English in Italy. Linguistic, educational and professional challenges PDF

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Riassunto capitoli 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8 del libro "English in Italy" per esame di Lingue inglese (seconda annualità) con Molino...

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English in Italy Chapter 1 Introduction Brexit -> English could lose the ‘momentum’ it had in the European contenxt. Overview: 2. Dictionaries 3. Chronology of Anglicisms in Italy (18th century – new millennium years) 2. Lexicographic evidence Grande dizionario italiano dell’uso (De Mauro) -> labels which help users to distinguish between lemmas that are:     

Common (CO) High-frequency (AU) Low-frequency (BU) Exoticism (ES) Technical and specialist terminology (TS).

Zingarelli 2017 (ZING) -> this dictionary labels as English the entries that retain an English form and necessitate the addition of the native pronunciation in phonemic transcription. Devoto-Oli. Vocabolario della lingua italiana 2017 (DO) -> 3522 non-adapted Anglicisms.

3. A chronology of Anglicisms in Italian

Early loanword in the 13th-18th centuries Early contacts between Britain and the Italian peninsula were only occasional; the number of loanwords recorded in these centuries is negligible and most of them are no longer in use. • 1211 sterlino (sterling) • 1406 costuma ‘dogana’ (custom) • 1498 sceriffo ‘high officer’ • 1554 milord • 1668 lady, pony • 1674 yacht ANGLOMANIA: fascination for English society and language

1801-1900 In the 19th century exchanges between Britain and Italy intensified, with an increase of translations of major English and American writers, and historical and scientific works in Italy. English loanwords of this period were now often borrowed without any adaption, a practice which differs from the preceding centuries. • Politics: assenteismo (1836), leadership (1893), boicottare (1881)

• Fashion and life-style: dandy (1817), smoking (from ‘smoking jacket’) (1891), snob (1897) • Food & drinks: brandy (1829), rostbif (‘roast-beef ’) (1800), sandwich (1895), whisky (1829) • Business: banconota (1849), business (1895), manager (1895), stock (1884), trademark (1895) • Transport: schooner ‘goletta’ (1801), tilbury ‘carrozza aperta a due ruote’ (1817), cab ‘carrozza pubblica’ (1842), dining-car ‘vagone ristorante’ (1869) • Sport: tennis (1828), sport (1829), foot-ball (1888), match (1895), polo (1895), record (1895) • Culture: folklore (1884), college (1892), intervista (1877), reporter (1875), music hall (1894), revolver (1862), detective (1891), cowboy (1890), Far West (1892), totem (1828) • colonizzare (1828), di colore (1829), conforto ‘agio, comodità’(1824), rispettabile ‘considerevole’ (1827) CASATI LAW: English is introduced as a curricular subject in vocational secondary schools for its importance in the learning of technical and scientific vocabulary.

1901-1950 Emigration to the US: America became a myth of wealth and prosperity 20th century Anglicism recorded in Alfredo Panzini’s Dizionario Moderno (1905-first edition; 1963- 10 th edition). Historical reasons which influenced increases and decreases of borrowings from English: • Decline in the influx of Anglicisms in the post-World War I years: political tensions between Italy and Great Britain • Further decline during the purist campaign against the use of foreign words (1940s) • ‘Neopurism’ movement by Migliorini (a linguist) to contrast the excessive ‘hospitality’ towards ‘barbarisms’

• Fascism (1922-1945): legislation to repress the diffusion of anything that would “jeopardize not only the concept of national language but the idea of nation itself ” • Regia Accademia d’Italia: appointed to invigilate the purità of the language and provide Italian substitutes for foreign words Examples of Anglicisms that managed to enter: most affected fields • Sport: basketball (1921), rally (1935) • Music & entertainment: night-club (1939), spiritual (1936) • Cinema: cast (1942), western (1942), sex-appeal (1929) • Business & trade: marketing (1932), boss (1918)

1951-2000 The post-Second World War years is when the real influx of Anglicism in Italian takes place. There is a global Americanisation of Western countries as a result of the US military victory: the American myth of the beginning of the century turned into a real social model. • Sport: mountain bike (1983), beach volley (1987), windsurf (1979), pit stop (1997), pilates (2000) • Economy/Finance: sponsor (1963), turn over (1971), joint venture (1973), holding company (1976), ecommerce (1992) start-up (1993) • Music: cool jazz (1951), rock (1962), boogie-woogie (1944-45), shake (1966), juke-box (1950), hi-fi (1963) • IT: computer (1964), hardware (1970), floppy disk (1976), tablet (1993), username (1998), firewall (1998) • Transport: terminal (1965), hostess (1950), airbag (1989), cruise control (1992), car-sharing (1999) • Television: decoder (1990), reality show (1992) • Medicine: check-up (1966), by-pass (1974), screening (1979) • Social life: gay (1959), playboy (1964), status symbol (1971), teen-ager (1971)

