into the culture of Anglophone countries and are familiar with words which are not usually encountered in everyday interactions. Moreover, the selection of these particular lexical items demonstrates that the authors either expect their audience in its entirety to be proficient English speakers or ignore their readers’ language needs, which would necessitate the use of Modern Greek terms or a translation into Modern Greek. This makes the less competent speakers feel excluded, but also strengthens the identity the magazines wish to construct, i.e., of the linguistically educated and cosmopolitan female reader. Three representative examples are presented below.

To begin with, the MF article shown in Figure 8 contains two words which can be classified as advanced vocabulary items, namely effortless and polished. It is important to note that monochrome is not included in this category as it is essentially a Greek borrowing into English, as mentioned earlier, and thus its meaning is easily understood by a native Modern Greek speaker. Effortless and polished, however, require an advanced knowledge of the English language.

Figure 8. Advanced vocabulary: example 1

The second example which is an article about nail varnish exhibits the use of an even more advanced phrase, heat-sensitive pigments. The word pigment is a term seldom encountered in everyday interactions, especially by a non-native speaker. This exemplifies that the magazine is directed at women who are not merely basic or intermediate learners of English, but proficient users of the language. As shown in Figure 9, other English lexical items are also used in the article such as nail expert and scroll down, but they do not fall into the category examined in this section. Scroll down in particular can be characterised as a cultural borrowing as its meaning can only be expressed periphrastically in Modern Greek.

Figure 9. Advanced vocabulary: example 2

The last example derives from an article on hairstyles. Τhe author utilises the phrase edgy pixie cut to refer to a hairstyle, but the words edgy and pixie may be unfamiliar to the reader as they are advanced vocabulary items.

Figure 10. Advanced vocabulary: example 3

Therefore, it could be argued that the editors’ and authors’ insistence on employing complex English words foregrounds the role of English language skills in the construction of the female reader identity. Women who read these magazines are not simply expected to be familiar with some basic English terms, but to be proficient enough to make sense of the articles’ content. Through the use and their understanding of English, they assume an international, even global identity.

5.4 Use of fashion terminology

Many of the articles collected also abound with fashion jargon. Some of the lexical items identified include: shirtdress, trend, label, fashion icon, belted jacket, casual, formal, slip skirt, strappy, fashion forward, arm(y) boots, mom jeans, polka dots, catwalk, oversized, street style, trendy, logomania trend, and Fashion Weeks. Some of these words such as label, jeans and trend are also considered everyday vocabulary. Others, though, such as polka dots, may require some expertise in fashion terminology, which is expressed in English. In other words, the readers of these magazines are not portrayed as average speakers of English as a foreign language but as fashion experts in that foreign language.

The first example, as depicted in Figure 11, is an ELLE article on a Greek fashion company. Brand, it girls, label and fashion icon are some of the English words and phrases employed by the author to render a more cosmopolitan appeal to the article and by extension to its readership; however, only the last two have been listed as fashion terms in the glossaries used. Label is also a term used in everyday vocabulary. Regarding it girl, its meaning can only be rendered periphrastically in Modern Greek, so it is considered a cultural borrowing. Through the frequent use of English words, the reader is enticed to use such vocabulary to become an it girl and a fashion icon herself and thus to acquire an international, cosmopolitan, and trendy aura.

Figure 11. Fashion terminology: example 1

In the second example, an MF article, various fashion terms have been employed (i.e., belted jacket, casual, formal, cropped, slip skirt, strappy, fashion forward). Therefore, it is reasonable to argue that the reader is expected to be quite knowledgeable about fashion in order to be familiar with these terms. Nonetheless, it is notable that the author has provided a paraphrase of the term belted jacket in Modern Greek (i.e., ‘or in plain Greek the jacket having a belt’) in essence manifesting that fashion jargon may not be easily understood. Finally, it is worth mentioning that all these terms are core borrowings and thus have a Modern Greek equivalent. On the contrary, the word mule is a cultural borrowing and as such it is outside the scope of the present paper. Finally, the terms fashion item and must have are considered to be everyday vocabulary although they are associated with fashion.

Figure 12. Fashion terminology: example 2

A similar example from MC follows. The English words and phrases t-shirts, logo, mom jeans and army boots – misspelled as arm boots in the article – have been utilised so as to make the content of the article more international and cosmopolitan, hence simultaneously less Greek. The reader is presented as a person familiar with mom jeans and army boots and a competent speaker of English. The word grunge is also used in the article, but it is a cultural borrowing. Interestingly, however, the use of English in the noun phrase grunge decade (grunge δεκαετία in the article) affects the Modern Greek syntax as its structure is ungrammatical (the correct structure is formed with an of-phrase i.e., decade of grunge). This demonstrates again that the use of English is prioritised over linguistic accuracy. The word t-shirts constitutes both a fashion term and an everyday vocabulary item and thus it is easily understood.

Figure 13. Fashion terminology: example 3

The last example from this category can be found in ELLE. In this article about handbags, the following fashion-related English words are employed: catwalk and oversized. The term front row is also used which is considered to be everyday vocabulary, but it is widely encountered in fashion contexts. Similarly to previous examples, the Modern Greek equivalent terms could have been utilised. Once again, the preference for foreign lexical items exposes the editors’ need to construct an international identity for the magazine and its readership.

Figure 14. Fashion terminology: example 4

6. Conclusion

Through the classification and analysis of the collected data, it becomes apparent that the use of English loanwords plays a significant role in the construction of the identity of the Greek female reader. As English is inextricably intertwined with fashion, success, modernity, and trendiness (Crystal, 2003; Phillipson, 2003; Xydopoulos & Papadopoulou, 2018), the adoption of its loanwords makes the user obtain all those positive features which characterise the native English speaker. In other words, through the use of an international language and a cosmopolitan repertoire, the readers can acquire an appealing lifestyle and construct a postnational identity (Hjarvard, 2004; Saito, 2017), which ‘transcends national borders’ (Divita & Curtis, 2019: 2). Hence, the Greek female reader is not solely portrayed as a proficient English speaker whose skills move beyond the mere comprehension of everyday and advanced English vocabulary to the expert knowledge of fashion-related terminology, but as a cosmopolitan and successful woman, a citizen of the world, who can assume a global identity and escape the boundaries of the Greek culture to join her global counterparts. In essence, the symbolic value of English can potentially transform the readers into it girls and prestigious women of high status, similar to the status of the foreign words they are urged to adopt.

Nevertheless, as the present study has only examined data from three online magazines, further research on other magazines as well as on the printed versions of the selected sample is required to lend support to the findings of the study and reveal the extent of English language use in Greek women's magazines. Moreover, future research could investigate the perceptions of Greek female readers about the use of English loanwords in magazines and their impact on the construction of the female identity.