Status Quaestionis

Language Variation: Perspectives on Lexis and Phraseology

Marina Bondi — 2024-12-23

This paper provides an overview of the Special Issue. Following an outline of the themes and methodological standpoints discussed in the special issue, it offers an overview of the individual case studies selected for inclusion. While spanning several genres and domains, and discussing lexical and phraseological variation from multiple angles and perspectives, the dominant methodological standpoints in the Special Issue are corpus and discourse analysis. Small and large corpora are used along with lexicographic data to examine key lexical and phraseological questions in language variation, both quantitatively and qualitatively. In particular, special attention is devoted to language choice, linguistic constraints and linguistic innovation as observed in English, Italian, and across English and Italian.

An Exploratory Analysis of Hyphenated Phrasal Expressions in English vs. Italian Fashion Writing

Belinda Crawford Camiciottoli — 2024-12-23

Hyphenated phrasal expressions have been analysed by linguists as complex phraseological features found in languages such as English and German. In the specific context of English fashion discourse, studies have highlighted their distinctive use by fashion writers to formulate richly articulated descriptions and evaluations, while expressing their own unique discursive identities. Yet it is not known whether such usage has spilled over into Italian fashion discourse, representing a language that generally lacks such phrase-like compounds. This contribution explores the use of hyphenated phrasal expressions in Italian fashion journalism, which may reflect cross-influence from its English counterparts. Extending previous corpus-assisted research on these expressions in English fashion journalism, the analysis is replicated in a corpus of Italian fashion journalism compiled from the digital fashion magazine MF Fashion. Results indicate that hyphenated phrasal expressions are comparatively infrequent in the Italian fashion journalism corpus and tend to be conventionalized within the fashion world (e.g., prêt-à-porter) or appear in English within code-switching episodes. However, there were some cases of highly creative usage, for example, il designer-dj-pr argentino, which highlights the multiple identities and talents of a person of interest within the fashion world. The findings of the study offer a foray into the phenomenon of linguistic cross-fertilization within the global fashion discourse community in relation to hyphenated phrasal expressions.

Experiencing Climate Change: Phraseological Patterns of Perception Verbs in GenZ Climate Activism Online

Mariasophia Falcone — 2024-12-23

Climate change has impacted profoundly today’s younger generations, primarily GenZ, shaping their worldview through first-hand experiences of environmental challenges. In response, younger people have recently mobilized, sparking a resurgence in environmentalism and an increased engagement in climate discourse on the web. Perception verbs, by indicating the sensory mode of information acquisition, are used by speakers to express what they perceive, grounding statements in personal experience and observation. Consequently, the study presents an analysis of phraseological patterns of perception verbs in a corpus of web texts from three GenZ environmental organizations to understand their perception of climate change and climate-related issues. Initially, the occurrence of perception verbs in the dataset is explored quantitatively. Subsequently, 4- and 5-grams are analysed to investigate their phraseology. Results reveal a key presence of perception verbs used predominantly to understand and communicate the complexities of climate issues, reflecting the peculiar engagement of young activists with climate change.

Covidiot, Elbow Bump, and Frontliner: Language Change in the Covid-19 Era

Elisa Mattiello — 2024-12-23

This paper investigates Covid-19 vocabulary from the morphological and semantic viewpoints. It explores a set of Covid-related words and phrases used in the news during the pandemic either as new lexemes or as novel meanings. First, a collection of new words selected from dictionaries and word lists in the web and checked in two British newspapers – The Guardian and The Independent – are described in terms of the word-formation and semantic processes forming them. Second, through a quantitative analysis conducted in the Coronavirus Corpus, the new words are classified either as neologisms and neosemanticisms that are going to be institutionalised and become a permanent part of the English vocabulary, or as nonce words that are destined to pass away once the pandemic is over. Third, through a qualitative analysis of the collocations with the term Covid-19 in the corpus, the new meanings associated with Covid lexicon are investigated. In particular, the main metaphorical associations are studied, resulting in three primary domains that are relevant to the pandemic: namely, ‘War’, ‘Fire’, and ‘Disaster’. The paper shows (1) the importance of a specialised corpus for the study of language change through a widespread phenomenon such as Covid-19; and, more generally, (2) the contribution of digital transformation to the development of lexicography and lexicology.

