Riassunto esame Lingua e traduzione inglese, Prof. Pettini Silvia, libro consigliato Linking Worlds. Comparing english and italian, Laviosa

LINKING WOR(L)DS

COMPARING ENGLISH AND ITALIAN

CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS CONTRASTIVE LINGUISTICS?

1.1 Comparison as a tool for acquiring knowledge

Nothing can be deeply known if not through comparison, which is a method used for a

wide range of aims, for example linguistics compare stages of a language to investigate its

historical evolution, national varieties of a language (British English-American English).

Theoretical linguistics compare languages to identify language universals (what is

common to all languages). Descriptive linguistics compare one language with another or

more languages to describe the characteristics of the first one with accuracy. Applied

linguistics compare a mixed language made up of elements of two languages with the

languages that originated it to investigate problems related to communicative activities.

1.2 Scope and aims of contrastive linguistics

Contrastive linguistics= discipline which compares two or more languages to identify

and describe similarities and differences but also to identify challenging contrasts or

potential difficulties in language learning and translation from a synchronic perspective (so

as languages are in the present).

Since languages are complex systems, they cannot be compared as wholes, but can be

compared the levels of analysis of the language, so we have a common ground (or

background of sameness, constant) where we observe asymmetries or similarities

between the two systems, but CL is mostly focus on differences.

1.4 CL today

At present, Cl is characterised by:

-languages can be compared because they share abstract similarities under the surface

differences

-each language is deeply embedded in its culture, which is expressed through language,

so when we compare language we compare also culture (= sum of beliefs, values,

attitudes, knowledge and ways of life of a speech community)

-aspects of language systems as well as languages are uses are compared

-contrastive studies are carried out in connection with translation, description of languages

and bilingual lexicography

-contrastive studies ….

1.5 CL and other fields of research

Contrastive analysis was originally aimed at a more efficient teaching of foreign

languages, especially for those areas of difficulty in the learning process which involves

the contrast between L1 and L2. During learning process we have two major phenomena:

transfer (psychological process by which learners tend to transfer the characteristics of

their mother tongue to the foreign language) and interference (influence exercised by the

learner’s mother tongue). Interference can be positive when there is a similarity between

specific areas of L1 and L2 or can be negative when learners believe that L2 is similar to

their L1 in an area where it is different. In fact some of the errors found in the learners’

production in L2 are caused by L1 negative interference, and other are due to other

causes.

The information on contrasts between L1 and L2 can be employed in language teaching,

for example to illustrate the divergences that cause typical and recurring errors in learners’

performance, like pronunciation or false friends. In this way the learner can prevent

interferences or errors because he/she is aware of the differences.

1.5.2 CL and translation studies

The process of translating is the transfer of a text produced in language A to language B

and the result is the production of a target text TT that is semantically, pragmatically and

culturally equivalent to the source text ST. Translator have to fully understand the ST by

identifying semantic content, communicative functions and cultural specificity and express

the same thing in the TT, so they have to produce a TT equivalent to the ST.

1.5.3 CL and bilingual lexicography

The bilingual lexicography is the field of research dealing with the compilation of

bilingual dictionaries, and to do so is necessary to compare languages in the area of lexis,

each word/entry in language A is joined to its equivalent in language B, so they are words

or sequence of words having a very similar meaning.

Recently bilingual lexicography uses large electronic bilingual corpora, employed as a

source of contrastive data on meaning and usage of lexemes, so researchers select two

lexemes in the two languages that are equivalent and then the software extract all the

occurrences of the two lexemes, finally researchers analyse them in contrast, considering

lexico-semantic and grammatically patterns. This type of analysis can also define the

various meaning that the lexeme can assume in different co-texts, very important to

determine its meaning as well as collocations.

1.5.4 CL and descriptive linguistics

The comparison between the two languages, in descriptive linguistics can contribute to an

accurate description of both languages in contrast, highlighting characteristics of one or

both languages. An example is the distinctive function of stress.

1.5.5 CL and linguistic typology

Linguistic typology analyses the world’s languages to describe the common properties

and the structural diversity of languages and to classify them into language types

according to their common features. Linguistic typology can provide tools and information

useful for CL because language types can be used as contrastive categories. An example

are the syllable-timed languages (all syllables take the same time to be uttered) and

stress-timed languages (stressed syllables occurs regularly while unstressed ones are

jammed between the stressed syllables) + vedi esempi pag. 32

(LANGUAGES= systems of communication adopted by speech community that adopts a

system, a complex whole made of parts (sounds and words) that follow specific rules

(grammar) in order to communicate (so to share and exchange information) by using some

mechanisms. Languages are isofunctional (have the same function) because they allow

people to communicate (satisfy their communication needs)

➔ languages can be compared because they have THE SAME FUNCTION (principle of

contrastive analysis).

Languages are complex and dynamic systems of communication made of different

subsystems that interact with one another and with different contexts in order to convey

meanings and perform different communicative functions.

