Научная статья на тему 'THE PROBLEM OF LEXICAL INTERFERENCE OF ENGLISH ON CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN'

THE PROBLEM OF LEXICAL INTERFERENCE OF ENGLISH ON CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN Текст научной статьи по специальности «Языкознание и литературоведение»

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Ключевые слова
INTERLANGUAGE INTERFERENCE / LANGUAGE PAIR / FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION / BORROWINGS / LEXIS

Аннотация научной статьи по языкознанию и литературоведению, автор научной работы — Sokolova A. G., Arkhipov A. V.

The article tackles several psychological, cognitive and linguistic issues that reflect the problems of Italian language acquisition by foreign students. The present study is based on contemporary interpretation of language contact and the particular features of cross-cultural communication and multilingualism. The article is focused on the theoretical grounds in interlanguage interference of Italian and English languages wheEnglish penetrates the Italian vocabulary and, in many cases, Ital-ian personifies its morphology and phonetics. According to the most reliable estimates, about 1.000 new words appear in Italian yearly, among which borrowings account for 15-25%. While many neologisms are occasional words destined to disappear quickly, few belong to the specialized terminologies, which are on the con-trary the richest pool of novelty in the English lexis. Therefore, it is inevitable that in the absence of alternative solutions, a specialist is pushed to prefer to use an Anglicism. Currently, their frequency is on average high, they are no longer predominantly technical terms as occurred 30 or 40 years ago. Anglicisms can also be found in newspapers and in everyday use. The present article deals with the problem of interlanguage inter-ference exemplified by the language pair English-Italian. The au-thors have given a brief classification of various types of interfer-ence and set out the problem of excessive unjustified borrowing of English lexis in contemporary Italian. In the present study, the au-thors have questioned the appropriateness of using Anglicisms in contemporary Italian, their relationship with Italian, the possibility and legality of a regulatory intervention aimed at imposing Italian synonyms, if any, or the coining of translations.reas special attention is paid to contrastive analysis and error analysis, the basic ways for overcoming interference mistakes. The authors present corrective strategies for approaching interlanguage interference with the purpose to improve the quality of language knowledge and its transformation into language competence.

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Текст научной работы на тему «THE PROBLEM OF LEXICAL INTERFERENCE OF ENGLISH ON CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN»

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Introduction.

Classification of various types of interlanguage interference

According to the definition given in the Treccani dictionary, the term �interlanguage interference�, as well as positive transfer, is used in linguistics to refer to the impact that one language can exert on another language in contact in specific cases, especially in bilingual subjects, leading to phonetic, morphological, syntactic or lexical modifications. In the case of the language pair English-Italian, such contact has become increasingly close since the post-war period. In the preface of �Dizionario degli Anglicismi nell Italiano postunitario� (1987) composed by Gaetano Rando, Luca Serianni states that English does not constitute any threat to Italian [1].

Classification of interlanguage interference is done under the different criteria introduced by the linguists Selinker L., Makei V.G., Kitrosskaya I.I. and others [2,3]. If interference violates the mutual understanding of interlocutors, it is of communicative-relevant type. When interference does not affect mutual understanding, it is of communicative-irrelevant type.

In addition, interference can be divided into dynamic and synchronous. If the former reflects the student�s progressive advancement in foreign language acquisition and can be overcome or eliminated, the latter remains unchanged and stays with the learner, for example, the accent.

Another classification is based on the types of the specifics of speech activity. Thus, researchers distinguish between interference occurring during speech production, i.e. productive interference, and arising during speech comprehension, receptive interference, respectively. Interference in productive types of speech activity is connected to direct observation and is more pronounced than in receptive types of speech.

Depending on the nature of the speech deviation from the norms, linguists can also distinguish between combinatorial interference and modifier�s interference. Combinatorial interference is the presence in speech of elements of another language system or restructuring language elements according to the norms and rules of another language system. Modifier�s interference leads to the appearance in a linguistic element of features or characteristics of a related element of another system, e.g. phonemic features or features of a grammatical class: the pronunciation of Italian [t] with an aspiration appropriate of English.

