e-ISSN: 2239-0359 ISSN: 2239-0367 Lingue e Linguaggi is a peer-reviewed international journal which focuses on the description of natural languages and forms of communication. The journal is concerned with a range of languages, including English, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, Albanian, and their varieties, from the linguistic, literary, and cultural perspectives, in their synchronic and diachronic dimensions. The journal publishes original articles and book reviews. Lingue e Linguaggi is published twice a year. Besides ordinary issues, special issues devoted to a special topic may be published. All articles go through double-blind review processes. Journal indexing: MLA; EBSCO; DOAJ; ROAD; Google Scholars
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La presenza di Dio nei testi del rap polacco
Poland certainly represents a unique situation when it comes to faith and the presence of God within rap production. The theme has not only been present in Poland since the origins of this music movement, but the most famous track from Polish rap, one of the most famous songs ever in post-Wall Poland, is closely linked to God: Jestem Bogiem (I'm God, 2001) by Paktofonika. The rhymes of the refrain: “Jestem Bogiem/Uświadom to sobie, sobie/Ty też jesteś Bogiem/Tylko wyobraź to sobie, sobie” (I'm a God/Realize this, yourself/You are God too/Just imagine it, imagine it) project the prerogatives of God onto the human being. When he writes the text, the author (Magik) identifies divinity with the achievement of targets through the use of one's abilities; in his intentions there is in no way the ambition to replace God. The God we carry within us is the one who feeds on our best actions.The link between Polish rap and the topic of faith, however, became closer well before Jestem Bogiem started being played on the radios and musicassettes of young Polish people. This is a relationship that has existed since the beginning of the rap movement in Poland. Already from the name of one of the very first Polish rap group, Kaliber 44, founded in 1994, from the titles of the collections and individual tracks contained in their works two characteristics strongly emerge: the connection with literature and that with religiosity. The present work therefore aims to reconstruct the history of the relationship between Polish rap and God also in its various thematic declinations: the direct comparison with divinity and the brave one with its opposite and inevitable, the devil. In this sense, rappers like Eldo, who continually underscores the difference between faith and religion, Łona and Słoń act as models for changing the communication paradigm with God.
Análisis comparativo de las unidades fraseológicas con el verbo echar en los corpus de aprendientes CEDEL2 y CAES: Errores y competencia
La fraseología es conocida por ser un dominio problemático para los aprendientes de lenguas extranjeras. Sin embargo, constituye un área importante de la interlengua, ya que la vincula con la cultura meta. Los problemas que pueden surgir en el proceso de adquisición de unidades fraseológicas (UUFF) se refieren a su uso de forma adecuada, ya que pueden surgir distintos tipos de errores. En este marco, el presente artículo se centra en las ocurrencias de UUFF que contienen el verbo español echar en dos corpus de aprendientes disponibles en línea: el CEDEL2 y el CAES. En concreto, se pretende determinar la franja de competencia (A, B o C) en la que se adquieren y utilizan correctamente las UUFF que contienen el verbo echar. A continuación, se analizan los tipos de errores fraseológicos relacionados con este verbo y, por último, se mide la riqueza fraseológica parcial (RFP) del lenguaje del aprendiz, en comparación con el lenguaje del hispanohablante (extrapolado del subcorpus nativo del CEDEL2). Las posibles aplicaciones de este estudio se refieren al desarrollo de actividades didácticas basadas en corpus para fomentar la adquisición de UUFF que contienen tanto echar, como otros verbos.