Exploring Anglicisms in the Digital Transformation: Lexical Evolution in Italian

Serena Stilo — 2024-12-23

The digital transformation has changed the way of communicating. Particularly, digital tools such as ICT, social media and the Internet have channeled new vocabulary of English-based adaptations into everyday Italian (Bombi 2017; Gualdo 2019). English has been the main donor language for Italian since the 1950s (Pulcini 2017), and Italy’s younger generations now appear inclined to adopt web-related lexical Anglicisms. In the light of this, the present paper provides fresh insights into the socio-linguistic dimensions of Anglicisms welcomed by young Italians, discussing how digital tools influence the language of 35 university students (aged 19-25) of intermediate English level. Through questionnaires, interviews and English/Italian translation tasks, the research focuses on loan patterns, frequencies, and participants’ attitudes. We investigate how, why and where Anglicisms are used, so as to identify current trends in the lexical evolution of Italian – which have implications for language teaching. The students’ repertoire includes both well-integrated lexical hybrids (chattare) and pure forms (feedback) (Furiassi and Gottlieb 2015), and features mainly entries that are related to ICT and computer-mediated communication (email, web), hobbies and leisure (happy hour, selfie), daily routines and feelings (comfort, mood). This can be accounted for in terms of feelings of modernity and fashion, cultural prestige, structural features (brevity, phonic effect, word-formation flexibility), lack of L1 equivalents.

Exploring the Words relating to People and Places in the Correspondence of two British Women Travellers

Francesca Ditifeci — 2024-12-23

This study focuses on the language used by two British women travellers in their letters – Lady Lucie Duff Gordon in Letters from Egypt (1865), Lady Hilda Petrie in Letters from the Desert (1942). Lexical keywords are analysed in order to compare and contrast the authors’ attitude towards Egyptian people and places, and assess whether and to what extent any shift in point of view can be seen as an expression of the changed socio-historical context and/or it also involves the authors’ attitude in their role as women explorers. The article combines quantitative and qualitative analysis of epistolary discourse, with special attention to the presence (vis-à-vis absence of) evaluative language (Hunston and Thomson 2000). The data suggest different ways of looking at Egyptian people and places. Particularly, whereas Duff Gordon seems very interested in the region she has settled in and particularly in its inhabitants, Petrie seems to be predominantly interested in reporting about places seen as archaeological sites.

The Armenian Question between 1914-1926 in Letters to the Editor – The Times

Isabella Martini — 2024-12-23

This paper investigates words and phraseology used to refer to the 1915 genocide of the Armenians before the word genocide itself was first used thirty years later. As of today, Turkey has refused to call “genocide” the systematic massacre of potentially more than one million Armenians of the Ottoman Empire, despite international pressure and press coverage. The historical events and the fate of the survivors received a considerable and uninterrupted attention in numerous letters to the editors (LTE) of major English broadsheets, amongst which The Times (Peltekian 2013). Letters to the editor have mainly been studied from a broader sociological, historical, and political perspective (Wahl-Jorgensen 2002, Richardson and Franklin 2004; Cavanagh and Steel 2019) but have rarely drawn the attention of linguists (exceptions are Pounds 2005, 2006; Romova and Hetet 2012). The methodology adopted in this study is a mixed one. A corpus-driven approach (Tognini-Bonelli 2001) integrates with discourse analysis of the most frequent words and of their phraseology (Partington 2004) used to refer to the violence against Armenians. The findings highlight the linguistic strategies used to refer to what is today considered a genocide.

