Anglicisms as a Tool for the Discursive Construction of Feminist Policy in Germany

This article examines the strategic role of Anglicisms in constructing the official discourse of German feminist policy in the context of the formation of a new ideological agenda and the institutionalization of political doctrines in the 2020s. The study aims to identify a correlation between the intensity of English borrowings usage in key program documents and the phases of the feminist policy development in the Federal Republic of Germany. The empirical basis comprises two strategic texts – the guidelines for feminist foreign policy and the concept of feminist development policy, elaborated by federal ministries under the leadership of female politicians Annalena Baerbock and Svenja Schulze when they were in office. The hypothesis put forward in the article is that high frequency, ideological marking, and concentrated presence of unadapted and hybrid Anglicisms in the considered documents indicate the borrowed nature of the doctrine in question, caused by the conceptual transfer and reproduction of Anglo-Saxon political models. The methodological framework includes terminological and definitional analysis, functional-semantic classification of Anglicisms and their hybrid derivatives, contextual analysis of their pragmatic potential in various communicative situations, as well as critical discourse analysis, necessary for interpreting Anglicisms as instruments of power reproduction, legitimation of a new political course, and construction of transnational political identity. The results demonstrate that Anglicisms perform multiple functions: conceptual import, global synchronization, technocratic rationalization, and symbolic marking of Germany’s belonging to the community of progressive states. Particular attention is paid to the institutional codification of the conceptual apparatus through the inclusion of glossaries in program documents, which is viewed as a deliberate discursive strategy for managing interpretations and strengthening state narrative hegemony. The conclusion drawn is that “global English” in the twenty-first century functions as a donor language for constructing national political ideologies, and German feminist policy serves as a telling example of the transformation of international discourse into a national political instrument. 

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