Due trasposizioni svedesi della poesia Selige Sehnsucht di J.W.von Goethe
Abstract – The aim of this contribution is to bring to light, through the comparison of two Swedish translations of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's lyric Selige Sehnsucht contained in the first book of his collection of poems entitled The Western-Eastern Divan (1819), the variety of interpretations generated by this text, which appears in the examination of the different translation choices. The Goethe’s lyric is about a butterfly, which longs for the flame of a candle so much that it lets itself be burnt by it at the same time but this situation, which seems to be contradictory and destructive, will turn out to be, on a metaphorical level, as the necessary step toward reaching a new higher dimension. By the analysis of the two Swedish translations of the member of the Swedish Academy Anders Österling (1912) and the modernist poet Karin Boye (1935) one comes across many similarities but also clear differences due to both the temporal distance separating the two texts and Boye's very personal and creative style. In contrast to Österling, who tries to translate as faithfully as possible, she moves away from the original version, creating new expressions and very peculiar images through which the verses of the original German text are nevertheless, to some extent, described in a suitable way. Zusammenfassung – Der vorliegende Beitrag hat das Ziel, durch den Vergleich von zwei Übersetzungen von Johann Wolfgang von Goethes Gedicht Selige Sehnsucht aus dem ersten Buch seiner Gedichtsammlung Der west-östliche Divan (1819) in die schwedische Sprache die Vielfalt an Interpretationen, zu denen dieser Text anregt, und die in der Betrachtung der verschiedenen Übersetzungsentscheidungen auftaucht, zum Vorschein zu bringen. In Goethes Gedicht geht es um einen Schmetterling, der sich so sehr nach der Flamme einer Kerze sehnt, dass er sich davon zur gleichen Zeit verbrennen lässt. Diese Situation aber, die widersprüchlich und vernichtend erscheint, wird sich, auf metaphorischer Ebene, als ein notwendiger Schritt zur Erreichung einer neuen, höheren Dimension erweisen. Bei der Analyse der Übersetzungen vom Mitglied der Schwedischen Akademie Anders Österling (1912) und der modernistischen Dichterin Karin Boye (1935) stößt man auf viele Gemeinsamkeiten, aber auch auf deutliche Unterschiede, was sowohl auf den zeitlichen Abstand zwischen den beiden Texten als auch auf den sehr persönlichen und kreativen Stil von Boye zurückzuführen ist. Im Gegensatz zu Österling, der versucht, seine Übersetzung so originalgetreu wie möglich zu verfassen, weicht sie weiter vom Original ab, indem sie Wortneuschöpfungen schafft und ungewohnte Bilder gestaltet, durch welche die Verse des original deutschen Textes dennoch bzw. in besonderem Maße zutreffend dargestellt werden.
"Amar después de la muerte" di Pedro Calderón de la Barca nelle due versioni italiane distanti due secoli
This study examines the two Italian translations of Amar después de la muerte by Pedro Calderón de la Barca, produced almost two centuries apart: Pietro Monti’s nineteenth-century prose version (1855) and Diego Símini’s recent verse translation (2023). The analysis highlights the substantial differences between the two renderings, shaped by their respective historical and cultural contexts as well as by the translators’ stylistic choices. Through a comparative reading of selected passages, the article addresses issues of textual criticism, metrical reproduction, translation strategies, lexical choices, and the representation of the gracioso. The findings show that, while both translations aim to remain faithful to Calderón’s original, they embody distinct approaches: Monti’s version is marked by a didactic and accessible style, whereas Símini’s seeks to recreate the polymetric structure and baroque effects of the source text. The comparison thus underscores the role of translation as both cultural mediation and a reflection of changing modes of reception of Golden Age Spanish theatre in Italy. Il presente studio analizza le due traduzioni italiane di Amar después de la muerte di Pedro Calderón de la Barca, realizzate a quasi due secoli di distanza: quella ottocentesca in prosa di Pietro Monti (1855) e quella recente in versi di Diego Símini (2023). L’indagine mette in luce le differenze sostanziali tra le due versioni, determinate dal diverso contesto storico-culturale e dalle scelte stilistiche dei traduttori. Attraverso un’analisi comparata di passi significativi, lo studio esamina questioni di ecdotica, resa metrica, strategie traduttive, lessico e rappresentazione del personaggio comico del gracioso. L’approccio evidenzia come entrambe le traduzioni, pur condividendo l’obiettivo di mantenere fedeltà all’originale calderoniano, riflettano esigenze e tendenze proprie delle rispettive epoche: la prima orientata a una fruizione divulgativa e semplificata, la seconda volta a riprodurre fedelmente la polimetria e gli effetti stilistici barocchi. In questo senso, il confronto contribuisce a chiarire il ruolo della traduzione come mediazione culturale e come testimonianza delle diverse modalità di ricezione del teatro aureo in Italia.