CHAPTER 2: PRINCIPLES GUIDING CONTRASTIVE RESEARCH

2.1 Comparability

FIRST PRINCIPLE OF CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS: languages can be compared because

they share abstract similarities despite surface differences.

Languages can vary, but despite variations due to cultural or environmental factors and

historical change, they are alike in many ways (abstract similarities):

1)the biological and neurophysiological characteristics of humans place some

limitations on their language the speech organs producing sounds employed for

communicating can utter various but a limited range of sounds, and each language

employs some of these sounds, selected among the sounds which the speech organs are

able to produce.

2)Thought the human mind processes a “thought mass”, which is then segmented in

portions and labelled by individual languages in specific ways. In fact, each language

displays a different conceptualisation of reality and experience and it’s difficult to find a

concept which is expressed the same in all languages, even semantic categories of time,

space and number are realised in different ways.

3)Communicative functions the communicative functions (informing, asking for

information, requesting, promising…) are universal, because the basic function of

language is to communicate and some communicative needs are important to human

social life (name things, describe states or refusal, discuss case and effect)

Abstract similarities: the conceptual interpretation of reality, universal semantic

categories which reflect basic aspects of the world (time, space, number, gender,

negation), bits of meaning, communicative needs or functions (informing, asking,

requesting…)

Surface differences: the way abstract similarities are formally expressed varies.

2.2 The tertium comparationis: the issue of equivalence

SECOND PRINCIPLE: Two items are comparable when they are equivalent.

The concept of equivalence is employed as tertium comparison, which is a Latin

expression meaning the third element of comparison and the other two are the two

languages involved in the comparison. So, two items of the language are comparable

when they have something in common, a common ground on which similarities and

differences emerge, and equivalence is a degree of shared similarity, not an absolute

correspondence.

Equivalence is rarely a formal (morpho-syntactic) correspondence, instead it concerns the

deep levels of languages: semantic content, pragmatic content (communicative

function, situational context, participant in the communicative act), cultural content

(cultural context which gives a culture-specific perspective to meaning) and textual

meaning (linguistic item that occurs in a text).

=Two items are comparable when there is a functional-communicative equivalence in text

and co-text (no matter how far they diverge on the surface, they are semantically,

pragmatically, culturally and textually equivalent)

2.3 Homogeneity of data

THIRD PRINCIPLE: The linguistic data compared must be homogeneous: they must

necessarily share some characteristics or features

Homogeneity of data refers to the levels of analysis, in which the languages are divided

since they are complex entities and each level examines a segment of language

(phonetics and phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicology and lexical semantics,

pragmatics, discourse and text analysis pag. 38). And homogeneity can be of two types:

Formal Homogeneity (examining formally equivalent linguistic units or items that belong

to single levels of language separately, formal categories that have the same features

because they belong to the same linguistic level) or Functional/communicative

homogeneity (examining functionally equivalent linguistic units or items across the levels,

so specific meaning/communicative function from one level to another or within the same

level)

2.4 The notion of interlinguistic shift

Interlinguistic shift= operation needed to convert items in language A into equivalent

items in language B (Translation shift= any linguistic change occurring in translation of ST

in TT, the result of any comparison).

Different languages sometimes use different means for expressing the same meaning or

communicative function, and in order to describe this type of contrast is necessary to

cross levels, moving from one to another or within the same level (homogeneity is

guaranteed by a shared feature expressed in both languages).

There are two types of shift:



1)Level shift from one level to another (for example Italian uses the intonation,

phonological, while English uses the auxiliary verb do, syntax, in interrogative sentences)

2)Category shifts (within syntax):

-structural shift shift in grammatical structure (Ex: mi piace il jazz- I like jazz)

-class shift shift from one part of the speech to another (uno student di medicina-

medical student)

-rank shift rank refers to the linguistic units of sentence, clause, phrase and word and

>

it’s a shift between one of these (ex phrase clause: small wonder that- Non c’è da stupirsi

se)

-intra-system shift shift within system operating in both languages (ex article: Amo i

cavalli- I love – horses)

2.5 Homogeneity of descriptions

FOURTH PRINCIPLE: Languages in comparison must be described using the same

approach or theoretical framework.

Researchers should use the same approach, in this way the contrast emerging from

comparison is only due to the different way data react to the approach adopted.

2.6 Language and culture: an inseparable relationship

2.6.1 Culture and the fifth principle in CL

FIFTH PRINCIPLE: Language and culture have an inseparable relationship. When we

compare languages, we also compare cultures.

Culture= sum of behaviour, values, beliefs, attitudes, all aspects of social life that a

community share, where language plays a large and significant role, it is socially

transmitted knowledge, so the knowledge that a person has by his/her being a member of

a society.

Language and culture interplay in many ways, each language is deeply embedded in its

own culture and culture is realised in language.