Lexical Variation and Translanguagism in an ELF Aware Perspective: Attitudes and Concerns

Lucilla Lopriore — 2024-12-23

EU educational policy underlines the need to rethink language teaching (EU, 2017, 2019) in multilingual classrooms and to help learners meet the demands of the increasingly globalized world. This implies raising language teachers’ awareness of the emerging instantiations of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) – a multilingual means for English-medium communication – of its lexical variations and of innovative language teaching practices, such as translanguaging. Pragmatics and lexicogrammar in ELF are interconnected, but teachers are rarely encouraged to reflect upon this connection and to integrate it in their teaching. Inset courses for EL (English Language) teachers, mostly non-native speakers, are therefore suitable contexts for enhancing awareness of authentic language use. This is the goal of the ENRICH Course, aimed at empowering EL teachers to learn about ELF and devise ways of integrating it in their English classrooms. The paper reports on activities, forums and lesson plannings within the course that encouraged teachers to identify and discuss lexical variations in ELF, as well as the use of translanguagism in multilingual English classrooms, so as to revisit their own teaching habits.

Variation in the English Lexicon in Educational Contexts: Investigating Conversational Dimensions in Computer-Mediated ELF Interactions

Silvia Sperti — 2024-12-23

In the last two decades, a considerable interest in the processes of variation of the English lexicon by ELF (English as a Lingua Franca) users has grown in different scientific fields, from language teaching and learning to intercultural communication and migration contexts (e.g. Cogo 2009; Guido 2008, 2018; Pitzl 2012, 2016; Seidlhofer 2011; Sperti 2017, 2023; Widdowson 1979, 2003). ELF speakers naturally tend to appropriate the English language according to specific pragma-linguistic goals and structural features conforming not only to native speaker norms, but also to those of their own L1. The study aims to investigate how participants in the Professional Development Course “ENRICH” interact online in a plurilingual and pluricultural context, activating ELF accommodation processes and mediation strategies to achieve mutual understanding or acting as intermediaries. The research focus is on the process of lexical variation applied by ELF speakers with special attention to conversational exchanges and communicative processes, stimulated by shared activities and peer exchanges where ELF instantiations emerged. Data from computer-mediated interactions will be presented and analysed, focusing in particular on how lexical variation and change occur among ELF users when concepts and communication are negotiated to fulfil specific linguistic and communicative needs.

When Medical English as a Lingua Franca becomes Medical English for Research and Publication Purposes: A Metacognitive Approach to Student Dissertation Revision

Jekaterina Nikitina — 2024-12-23

Medical English as a Lingua Franca is increasingly used around the world, yet the context of university education, and specifically, the publication of final dissertations, remains impervious to the idea of contact languages and requires native-like quality, thus creating demand for proofreading/revision services. This study overviews results of an applied-purpose collaborative interuniversity project, wherein final dissertations by intermediate-level English L2 students pursuing a degree in health sciences were revised by advanced-level English L2 students with a linguistic specialism, applying a metacognitive revision model. The theoretical-methodological framework relies on an eclectic combination of insights from English as a Lingua Franca, learner corpora and crosslinguistic influence, English for research and publication purposes and proofreading/revision services. The findings reflect on possible curricular interventions, both for healthcare students and for foreign language students, to enhance their specific skillset in the spirit of interprofessional communication.

Shaul Bassi, Pianeta Ofelia. Fare Shakespeare nell’Antropocene, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 2024, 139 pp., 14 €

Rocco Coronato — 2024-12-23

È ormai notorio che stiamo vivendo una crisi ambientale (ma chissà, magari qualcuno potrebbe dissentire e dire che andiamo verso una glaciazione, o che è colpa del sole, oppure, altra recente variazione, ammettere che il cambiamento c’è e però poi aggiungere che non è dovuto a noi ma magari al fatto che la terra è piatta—circa il cambiamento climatico disponiamo della stessa varietà di teorie, ipotesi e complotti che gli elisabettiani usavano per spiegare la peste e di cui oggi sorridiamo, ignari che siamo parimenti ridicoli e non abbiamo uno Shakespeare che sappia raccontarci).