Beyond the nativeness principle: Rethinking English language learning in the era of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF)
Drawing from two surveys and four experiments (Lambert et al. 1960) published as Christiansen (2017, 2018a, 2018b and 2019), this presentation explores NNES ELF users’ attitudes towards learning English and measures their willingness to emulate the English of different personas. The results reveal nuanced interactions between perceived nativeness, celebrity status, and attractiveness, in particular a feeling of affinity with speakers, rather than a simple desire to emulate native speakers, which is still the unquestioned premise of many approaches. These studies highlight the limitations of the nativeness principle (see: Seidlhofer 2001, 2011; Jenkins 2007), noting the absence of a singular native English model as well as the difficulty in accurately identifying NESs. Our findings suggest that NNES ELF users may not prioritize emulating NESs and instead exhibit the propensity to emulate or mimic other ELF users who they may find attractive as models in some way. Through qualitative and quantitative analysis of survey responses from almost 500 English learners in various countries, but mostly Italy, we compare responses on reasons for learning English and attitudes towards English norms. This study will identify a shift away from NES-norm orientation towards more diverse and fluid ELF-oriented perspectives. This shift signifies a changing paradigm in English language education, recognizing the importance of diverse language variations (Widdowson 2015) and flexible models of communication in rapidly changing global contexts.
DAT and MA as viable techniques to implement literature in language education: A modest theoretical proposal
The application of didactic Audiovisual Translation and Media Accessibility in second language learning has been the subject of much research over the last three decades. The types of audiovisual materials include feature films, TV series, documentaries, animated cartoons, and much else. However, little attention has been paid to the possibility of teaching English through AV adaptations of literary texts. This appears to be a relevant gap in research, given that English Literature is a fundamental component of syllabi in the high school context and in many higher education courses within the humanities, and that AV adaptations have proven to be engaging tools to be implemented in Literature classes. Hence, this paper proposes a method developed within the PROJECT NAME project, currently being carried out at Sapienza University of Rome. In particular, we discuss the possibility of combining AVT tools to foster language learning via the teaching of English Literature. Although the main focus of this paper is general English, literary ESP, and their translation on the screen, we believe this approach is replicable in any foreign language context. A lesson plan is proposed to help students with AVT and MA techniques deal with different domains and jargons. To this end, we have selected a recent film, produced by Netflix, titled Love in the Villa (Mark Steve Johnson 2022), a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet which combines General English (or Ordinary English) and literature ESP. Expected results and benefits include raising awareness about the practice of AVT and MA, as well as fostering the future replicability of the proposed methodology in the foreign language teaching classroom.
Caperucita en Manhattan de Carmen Martín Gaite. Superar el miedo para alcanzar la libertad
This essay offers an analysis of Carmen Martín Gaite's novel Caperucita en Manhattan (1990), which consists of a wide variety of references to texts and genres that make it complex and evocative, blending the classic and the modern, fantasy and rationality, the unknown and the revealed. The novel, which features narrative techniques characteristic of postmodernism, shows substantial differences from hypertexts belonging to the fairy tale tradition, even though the main characters and plot are recognisable. In addition to describing how the ancient fairy tale has been adapted to the modern world, dominated by spectacle and fiction, this essay aims to highlight some key elements. Firstly, the creative and poetic capacity of daydreaming, fundamental to the anti-conformist formation of Sara Allen (Little Red Riding Hood), who invents words and reads books imagining different endings and sets out on a solitary adventure through the streets of Manhattan towards freedom. Secondly, fear as a basic element to be faced and overcome, which largely depends not on the danger of external threats (the wolf and the forest), but on conventionalism, rigidity and lack of authenticity. Based on the teachings of her grandmother and Miss Lunatic (a messianic and fantastical figure), Sara learns that fear is the opposite of freedom. Finally, the theme of freedom, understood as a kind of rebirth, which includes a love of adventure and an ethic of responsibility in the encounter with the other.