It should be mentioned that the Italian language tends to adapt Anglicisms phonetically, though at the morphological level, -s is not used for plural nouns, the noun remains unchanged, e.g. lo slogan � gli slogan, il film � i film, la slide � le slide. The traditional determinate+determinant order is generally maintained in compound words. The penetration of Anglicisms is traditionally high in technical-specific languages and relatively low in everyday language. However, it is always advisable not to ignore the processes happening to the internal Italian linguistic community.

Problem statement

In fact, the first steps in this direction were taken by the Accademia della Crusca, with il Centro di Consulenza sulla Lingua Italiana Contemporanea (The Advisory Centre on Contemporary Italian Language) being a constituent part of it since 2001. The Centre conducts researches and reflections on evolutionary trends in contemporary Italian language affecting lexis, syntax, morphology, pronunciation, and punctuation. Following the outcomes of the research, Anglicisms can be subdivided into various well-known categories depending on their interference, such as adapted or integrated borrowings, non-adapted borrowings, loans of necessity and luxury loans, semantic and conceptual calques, false friends, pseudo-Anglicisms and pseudo-borrowings, etc. This phenomenon is quite natural as modern Romance languages, including Italian, were formed on the common Latin background with the development of local traits, though it took many centuries and great historical and cultural fractioning. However, the current situation is completely different, and the most worrying factor is the speed of penetration of English into contemporary Italian.

For instance, here are quite typical forms of relatively new coinage: the verb faxare derived from the noun fax (meaning transmit via a fax machine), accatiemmellista, meaning an expert in the preparation of documents for the Internet, the surprising case of forming the noun on the base of the acronym HTML (Hyper-Text Mark-Up Language) by adding the suffix -ista. Another example is the verb startare instead of the Italian equivalent avviare meaning �to switch on computer or some electronic device�.

The linguistic novelty of this phenomenon can be exemplified by the subtitle of the book recently published by Accademia della Crusca: L�Italiano e I giovani. Come scusa? Non ti follow [4], formulated by the students of the Italian School of Montevideo. In English, the verb to follow (It. seguire) and, in particular, to follow on social networks (It. seguire sui social network), in addition to the semantic calques (whereby follow broadens the spectrum of its meanings) and the use of the noun followers, becomes an Italian' verb of the first conjugation, followare and its opposite defolloware ('to stop following someone on social networks'). The number other Italian verbs is constructed under the same model: droppare (It. pubblicare, uscire, rilasciare), from to drop (It. far cadere), flexare (It. ostentare) from to flex (It. ostentare) and others. In the book subtitle Non ti followo, given the sentence preceding it, the situational context might not be that of social networking, but a transfer of the verb into orality or writing with the simple meaning of 'I am not getting you', 'I stopped understanding you'.

Results and discussion

English penetrates the Italian vocabulary and, in many cases, Italian personifies its morphology and phonetics. According to the most reliable estimates, about 1.000 new words appear in Italian yearly, among which borrowings account for 15-25%. While many neologisms are occasional words destined to disappear quickly, few belong to the specialized terminologies, which are on the contrary the richest pool of novelty in the English lexis. Therefore, it is inevitable that in the absence of alternative solutions, a specialist is pushed to prefer to use an Anglicism. About 90% of Anglicisms are nouns, among which around 3.000 are non-adapted. This figure corresponds to almost 5% of 60.000 nouns in the dictionary, excluding archaic, rare or obsolete words. Currently, their frequency is on average high, they are no longer predominantly technical terms as occurred 30 or 40 years ago. Anglicisms can also be found in newspapers and in everyday use.

With its sporadic attempts to implement a serious and reliable language policy, Italy has always been pro-Anglo-Saxon since the post-war period. This tendency has profoundly influenced Italian, particularly in the field of politics. For example, borrowings like appeasement, devolution, bipartisan, exit poll, election day, etc.