The third millennium: 2001-2016 The momentum that English has gained over the last two centuries in Italy and in Europe is an unprecedented phenomenon in the history of language contact . The general distribution into semantic fields is similar in the three dictionaries: • a constant growth in the number of English loans throughout the centuries • a peak in the second half of the 20th century • the primacy of IT, economy and sport as the most affected fields in the new millennium.

Chapter 2 2. Anglicism, phraseological Anglicism and pragmatic Anglicism PRAGMATIC BORROWINGS: They are lexical borrowings capable of performing pragmatic functions. Pragmatic borrowings can indicate: 1. 2. 3. 4.

signalling speaker attitude (come on!) performing specific illocutionary acts (keep calm) marking discourse structure (the end? No) signalling politeness (sorry)

PHRASEOLOGICAL ANGLICISM: Units borrowed from English that are larger than individual words. Phraseology: 1. catch phrases: Is that your final answer? (Who Wants to be a Millionaire?); Eat my short! (Bart Simpson, The Simpsons) 1. routine formulae: here you go; shut up!; stay tuned; shall we make a move? 2. proverbs: The pen is mightier than the sword; when in Rome do as the Romans; When the going gets though, the though get going

The aim of the study is to describe the pragmatic function of a selection of phraseological Anglicisms in Italian. 15 phraseological Anglicisms in Italian potentially used as pragmatic Anglicisms: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

(and) the winner is… business is business (don’t) try this at home (doesn’t) make(s) sense get down give me/gimme five I love you it’s not my business keep calm and… make some noise pay attention take it easy (the) show must go on welcome to… you are welcome

3. Illocutionary acts Illocutionary acts can be divided into five categories:

Representatives: stating something is true, concluding, deducing, suggesting, proposing. ESEMPI: The earth is not flat. I don’t drink alcohol. Directives: ordering, commanding, requesting, asking, questioning, begging, inviting, preying ESEMPI: Drop it! Please, close the window. Commissives: promising, committing to something ESEMPI: I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honour you all the days of my life. Expressives: thanking, congratulating, apologizing, welcoming ESEMPI: I’m so sorry! Congratulations! Thank you! Declarations: appointing, nominating, declaring,marrying, firing, resigning ESEMPI: Priest: I now pronounce you husband and wife Referee: You’re out! Boss: You’re fired! Judge: I sentence you to six months in prison!

Chapter 4 Introduction The aim of Minutella’ study is to investigate the degree of Anglicisation of dubbed Italian, while the focus is on direct English borrowings. Borrowings are immediate and formally recognisable ‘fingerprints’ of English -> loanwords (non-adapted/adapted), hybrid and false Anglicisms. Anglo-American audiovisual products dominate the market; dubbing in Italy: the standard practice: • Italian audiences exposed to a large amount of dubbed Italian • A vehicle for the transmission of the Anglo-American culture • A practice that may affect Italian 2. The language of dubbing and Anglicism The language of dubbing has been termed as ‘dubbese’ (italiano: ‘doppiaggese’), a label that indicates a specific language variety with its own peculiarities: • A register with its own peculiarities • A third norm

• Technical constraints (e.g. lip synchronisation) may enhance source language interference 3. Anglicisms in film titles Significant rise in the number of English titles in Italy (Viezzi, 2004) • 1960 4.65% • 1980 18.40% • 2000 39.79% There are different strategies used for translating film titles: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

keep the original title add an Italian subtitle subtitle which may clarify the topic and attract audience English title but different from the original one Sexual innuendos (misleading): Wild things (EN) -> Sex crimes – giochi pericolosi (IT) Going all the way (EN) -> Pigs today – porcelli oggi (IT)