Antonio Sanges, Les jeux sont faits: la cultura della superficie. Beckett e il teatro della crisi, Nota editoriale di Marino Alberto Balducci, Prefazione di Federica Perazzini e Maria Truglio, Pistoia/Carla Rossi Academy Press, International Institute of

Davide Crosara — 2024-12-23

Il volume di Sanges propone uno studio attento e approfondito di due drammi fondamentali di Samuel Beckett, Aspettando Godot e soprattutto Finale di partita; non mancano tuttavia utili riferimenti a prose coeve di Beckett, dalla Trilogia ai Texts for Nothing.

Clodagh Brook, Florian Mussgnug, and Giuliana Pieri, Intermedia in Italy: From Futurism to Digital Convergence, Cambridge, Legenda, 2024, 248 pp., €120

María Emilia Muñoz — 2024-12-23

In today’s hyperconnected world, where boundaries between different artistic disciplines and media become increasingly difficult to identify, the concept of “intermediality” and the research related to it are more relevant than ever. In this context, Intermedia in Italy: From Futurism to Digital Convergence, an analysis of the evolution of intermedial practices in Italy from the early 20th century to 2020, is particularly significant.

Mattia Petricola, I mondi dell’Oltremondo. Dante e la Commedia dal fantasy alla fan fiction, Pisa, Edizioni ETS, 2023, pp. 143, € 15,00

Valentina Romanzi — 2024-12-23

Il recente volume di Mattia Petricola I mondi dell’Oltremondo (2023) si propone di esplorare le riscritture della Commedia nel contesto contemporaneo con particolare attenzione alla letteratura fantastica, che è qui da intendersi in senso lato. Il corpus di Petricola, infatti, non si limita a includere opere letterarie ma ingloba anche un video game, Dante’s Inferno e – pur rimanendo nell’ambito testuale – arriva a toccare la letteratura elettronica nella forma ancora poco studiata della fan fiction.

Oltre un nome tanto ingannevole: Capo Verde tra fonti storiche e poesia contemporanea

Simone Celani — 2024-12-23

The Portuguese arrival at the Cape Verde archipelago and the subsequent settlement of the islands gave rise to a unique experiment in cultural fusion in the history of maritime exploration. The challenges faced by the initial settlers, both voluntary European colonists and forcibly displaced African slaves, are reflected in the rich cultural expressions of the Cape Verdean people. This article begins its examination by focusing on poetic production, engaging in a dialogue with one of its primary sources of inspiration: the history of the formation and development of the Cape Verdean nation. Through a series of more or less explicit references, it becomes apparent that national poetry often serves as a cathartic attempt to rewrite the country’s history, reappropriating it and ascribing new meaning to a past marked by slavery, famine, and forced migration. The poetry of the 20th century is analyzed in a reflective interplay with historical documents from the 15th and 16th centuries, aiming to elucidate the full philological scope of a specific rewriting process: the redefinition of Cape Verdean identity beyond the confines of the centuries-old colonial narrative.

I riverberi della Coscienza di Zeno nei romanzi italiani degli anni Sessanta

Francesco Diaco — 2024-12-23

This article analyses the reverberations of La coscienza di Zeno in 1960s Italian novels. If Berto, in Il male oscuro, explicitly declared his debt to Svevo, the research is here extended to texts such as La nuvola di smog, La noia, La vita agra, Il maestro di Vigevano, Memoriale, Capriccio italiano, Il padrone, and Dissipatio H.G. Among the common features, it is worth mentioning the humour and the ineptitude; the irony towards medicine and the ambivalent dialectic health/disease, success/failure; cigarette smoking and the difficult relationship with the father; the references to mental illness, psychoanalysis and dreams; the apocalyptic imagery. The main hypothesis concerns, however, a structural element, namely the use, in the autodiegetic novels of the years of the ‘economic miracle’, of an I-narrator who is not only unreliable, but also idiosyncratic, humoral, and sometimes even neurotic/psychotic. The Zeno model would thus emerge in the ‘many truths and lies’ that these doubly alienated protagonists tell the reader, in their obsessive, apologetic and pseudo-essayistic elucubrations.

