anglo-saxon

[Lynne Murphy]

Am starting to research the use of Anglo-Saxon as in this quotation (via
Wordnik):

#  "  Germany and especially France have fought long and hard against the
anglo-saxon model of unfettered and weakly regulated free market capitalism
for the past 30 years, and as a consequence of which have seen their
economic power diminish in relative terms as the anglo-saxon capitalism
model was adopted world-wide following the collapse of the Soviet Union. "
?   GuruFocus Updates


or in Andersen's 'Discursive Analytical Strategies':

"The worst thing to do [in referring to Foucault] is to allude to Dreifuss
[I think this has gotta mean Dreyfus!] and Rabinow; then, one is
characterised as an 'Anglo-Saxon' (which is not a distinguished trait)."


There's no suitable definition in any of the Wordnik sources, though many
of the quotations available there use this sense--i.e. relating to the
(contemporary) values/traditions of the UK & US + other anglophonic
countries.

OED has a 2009 draft entry, but not exactly this sense. The closest is the
use you'd find in 'WASP':
    b. Rhetorically: designating people of English (or British) heritage or
descent, or (more generally) of Germanic origin; of or relating to such
people.


It seems to be used widely to discuss economic, political and legal
systems, though I first came across it in French students' comparing
neo/post-Gricean (Anglo-Saxon, they say) pragmatics to French.

Having a hard time researching how far this goes back, as I get overwhelmed
by stuff that refers to the Angles and the Saxons.  Just wondering if
anyone else has experience of this term that might help me to narrow my
search a bit--or other anecdotes about its use and suggestions.

Thanks,
Lynne



Dr M Lynne Murphy
Senior Lecturer in Linguistics
Arts B357
University of Sussex
Brighton BN1 9QN

phone: +44-(0)1273-678844
http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org