The Italian language in which words ended in -t, -ft, -sp, -ps, nk, -ng, etc., would no longer be Italian. Deprived of a clear and firm phonetic individuality, it would no longer even be a language in the full sense of the word. What are the possible remedies? It could be proposed, first of all, that all the editors of periodicals and television services be made aware of the fact that excessive number of Anglicisms is perfectly useless (meeting for incontro, summit for vertice, etc.), and indeed by using them one disqualifies oneself.

It could be also advised that the necessary Anglicisms should be adapted where possible. So, for example, not performance but performanza, not sponsor but spons?re, and not lobby but lobbia (there is no danger of confusing with the almost disappeared capello a lobbia � En. tall felt hat).

As proposed by Arrigo Castellani, necessary and unadaptable Anglicisms can be substituted with Italian neoformations, for example: abbuio for blackout, fubbia (fumo+nebbia) for smog (smoke+fog), formed by blending, guardabimbi for babysitter, intr?dima (compound with ?dima 'week', derived from Vulgar Latin and still diffused in Tuscany) for week-end, velop?ttino for windsurf, vendistica for marketing, and even, with a rather reckless morphological procedure, vendissimo for bestseller.

An adapted Anglicism has the same rights to be considered Italian as a word coming from Vulgar Latin. For example, the expression �una buona bistecca� contains three Italian words regardless the fact that two words have a Latin origin and the third one bistecca represents the Italian adaptation of English beef-steak. The latter has undergone such profound assimilation that the original English form is almost unrecognizable. The most part of ancient loanwords were adapted as soon as they entered the receiving language, whereas the newest arrivals do not even demonstrate a tendency to change, for example smombie, a blend of smartphone+zombie, meaning a person with a smartphone in hand, oblivious to the world around him/her.

There is also a category of so-called invisible borrowings that, despite not having an indigenous etymology and origin, do not violate the morphosyntactic system of Italian either in spelling or pronunciation, and therefore do not pose any problem since the era of purism is a long-gone history. For example, the broadening of meaning of realizare = 'rendersi conto' (due to the interference of English to realise) rather than costruire qualcosa = 'build something' is part of the normal evolution of a living language, even though it may or may not be liked. Similarly, the entry of words such as mascara, a returning Anglicism: from the Italian maschera (the verb mascherare = �disguise�) does not pose any problem. The word came back to Italian with the meaning of make-up, it is spelled as it is read and does not represent any violation of norms.

In recent years, the phenomenon of lexical influx (even if it has not affected yet the fundamental structures of Italian syntax) is so extensive that it has led to internalization of new lexical rules for speakers: for example, the Italians would rather say blogger than bloggatore following their lexical habits, under the model of stalker, stopper, influencer, follower, speaker, YouTuber, Instagrammer and the other hundreds of words with this English ending. The Italians have become accustomed even to the words with the -ing ending, like advertising, smartworking, shopping, mobbing, and jogging.

There is also an abundance of words derived from the English language commonly used by young people today, starting with the neologism friendzonare, the modern substitute for: "No I'm sorry, it's better if we just stay friends so as not to spoil everything". The verb is commonly used when you do not match someone's interest and then you send them to the so-called 'friendzone'. Another quite popular example is the verb shippare, short for 'relationship', used to let people know that they a good match and can be a great couple. Here one should be aware that shippers can be real people but also make-believe characters from TV series, films, books, etc. Not to mention the verb spoilerare (derived from English to spoil), i.e. to reveal something to someone that the person does not want to know: the ending of a film or a book for example, but also to reveal something to others that they would prefer to keep hidden. Other examples from the contemporary youth�s slang might include verbs charmare from English to charm with the meaning to enchant, fascinate, failare from English to fail, WhatsAppare meaning to send a message via WhatsApp, or the noun smella derived from English smell, with the similar meaning of unpleasant smell, odor.

Moreover, the uncontrolled avalanche of Anglicisms now forms a network of English roots and �sticky� words that easily blend and recombine with each other in a domino effect. Some examples are given in the table 1.

Table 1

Examples of borrowed word collocations with English roots.