Why English in film titles? They are catchy and attract the audience’s attention. Because of Italians’ fascination with English: English is considered more seductive, appealing, added value, good quality. Prestige of English influences distributors’ choices of film titles. Comprehensibility less valued than appeal. Marketing and commercial reasons: e.g. Star Wars and its merchandising. 4. Anglicisms in dubbed dialogues Direct borrowings are not very frequent in dubbing since most of the words are already part of the Italian language. There is only an increase of interjection (e.g. WOW) and discourse marker (e.g. OKAY) which are very common in young generations. If used, when are direct anglicisms employed? In dialogues closely linked to the setting or situation or in dialogues in which one character needs to be ethnically or culturally marked. An Anglicism might seem very frequent overall, whereas its high frequency is due to the fact that it is repeated many times but only in one text which deals with a specific topic. Frequency data are therefore not sufficient to understand the degree of Anglicisation of dubbed Italian and a qualitative approach and a distinction between different text types is needed to interpret the data. This study shows that products aimed at young people contain a large number and a wide variety of Anglicisms and it confirms that English discourse markers tent to be borrowed in dubbing. 5. Anglicisms in dubbed TV series Diachronic approach, in order “to assess whether more recent dubbed dialogues are more Anglified than older ones”. English loanwords are more frequent in recent TV series than in older ones.

The most frequently employed Anglicism is okay: • discourse marker, response elicitor and response form in English • several translation equivalents: va bene, bene, d’accordo, capito?, d’accordo? • a wider range of synonyms in dubbed dialogues than in monolingual dictionaries of Italian (e.g. Zingarelli 2016: va bene and d’accordo)

Comparison between Fame (1982) and Glee(2009)-> English influence on dubbed languages has increased over the years: • 37 direct Anglicisms in Fame vs. 142 in Glee • well-established English terms already present in Italian in 1982 in Fame vs. less common Anglicisms not attested in Italian monolingual dictionaries in Glee • most frequent: okay (Fame) vs. Glee club, okay + ballad, gay, cheerleader, coach, musical, mash-up (Glee) WOW: Wow: a frequent primary interjection in (American) English (after oh, hey, huh) • Wow expresses the emotional involvement of the speaker • Compared to oh, wow conveys “greater intensity of feeling [and] […] typically indicates that the speaker is surprised and impressed-perhaps even delighted”. Wow is attested in Italian monolingual dictionaries • the GDU dates it back to 1959 -> “1. interiez. Voce onomatopeica, diffusa attraverso i fumetti e i telefilm per ragazzi, e adottata soprattutto nell’uso giovanile per esprimere soddisfazione, entusiasmo, eccitazione intensa oppure un sentimento, per lo più positivo, di meraviglia o d’impressione.” (Treccani). Results: • wow is more frequent in AmE than in BrE • wow is absent from the LIP • wow is attested in the translational corpus of dubbed films 5. Conclusion • A process of increasing Anglification • dubbed dialogues and peripheral elements such as titles • Overt and covert prestige of the English language and Anglo-American culture + marketing and commercial factors linked to globalization • Pervasive presence of okay (it occurs in all types of audiovisual products) • Well-established Italian expressions coexist • Italian dialogue writers avoid repetitiveness and opt for lexical variation • Yo: a linguistic stereotype typical of ‘dubbese’

• ethnic origin of the speaker or a specific slang (much like amico) Purposes to insert Anglicisms in dubbed dialogues are: • to create realistic informal dialogues • to build character • to anchor the characters’ language to the setting.

Chapter 5 Introduction Nature of English today is changing because of the spread of English as a Lingua Franca ( ELF) -> non-native speaker currently greatly outnumber native speakers. ELF is “a contact language used among people who do not share a first language, and is commonly understood to mean a second (or subsequent language) of its speakers” (Jenkins 2007: 1) Double role of English that leads to a pedagogical approach: 1. Local language with different varieties throughout the world 2. Lingua franca allowing communication among speakers of other languages. Students experience English as a language for international communication and interact with non-native speakers of English.

Global English: not a single variety

• Inner circle: English as a native language (ENL/L1): ca. 400 million people • Outer circle: English as a second language (ESL/L2): ca. 300 million people • Expanding circle: English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) and English as a foreign language (EFL): ca. 1 billion people 2. ELF and a changing profession 2011 Symposium on the Translator Profile

• organised by the EC Directorate-General for Translation (DGT) in Brussels • experts from the European Master’s in Translation (EMT) network, European institutions, the translation industry, and former winners of the Juvenes Translatores translation contest. Questions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 

Which skills are essential for translators to adapt to the new scenarios? Which skills can we expect to be required in the future? What do employers expect from translators? What do they expect from universities and training institutions? Soft skills “today translation has become a ‘social’profession, where team work is a must and the ability to interact and network efficiently and effectively has become an essential requirement.” Flexibility and adaptability willingness to perform new tasks going beyond translation itself, including project management, marketing and budgeting. Training is “another burning issue” that should not be limited to universities, but should be achieved through a synergy between training institutions and industry.