“Quartieri, le barrio / quartieri, les banlieues”: francesismi e ispanismi nella nuova trap italiana
In recent years, the Italian rap scene has undergone a significant transformation, propelled by the rise of trap music. This evolution has affected not only technical and stylistic aspects but also linguistic practices. Contemporary Italian trap stands out for its multilingual nature, blending Italian with English, Arabic, French, and Spanish. Its lyrics frequently feature extensive code-switching and the borrowing of foreign lexicon. This paper analyzes French and Spanish loanwords in the works of three influential artists – Baby Gang, Rhove, and Simba La Rue – who employ a glocal vocabulary that reflects both local identities and global cultural flows.
Promoting Puglia. A comparative analysis of the destination image and the tourist gaze through BERTopic
Destination image has drawn great interest in tourism-related research for several years, with a range of studies approaching the topic from different perspectives. The main objective of this study is to introduce an innovative automated methodology, using the state-of-the-art machine learning model BERTopic (Grootendorst 2022), for analyzing the online destination imagine in institutional tourist communication. To test this approach, Puglia, known as the heel of Italy’s boot, was selected as a case study. More specifically, a textual content analysis of two official tourism promotion websites was carried out with the aim of determining whether the regional Destination Marketing Organization (DMO) promotes a coherent destination image and how it directs the tourist gaze (Larsen, Urry 2011) across different digital platforms. Findings reveal discrepancies in the projected destination image, particularly in terms of thematic focus and the language used. In turn, these discrepancies raise discussions about the strategic alignment and coherence of Puglia’s destination branding efforts. Therefore, this study not only represents a methodological advancement in the content analysis of destination images but also provides data-driven practical insights for DMOs to refine their strategies for more effective engagement with potential visitors.
Modalpartikeln in deutschen nicht-kanonischen fragesätzen: Funktionale Merkmale und prosodische Realisierung
This study investigates the role of modal particles within non-canonical questions in the German language and analyses the behaviour of prosody within this category of questions when a modal particle is present. To do so, a corpus of 95 non-canonical questions (divided into rhetorical and topic-setting) from the plenary sessions of the German parliament is examined and a frequency analysis of modal particles within the corpus as well as a prosodic analysis of intonation and pitch accents via Praat is performed. The results reveal that modal particles are used in the majority of rhetorical questions but are rarer in topic-setting questions and that the most frequently used particle is denn. The prosodic analysis shows that particles are never accented but are placed immediately preceding or following a prominent pitch accent.
El discurso especializado y su traducción: Jean Milburn en la versión subtitulada al español europeo de Sex Education
El presente estudio indaga de qué modo la subtitulación al español europeo de Sex Education (Netflix 2019-2024) mantiene o modifica – el discurso especializado y la agencia femenina del personaje Jean Milburn, terapeuta sexual y madre del protagonista. A partir de un corpus paralelo bilingüe de 80 unidades dialógicas que involucran al personaje en las tres primeras temporadas de la serie, se clasifica el léxico de la salud afectiva en dos macro-áreas (bienestar sexual y bienestar emocional) y se aplica una taxonomía de técnicas de subtitulación basada en la distinción entre transfer y non transfer (Ávila Cabrera 2020; 2023; Ávila Cabrera y Rodríguez-Arancón 2025). Los resultados preliminares muestran que, en la mayoría de los casos, la traducción de los tecnicismos vinculados al bienestar sexual preserva la equivalencia con la versión original, si bien se observan también ejemplos de neutralización u omisión (non-transfer). El estudio cualitativo evidencia que las pérdidas de especificidad afectan principalmente al léxico psicológico que sustenta la dimensión de empoderamiento femenino, con un impacto potencial en la recepción del personaje por la audiencia meta.