2.6.2 Language, thought, reality and culture

Cultural contrastive analysis identifies a culture’s behaviour and analyse its form (how it

appears), meaning (what it means to people) and distribution (where and when it

happens). This is important in order to avoid obstacles to the understanding of other

cultures due to misinformation, misunderstanding and misinterpretation of a particular

behaviour. (vedi ex pag 43)

Language contains a cultural deposit especially in lexis, that explicitly conveys cultural

aspects, so the lexical distinction made by each language reflect the culturally important

features of objects, concepts, institutions and activities in the society in which the language

operates (when a society focuses its attention on a particular topic, called cultural focus, it

produces some words to designate aspects of that topic, for example the focus in Italian

society is food).

Culture may be realised by lexis in different ways:

1)Cultural words words which designate referents specific of a given environment and

culture (flora, fauna, food, drinks, clothes, religion, arts…)

2)Conceptualisation of reality like lexical gaps (language A has no lexeme

corresponding to lexeme x in language B: En privacy- It /), or when language A and

language B make different distinctions in meaning (home&house- casa)

3)Connotation an additional meaning (different from the referential meaning) which can

be emotional, social, symbolic or metaphorical and may vary from one culture to another

(ex: for insulting a despicable person> En “you rat” It “sei un verme”> same connotational

meaning and different referential meaning).

4)World knowledge is the knowledge about the real world resulting from experience,

stored in our long-term memory and for this, two words in two different cultures may

activate different knowledge (ex: It Parigi> città francese, En Parigi> Parigi in Francia e

Parigi in Texas).

2.6.3 Sounds and culture

Onomatopoeia= when we use words that imitate the sound they are denoting and to refer

to its source.

Onomatopoeic words aren’t an accurate reproduction of the sound they denote, but that

sound is “filtered” by each culture, in fact the same sound gives rise to different words in

different languages. Ex pag. 47

Interjection: extra-linguistic sounds, sounds or syllables that carry a conventional

meaning, stand-alone items that do not form an integral part of a syntactic structure (ex:

wow, ugh meaning disgust, oops). (Ex similarities. ita: sh,ss eng: sh / ehi,pst – hey,

divergences: boh – no idea / uffa – phew)

2.6.4 Grammar and culture

There are a lot of grammatical phenomena that reflect cultural specificities, an example is

gender (= grammatical category based on the natural category of sex distinguished

between male or female).

ITALIAN ENGLISH

-masculine/ feminine -masculine /feminine > human beings /

-it applies to nouns referring animate neutral > non-human entities (exceptions:

beings and inanimate objects, usually car, ship, boat> she)

motivated by their sex -is realised in the person system: pronouns

-the gender assignment to inanimate in the third person singular (he, she, it),

objects is totally arbitrary (libro, finestra) possessives (his, her, its), reflexive

-it affects the forms of various word pronouns (himself, herself, itself)

classes: pronouns, adjectives, articles, -nouns are not marked by gender, except

past participles for a very small numbers of items, realised

-is realised through inflection or through derivational suffixes

derivation+inflection (waiter>waitress, lawyer> lady-lawyer)

-there are cases when gender is the

opposite (guardia, soprano) or one word

refers to both gender (la persona)

*Translation problems pag. 69/82

In most languages that have a category of gender, the masculine term is usually the

dominant one. In IT the feminine adjective is used only when all the persons or things

referred to are feminine. In IT we need to use other devices except the specification of

both gender (she/he, lei/lui) in order to conform to the principle of political correctness. For

example we can use the plural pronoun loro, not marked for gender, the neutral word

persone. In IT possessive adjectives and pronouns agree in gender and number with the

object or person being possessed, so if an Italian writer doesn’t reveal the gender of the

possessor, the English translator may have to make explicit the information, the same

problem arises In IT, when the writer omits the subject pronoun in the third person singular,

forcing the English translator to interpret the writer’s intentions.

2.6.5 Lexis and culture

There are some areas of lexis that reflect the culture:

kinship terms (Italian> nipote, English> nephew, niece, grandson, granddaughter)

Taboo words> is a universal phenomenon, within each society, some words denoting a

specific range of events, actions, beings or things, are deemed offensive or hurtful, and

therefore ‘censured’, so that they are avoided by the members of that society

>Since people need to talk about the forbidden subjects, taboo words are substituted by

‘euphemisms’ (inoffensive words) or ‘dysphemisms’ (bad speech)

common:

-taboo subjects name of God, death, fatal diseases, bodily functions, sexual

intercourse, parts of the body, occupations, drunkenness.

-taboo words Italian: andare al bagno for urinare / defecare; andare a letto con for

avere rapporti sessuali con, English: relieve oneself or pass water for urinate; sleep with

for have sexual intercourse with.

2.6.6 Phraseology and culture

Phraseology= area of lexis including various types of fixed expressions

>sequences of words with a fixed structure

> non-compositional, so their meaning doesn’t correspond to the sum of meanings of its

parts.

>the