LEXICAL AND SEMANTIC PRODUCTIVITY OF BORROWINGS INTO THE RECIPIENT LANGUAGE

Abstract

Borrowings often become the source for the creation of new lexical items in the languages they enter. In this article the borrowed terms in the field of law in Albanian constitute the factual material based on which we are to analyze the lexical and semantic productivity of this stratum of the vocabulary of a language. At the beginning there will be presented the current state of borrowings of legal terminology in Albanian according to the languages they were borrowed (bearing in mind that until the 1990’s borrowings from Italian and French prevail, and after 1990 there is an influx of English lexical borrowings) and according to the branches of law (selecting branches of law where borrowings abound). First, it will be analyzed the lexical productivity based on that part of borrowings in the field of law that have become productive roots for producing new words in Albanian, pointing out the characteristics of this group of borrowings. Second, it will be analyzed the semantic productivity through that part of borrowings in the field of law that have expanded the semantic structure with new terminological and non terminological meanings in Albanian, referring to their coverage in the dictionary of Albanian language and pointing out the characteristics of this group of borrowings. Finally, based on the analysis of the aforementioned groups of borrowings in terms of lexical and semantic productivity we will present the conclusions about productivity and the role of borrowings in the enrichment of a language.