Il parlato docente nella classe di L1: Uno studio esplorativo delle strategie discorsive
This paper presents the preliminary findings of an exploratory study on interaction and classroom management strategies used by Italian L1 teachers. The research is situated at the intersection of two domains: teacher talk studies (Diadori et al., 2007; Bosc & Minuz, 2012; Diadori, 2018; Monami, 2021) and conversation analysis (Heritage, 2006; Orletti, 2000). While teacher talk has been extensively investigated in L2 contexts—with numerous studies and corpora—research in L1 teaching remains limited (Ferrari, 2019). The study is based on the premise that teacher talk functions not only as a linguistic model for imitation, but also as a key facilitator of learning. Pragmatic aspects are central to teacher talk, which is often adapted for pedagogical purposes and tailored to the learners' needs (Monami, 2021). Research indicates that, across different contexts, teacher speech exhibits varying degrees of pragmatic features. This analysis focuses on two types of asymmetric interaction: explanations and task-related instructions. Specifically, it examines the use of epistemic modals, hedging devices, comprehension checks (e.g., Are there any problems?), motivational prompts (e.g., Come on!), and connective acts that anchor the discourse to past or upcoming phases of interaction (e.g., We’ve already seen that; As I told you). Questo contributo presenta i primi risultati di un’indagine esplorativa sulle strategie di gestione del parlato da parte dell’insegnante di italiano L1. La presente ricerca si inserisce nel quadro degli studi sul parlato del docente che hanno caratterizzato parte della ricerca glottodidattica negli ultimi anni (Diadori et al. 2007, Bosc e Minuz 2012, Diadori, 2018, Monami, 2021) e dell’analisi conversazionale (Heritage, 2006; Orletti, 2000). Mentre nel contesto dell’insegnamento di L2 esistono numerosi studi e corpora sul parlato dell’insegnante, in ambito L1 gli studi sono ancora scarsi (Ferrari, 2019). Il lavoro parte dal presupposto che il parlato dell’insegnante rappresenti non solo un modello di input da imitare, ma anche una modalità di facilitazione dell’apprendimento. In particolare, gli aspetti pragmatici costituiscono un punto chiave del teacher talk, un parlato modificato a scopo didattico e caratterizzato da un’attenzione alle esigenze degli apprendenti (Monami, 2021). Dalle ricerche emerge che i docenti, indipendentemente dal contesto in cui operano, presentano un parlato in cui si riscontra un’incidenza variabile di diversi aspetti pragmatici.L’analisi qui proposta riguarda due tipi di interazioni asimmetriche: la spiegazione e le istruzioni per lo svolgimento delle attività. In particolare, si è indagato l’uso di modali epistemici, attenuatori, atti di verifica della comprensione (ad es. ci sono problemi?), atti di incitamento (ad es. dai, forza), e atti di raccordo, che collegano il discorso a momenti precedenti dell’interazione (ad es. l’abbiamo già trovato, come vi ho detto).
“auf die höchste Blüte der Kunst- und Erwerbsbetriebsamkeit gestellten Erdendasein” Pfisters Mühle di Wilhelm Raabe e la questione della tecnica
This article offers a new interpretation of Wilhelm Raabe’s Pfisters Mühle, moving beyond the conventional reading of the story as a conflict between humans and nature. It situates the narrative within the broader philosophical problem of technology (téchne) and human rationality, which Raabe enacts through the motif of original sin and humanity’s natural drive to manipulate and dominate nature. The story shows how technical reasoning can become a pervasive mode of domination, subordinating existence to efficiency and utility, with rapid technological change intensifying existential anxiety and fostering nihilism. The problem lies not in technology itself, but in human capacity to perceive change and respond ethically to its transformations. In this context, Raabe examines the tension between technical rationality and humanistic knowledge, as reflected in the protagonist’s manuscript. Art and narrative emerge as enduring repositories of experience and ethical insight, countering the abstraction and control inherent in unexamined technical thought. In doing so, Raabe shifts the focus from environmental consequences to how humans perceive the world, interpret knowledge, and relate to one another in a context shaped by technological power. Ultimately, the text suggests that existence gains meaning through shared experience and relational awareness, rather than through mastery of the external world.