Lost in Transmediality: l’ombra di Twin Peaks in Fuoco cammina con me

Gabriele D’Amato — 2024-12-23

The article offers a close reading of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), examining the formal and thematic strategies of manipulation of its protagonist, Laura Palmer, and questioning the possibility of a complete perspective reversal through a transmedial expansion. While the tv show Twin Peaks (1990-91) focused on Laura Palmer’s virtual presence as the object of desire, the prequel turns her into a protagonist whose identity is still ultimately elusive. Drawing on insights from cognitive and transmedial narratology, I propose the concept of ‘transmedial gap’ to denote the structural void created by the expansion across media. Finally, I explore the constant interplay of formal and thematic mysteries as a reflection of Laura’s unreadable mind.

Audiovisual translation and media accessibility: new languages, new forms of transfer

Elena Di Giovanni — 2024-12-23

This article explores the evolution of audiovisual translation (AVT) and media accessibility research and practice, first of all by locating them within the framework of Translation Studies. After focusing on some of the main tenets that have guided the development of the mother discipline over the past decades, an exploration of the expanding roads taken by audiovisual translation, especially since the inception of media accessibility research, leads us to reflect on the changing nature of both the languages and the translational processes at the core of both. A brief overview of the results obtained from a questionnaire on the education background and the skills required of accessibility professionals across Europe today reinstates the centrality of linguistic and translational competence, in old and new forms. The final section of the chapter brings into the spotlight a series of examples from the practice of accessibility to media and live events today, pinpointing the increasingly diverse and rich nature of communicative codes and transfer strategies involved.

Narrare di mostri. Media, non fiction ed ermeneutica

Marco Tognini — 2024-12-23

Taking Giuseppe Culicchia’s Il tempo di vivere con te as a starting point, this article aims to illustrate a trend in literary non-fiction: the representation of murders committed by individuals typically labeled as ‘monsters’ in the media. The analysis considers how media framing shapes public perception of these events, and it explores the implications of employing the term ‘monster’ within this context. Culicchia’s work explicitly challenges this narrative, and I analyse how he constructs Walter Alasia’s story. This investigation highlights two distinct forms of truth within the text: factual truth and interpretive truth. Finally, the article broadens the discussion to include other works and to address theoretical implications for non-fiction, comprehension, and hermeneutics.

Eredità denigrate ed eredità condivise: la teoria del romanzo in Milan Kundera e René Girard

Valentina Vignotto — 2024-12-23

In Testaments Betrayed (1993), Milan Kundera’s third essay on the art of the European novel, the author describes René Girard’s Deceit, Desire, and the Novel (1961) as “the best book I have ever read on the art of the novel”. Despite some evident and seemingly irreconcilable differences in their thinking, a closer analysis of the two writers’ essays reveals a shared “anti-romantic posture”, as defined by critics, through which the relationship between novelist, literature, and the world is understood in similar and counter-current terms compared to the trends of French theory in the 1960s and 1970s. This article aims to trace the genesis of this anti-romantic alliance, starting from the rediscovery of a forgotten radio conversation between the two writers in 1989. Through this lens, the paper opens a broader analysis of three key notions: conversion, seen as a transformative experience that prevents the novelist from falling victim to the romantic postures of the “first phase” of their production; the novel as a disenchanted, clear-sighted, anti-lyrical territory where mediators, whether idols or ideals, no longer hold any allure; and literature as a tool for understanding and exploring the human condition, which is increasingly threatened by modern times.