‘Instafashion’, ‘adeventures’ and ‘gals on the go’: The creative use of English in Greek fashion magazines

Abstract

This paper examines the use of English in Greek fashion magazines. It assesses the frequency of the use of English in these media, uncovers its discourse forms and functions, and illustrates why English is being used in the first place. As it is shown, English mainly takes the form of naming and headings and what characterizes its use is creativity and innovation. Through language play, intertextual references, clips, deliberate spelling mistakes, and alternations of the intended meaning of idiomatic phrases, English has a variety of functions such as creating emphasis and attracting the reader’s attention. Like other settings where English bears a non-official status, the use of English features capitalizes on the symbolic and indexical value of this language. English is used because it symbolizes progression, innovation, and success and because it indexes knowledge of and association with globalized fashion and beauty discourses and styles circulating worldwide in fashion magazines, on social networking sites, and platforms. The findings of this study can be used to examine the extent of the homogenization of the fashion discourse worldwide while similar studies can be conducted with different types of media to compare the way that English is used in a variety of contexts in Greece and elsewhere.

English in Cyprus

“…More specifically, it is used because it symbolizes progress, success, cosmopolitanism, and exclusivity, and because it indexes knowledge and association with specific domains which are internationally expressed and circulated in English (Fotiou, 2017b: 23). Interestingly, in a similar study conducted in Greece (Seiti & Fotiou, 2022), which focused on Greek fashion magazines, the form and discourse functions of English in the Greek fashion magazines shows very similar patterns of use and functions. Since Greece was never a British colony, this demonstrates how the use of English in some domains may have nothing to do with a country's colonial past but with the status that English has nowadays worldwide.…”