Mito europeo e intertestualità faustiana nel Don Giovanni di A. K. Tolstoj
This article investigates the intersections between the Don Juan myth and the Faustian motifs drawn from Goethe’s Faust within A. K. Tolstoy’s dramatic poem Don Giovanni (1862). Critics have long acknowledged the presence of Goethe’s influence in this work, particularly at a structural level, although Tolstoy himself rejected any accusation of imitation. However, an intertextual comparison reveals analogies, parallels, and even direct echoes of Goethe’s poem, which Tolstoy also attempted to translate. While taking into account the author’s own defence, this study adopts a comparative and intertextual approach to trace the Goethean elements discernible in the drama—elements that reflect Tolstoy’s multifaceted contact with the Weimar poet and that profoundly shaped his original reinterpretation of the Don Juan mythologeme, redefining the balance of characters, themes, and structure. The result is a Faust-inspired work that aligns with the nineteenth-century European tradition (Vogt, Grabbe, Lenau) of merging the two great myths of modernity into a single, innovative poetic experiment, whose originality was not fully appreciated in its time. Il presente saggio si propone di indagare le contaminazioni del mito dongiovannesco con elementi del Faust di Goethe all’interno del poema drammatico Don Giovanni (1862) di A.K. Tolstoj. La critica ha in vario modo riconosciuto la presenza di un’influenza goethiana in questa opera, specialmente a livello compositivo, ma lo stesso Tolstoj confutò l’accusa di imitazione del Faust. Tuttavia, a un raffronto intertestuale, emergono analogie, somiglianze e persino citazioni dal poema goethiano che Tolstoj provò anche a tradurre. Pur tenendo in debito conto la difesa di Tolstoj, con un approccio di tipo comparatistico si rintracceranno gli elementi goethiani riconoscibili nel dramma, conseguenza di contatti avvenuti a vario livello con il poeta di Weimar che hanno lasciato un segno in questa originale rilettura del mitologema dongiovannesco, alterando gli equilibri di personaggi, temi e struttura. Ne deriva l’immagine di un’opera di stampo faustiano che si riallaccia alla tradizione dei precedenti e coevi tentativi di fondere due miti della modernità (Vogt, Grabbe, Lenau), un esperimento poetico geniale che, purtroppo, a suo tempo non ha conseguito il successo che avrebbe potuto ottenere.
The voice-over technique in four films by Sarah Polley
This article discusses the use of the voice-over technique in four films by the Canadian actress, director and screenwriter Sarah Polley: Away from Her (2006), Take This Waltz (2011) Stories We Tell (2013) and Women Talking (2022). In order to inscribe the critically neglected tool within an irreducibly audiovisual ensemble and unpack its multifaceted and multifunctional meaning-making system, a multimodal stylistic lens and toolkit have been adopted. Results show that the cinematic strategy is used across the films by the Canadian director with different extent, in different forms, and with different functions, thus showing the artist’s talent and creativity. The voice-over functions are mainly related to the enactment of processes of characterisation, narration, and screen adaptations. However, and most interestingly, the strategy is used to question and challenge the very modes and forms of these phenomena. In Away from Her, it challenges the traditional characterisation of a patient affected by Alzheimer’s disease as a passive and weak human being. In Stories We Tell, it subverts the narration process itself as univocal, linear, and stable, showing an ultimate meta-narrative concern. In Women Talking, it negotiates the process of screen adaptation, by replacing the male narrator of the adapted text with a female homodiegetic retrospective voice-over narrator as survivor and witness. Even its (almost) absence in Take this Waltz can be perceived as meaningful, as it is related to the multimodal shaping of the trope of absence that Polley presents as her main aim.
The effects of Chinese CLIL-based online culture lessons on cultural awareness and vocabulary learning
Although a teaching design based on CLIL methodology has been proposed in the Teaching Chinese ad Second Language (TCSL) area, still little to no attention has been paid to the teaching of Chinese Culture and Chinese as a Foreign language (CFL) through this approach. For this study we embrace the CLIL methodology in the delivery of six lessons of Chinese culture to a group of 15 second-year Italian university students with an intermediate level Chinese proficiency. The research was guided by two questions: (1) How effective is the CLIL method for learning Chinese specific vocabulary? (2) To what extent may CLIL-based teaching enhance Chinese FL learners’ cultural awareness? Data, collected through pre- and post-test focusing on learners’ cultural and linguistic knowledge of Chinese dining manners and etiquette rules seem to back up our initial hypothesis of CLIL providing students with the necessary skills to study and work in a globalized environment thanks to their constant exposure to more authentic materials and the instructor’s focus on the scaffolding of cultural awareness and understanding.