What is changing most significantly in the translator’s job nowadays? The translator has now become a kind of jack-of-alltrades, highly competent in terms of technology, editing of complex documents, as well as being an expert in languages and cultures, in Interlingual and intercultural communication. Training future translators Important to raise students’ awareness of the global nature of English today • Native language, cultural identity • Global communication • Important to equip students with skills to translate both • geographically and culturally defined texts • text written in ELF aimed at an international audience. Important to develop editing skills • “awareness among students of the editing process, of how to use corpora for solving doubts and exploring language, and alert them to the contradiction between English as a Lingua Franca (EFL) in its spoken form and the norms required in international institutions for documents written in English.” (Murphy 2013: 236).

Chapter 7 Introduction EMI -> English-mediated Instruction (An English-medium education system is one that uses English as the primary medium of instruction—particularly where English is not the mother tongue of the students.) PLU -> Parallel Language Use (The use of parallel languages refers to a situation in which two languages are considered equal in a particular domain, and where the choice of language depends on what is deemed most appropriate and efficient in a specific situation.)

European paradox: a concept which underpins the contradictory educational policies enacted in Europe. The paradox regards the mandate to implement university courses entirely held in English as a result of the post-Bologna Process. The Bologna Process: harmonisation of European higher education / promotion of international mobility /common structural reforms.  The Bologna Declaration: signed by the ministers of higher education from 29 European countries in June 1999. Cuckoo nest metaphor (Phillipson): definition of linguistic dominance in terms of naturalistic behaviour. In his view English is the lingua cucula in the European Higher Education scenario, in that it behaves in a similar way to cuckoos which: “substitute their own eggs for those in place, and induce other species to take on the feeding and teaching processes”. 2. Englishsing European universities – Threat or opportunity? Threat: • English-only policies: monolingual hegemony • English as a Lingua Franca is not a neutral means of communication • English is not universally relevant. “Those who argue that English is now detached from its ancestral roots, and is ‘owned’ by all who use it, that English is free of its origins and disconnected from the economic, political and military system that supports it, can be considered as seeing English as a lingua nullius, a free-floating language whose expansion should be considered advantageous to all” (Phillipson, 2015, p. 23). Opportunity: • If it accommodates with local, specific realities: ‘prevalence’ rather than ‘dominance’. “Locally appropriate solutions – English as opportunity rather than threat – can ensure that the increased use of English in new territories, such as continental Europe, is additive rather than subtractive” (Phillipson, 2015, p. 29). Aims of the study: • To explore the bilingual educational policy in place in the Nordic countries known as Parallel Language Use (PLU) • To reflect on whether PLU can be used as a European model to mitigate the risk of linguistic dominance 3. The state-of-the-art of EMI in Italian higher education In Italy EMI started slowly, in the late 1990s • Legge Moratti (53/2003) implemented from 2010-2011 • Legge Gelmini (240/2010), reform of the university system • Low levels of competence • EMI: a very recent phenomenon in rapid expansion • English-only policies: the Politecnico di Milano legal case

• Words of warning: Academia della Crusca • No consolidated preference for bilingual orientation 4. Parallel Language Use in the Nordic countries Integral part of language planning in Scandinavian countries 1. An official language policy in 2007 with the Declaration on a Nordic Language Policy signed by the Nordic Council of Ministers 2. To enhance the student’s ability to use English and the local language in parallel in their subjects 3. Against the risks of ‘domain loss’. Since the 1950s, in Scandinavia English has been used • as a language of research • as a language of undergraduate reading • An early development of EMI right after the Bologna Declaration • Scandinavian society: pride for high-level competence • English not perceived as a threat until the 1990s • 1990s: Transition from a homogenous to a multilingual/ multicultural society used to refer specially to tertiary level educational settings where an L2 is used as the medium of instruction. CLIC: Content and Language Integrated Learning -> usually used to refer to a range of approaches and practices adopted by primary and secondary school teachers. Students’ perception of English...