This paper investigates the way intensifying adverbs combine with verbs which are commonly used in college student slang, alias slanguage ‘teenage talk’ (Stenström 2000 and Stenström et al. 2002) or pubilect ‘dialect of puberty’ (Taylor 1998), in both English and Italian. My data has been collected from experimental tests checked on English and Italian native speaker students – either male or female (for sex in language see Olivares 1998, Taylor 1998) – aged between eighteen and twenty-three and belonging to identical social background (upper-middle class). The students were shown a list of verbs, mainly of every-day usage (i.e. to cost, to dance, to eat, to study, to smoke, to work, etc.), and asked to intensify them by finding the most appropriate expression(s) in their respective languages. For instance, the English students proposed collocates such as a bomb or an arm and a leg with the verb to cost, whereas the Italian ones suggested using un casino or una sassata with the verb costare (cf. Coveri 1992, Trifone 1993; for empirical support see also Banfi 1992, Forconi 1988). The results from the selected data chiefly show that the English students had a tendency to replace standard English verbs with idiomatic expressions which are idiosyncratic of their slanguage and typically co-occur with be (e.g. to be a chatterbox ‘to be very talkative’), get (e.g. to get pissed ‘to get extremely drunk’) or have (e.g. to have a hell of a good time ‘to have a very good time’). By contrast, the Italian students tended to maintain the verbs offered, and to merely add some intensifying adverbial expressions to them, as in parlare un fottìo, bere di brutto, and divertirsi da matti. The linguistic behaviour of both Italian and (most) English adolescents is based on connotative language programming (Taylor 1998), and is socially motivated by 1) the need for autonomy or independence from parental authority, 2) the need to create cohesion among the members of their own peer group, and chiefly 3) the need for expressivity and innovation (cf. Allen 1998, Coveri 1992, Eble 1996, Munro 1997, Partington 1993; for a more recent position see Lorenz 2002, Paradis 2000).
A bomb and un casino: Intensifiers in English and Italian slanguage
MATTIELLO, ELISA
2005-01-01
Abstract
This paper investigates the way intensifying adverbs combine with verbs which are commonly used in college student slang, alias slanguage ‘teenage talk’ (Stenström 2000 and Stenström et al. 2002) or pubilect ‘dialect of puberty’ (Taylor 1998), in both English and Italian. My data has been collected from experimental tests checked on English and Italian native speaker students – either male or female (for sex in language see Olivares 1998, Taylor 1998) – aged between eighteen and twenty-three and belonging to identical social background (upper-middle class). The students were shown a list of verbs, mainly of every-day usage (i.e. to cost, to dance, to eat, to study, to smoke, to work, etc.), and asked to intensify them by finding the most appropriate expression(s) in their respective languages. For instance, the English students proposed collocates such as a bomb or an arm and a leg with the verb to cost, whereas the Italian ones suggested using un casino or una sassata with the verb costare (cf. Coveri 1992, Trifone 1993; for empirical support see also Banfi 1992, Forconi 1988). The results from the selected data chiefly show that the English students had a tendency to replace standard English verbs with idiomatic expressions which are idiosyncratic of their slanguage and typically co-occur with be (e.g. to be a chatterbox ‘to be very talkative’), get (e.g. to get pissed ‘to get extremely drunk’) or have (e.g. to have a hell of a good time ‘to have a very good time’). By contrast, the Italian students tended to maintain the verbs offered, and to merely add some intensifying adverbial expressions to them, as in parlare un fottìo, bere di brutto, and divertirsi da matti. The linguistic behaviour of both Italian and (most) English adolescents is based on connotative language programming (Taylor 1998), and is socially motivated by 1) the need for autonomy or independence from parental authority, 2) the need to create cohesion among the members of their own peer group, and chiefly 3) the need for expressivity and innovation (cf. Allen 1998, Coveri 1992, Eble 1996, Munro 1997, Partington 1993; for a more recent position see Lorenz 2002, Paradis 2000).I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