Day open day, election day, day after, day care, day by day, day hospital, family day, day surgery, meeting day Act green act, student act, food act, job act, Africa act, speech act, opening act, patriotic act Work smartworking, workshop, work in progress, work unit, work out, work product Dog splash dog, agility dog, disc-dog, dog trainer, dog sitter, hotdog, mad dog Baby baby boom, baby sitter, baby cry, baby park, baby face, baby star, baby monitor

This increasingly dense network of borrowings is expanding day by day in Italian lexis autonomously recombining itself not only into orthodox English locutions, but even into pseudo-Anglicisms and Italian-style English-sounding reinventions, such as smartworking, baby parking, beauty case, baby gang, barwoman, telefilm, bloc-notes, rimmel and many others.

Conclusions

In the present study, the authors have questioned the appropriateness of using Anglicisms in contemporary Italian, their relationship with Italian, the possibility and legality of a regulatory intervention aimed at imposing Italian synonyms, if any, or the coining of translations. It might be called globalization, internationalization or Europeanization, by Italy seems to have paradoxically become the part of the British Commonwealth, with different currencies but a single language.

References

1. Gaetano R. Dizionario dell�Anglicismi nel�Italiano postunitario. � 1987. � Firenze: L.S. Olchski � 255p.

2. Selinker L. Interlanguage. � 1972. - Vol. 10. � Issue 1-4 - pp. 209-232- https://doi.org/10.1515/iral.1972.10.1-4.209

3. Kitrosskaya I. I. Nekotorye voprosy metodiki obucheniya vtoromu inostrannomu yazyku v svete psikholingvisticheskogo analiza yavleniya perenosa: diss. � k. ped. n. M., 1970.

4. Nesi A. L�Italiano e i giovani. Come scusa? Non ti followo. -2022. � Accademia della Crusca. GoWare, Firenze.

5. Castellani A., De Mauro T. Il confronto: sul futuro della lingua italiana. � 1992. � Alma-Unifi.

THE PROBLEM OF LEXICAL INTERFERENCE OF ENGLISH ON CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN

Sokolova A.G., Arkhipov A.V.

National Research Moscow State University of Civil Engineering

English penetrates the Italian vocabulary and, in many cases, Italian personifies its morphology and phonetics. According to the most reliable estimates, about 1.000 new words appear in Italian yearly, among which borrowings account for 15-25%. While many neologisms are occasional words destined to disappear quickly, few belong to the specialized terminologies, which are on the contrary the richest pool of novelty in the English lexis. Therefore, it is inevitable that in the absence of alternative solutions, a specialist is pushed to prefer to use an Anglicism. Currently, their frequency is on average high, they are no longer predominantly technical terms as occurred 30 or 40 years ago. Anglicisms can also be found in newspapers and in everyday use.

The present article deals with the problem of interlanguage interference exemplified by the language pair English-Italian. The authors have given a brief classification of various types of interference and set out the problem of excessive unjustified borrowing of English lexis in contemporary Italian. In the present study, the authors have questioned the appropriateness of using Anglicisms in contemporary Italian, their relationship with Italian, the possibility and legality of a regulatory intervention aimed at imposing Italian synonyms, if any, or the coining of translations.

Keywords: INTERLANGUAGE INTERFERENCE, LANGUAGE PAIR, FOREIGN LANGUAGE ACQUISITION, BORROWINGS, LEXIS.

References

1. Gaetano R. Dizionario dell�Anglicismi nel�Italiano postunitario. � 1987. � Firenze: L.S. Olchski � 255p.

2. Selinker L. Interlanguage. � 1972. - Vol. 10. � Issue 1-4 - pp. 209-232- https://doi.org/10.1515/iral.1972.10.1-4.209

3. Kitrosskaya I. I. Nekotorye voprosy metodiki obucheniya vtoromu inostrannomu yazyku v svete psikholingvisticheskogo analiza yavleniya perenosa: diss. � k. ped. n. M., 1970.

4. Nesi A. L�Italiano e i giovani. Come scusa? Non ti followo. -2022. � Accademia della Crusca. GoWare, Firenze.

5. Castellani A., De Mauro T. Il confronto: sul futuro della lingua italiana. � 1992. � Alma-Unifi.

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