The Italian and English languages share a great deal of phraseology; that is, their lexicons includes many phrases and expressions of comparable form (e.g. skeleton in the cupboard - scheletro nell'armadio, treasure hunt - caccia al tesoro). In many cases, this is the result of phrasal calquing, which may be direct or indirect, or else involve a common linguistic and cultural heritage. In the case of some phrasal pairs, similarity may 'just' be due to the similarity of cultures and of they typical processes of lexical phrase creation. In this paper I provide quantitative data regarding the reasons - as documented in the linguistic literature - for the existence of such phrasal pairs. The data is based on a very large sample of comparable phrases, in excess of a thousand. These come from a database of over 2,500 comparable phrases which has been compiled by the present writer as part of on-going research into contrastive phraseology. The information on phrasal origin is a collation of information found in historical dictionaries (OED, GDLI), in dictionaries specializing in cross-language transfer (Görlach, Rando, Stammerjohann), in dictionaries of neologisms (e.g. Lurati), in the specialist literature on cross-language transfer (e.g. Bombi, Delmay, Iamartino, Klajn), as well as other sources. In cases where no origin is indicated in the literature consulted, or is indicated for only one of the two phrases of a given pair, then these facts will also be quantified.
Comparable phrases in English and Italian: the extent of the phenomenon and how well it is documented
COFFEY, STEPHEN JAMES
2010-01-01
Abstract
The Italian and English languages share a great deal of phraseology; that is, their lexicons includes many phrases and expressions of comparable form (e.g. skeleton in the cupboard - scheletro nell'armadio, treasure hunt - caccia al tesoro). In many cases, this is the result of phrasal calquing, which may be direct or indirect, or else involve a common linguistic and cultural heritage. In the case of some phrasal pairs, similarity may 'just' be due to the similarity of cultures and of they typical processes of lexical phrase creation. In this paper I provide quantitative data regarding the reasons - as documented in the linguistic literature - for the existence of such phrasal pairs. The data is based on a very large sample of comparable phrases, in excess of a thousand. These come from a database of over 2,500 comparable phrases which has been compiled by the present writer as part of on-going research into contrastive phraseology. The information on phrasal origin is a collation of information found in historical dictionaries (OED, GDLI), in dictionaries specializing in cross-language transfer (Görlach, Rando, Stammerjohann), in dictionaries of neologisms (e.g. Lurati), in the specialist literature on cross-language transfer (e.g. Bombi, Delmay, Iamartino, Klajn), as well as other sources. In cases where no origin is indicated in the literature consulted, or is indicated for only one of the two phrases of a given pair, then these facts will also be quantified.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