Can informal learning of English foster pragmatic awareness and performance? Evidence from a longitudinal study at an Italian university
This paper explores whether metapragmatic knowledge and pragmatic skills may be incidentally acquired through informal exposure to English, especially English online multimodal resources. A brief overview is first offered regarding the state of the art on Informal Second Language Learning (ISLL): its goals, findings, knowledge gaps and future perspectives. Next, considerations are made about the relevance of ISLL to the development of pragmatic skills. Next, a report is provided of a small-scale longitudinal analysis conducted at a medium-sized university in Southern Italy of the receptive and productive EFL pragmatic skills of 14 students with high engagement with English media input. The findings mostly show fluctuating, rather than stable or evolving patterns, both in the students’ level of awareness of the sociopragmatic adequacy of phone-texted speech acts, as well as their ability to produce sociopragmatically adequate voice or texted phone speech acts. The study is part of an inter-university project (“The Informalisation of English Language Learning Through the Media: Language input, learning outcomes and sociolinguistic attitudes from an Italian perspective”) aimed at understanding how young Italians learn and use English in real-life communication practices outside educational contexts.
“I can give reasons for that opinion if required”: Metadiscourse and gender in historical expert and lay witness testimonies
Drawing on previous research, this study aims to investigate the use of metadiscoursive features in the transcripts from trials regarding the crimes of birth-concealing and infanticide committed in England between the 19th and the 20th centuries. Generally, the prisoner or defendant was a young woman who worked as a cook, a lady’s maid, a servant in a house, or a seamstress at a tailor. The transcripts of testimonies are selected from the Old Bailey Proceedings Online, a fully searchable website providing accounts of all the records of crimes committed in London and Middlesex between 1674 and 1913. Seminal works on historical pragmatics (Jucker 2008), research on language and power in court (Maley 2000, Stygall 2001, Cotterill 2003, Heffer 2005, Chaemsaithong 2012), together with influential studies on the historical courtroom discourse (Culpeper and Kytö 2000, Kryk-Kastovsky 2006) have revealed that several differences in the witnesses’ speech production are more often than not, gender and social status related. After a sociopragmatic and historical pragmatic analysis of the social and professional roles of the witnesses involved in the trials in the ad hoc corpora, this work investigates how certain metadiscoursive features (Hyland 2005), such as boosters, hedges, and self-mentions, contribute to express certainty, confidence and personal involvement or contrariwise, uncertainty, indecision or hesitation about the statements uttered, and the narratives exposed before judges and lawyers in court. The corpus-driven analysis was supported by a thorough qualitative study of the data, which allowed to draw the conclusions that the interactional metadiscoursive strategies used in the testimonies are rhetorical tools that help negotiate identity, credibility, power, gender roles, professional position, and social status in the institutional context under scrutiny.
“It was about a Chinese idol”. Murder and the empire in Fergus Hume’s The Golden Wang-ho
This essay focuses on Fergus Hume’s 1901 novel The Golden Wang-ho, whose most striking character is the Chinese monk Jinfou. At the time of its publication, China was at the forefront of international news, with the Boxer uprising, the rescue of the Beijing Legation quarter, and the ongoing tension among the Western powers on the still doubtful fate of the Qing empire. It is likely that Hume meant to capitalise on the public’s interest with a China-themed story, but his text also offers an intriguing example of the formal and ideological flexibility of turn-of-the-century crime fiction. In particular, the depiction of Jinfou, combined with the representation of other characters variously involved in the imperial project, conveys a multi-layered image of Britain’s engagement overseas, which is further reinforced by the comments of the narrator. I suggest that, in this work, Hume plays with current stereotypes about crime and ethnicity, challenging readerly expectations both through his plot twists and his formal choices.
Shared schematic structures of metaphysical discourse and gender-biased deviations in the ‘Global migrating South’: Case studies on West-African refugees’ ELF-mediated trauma narratives
This paper explores native schematic structures of West-African oral narratives that are transferred into the ELF variations used by migrants and refugees in their trauma reports collected in Italy. Case-study data analysis reveals that these schematic structures are unexpectedly shared with autochthonous oral trauma narratives typical of economically-depressed areas of Southern Italy, thus representing an instance of contemporary ‘Global migrating South’. In this context, migration from the African Global South to Southern-European countries fosters conditions for intercultural communication, particularly with Mediterranean regions not typically categorized as part of the Global South. Hence, the deterritorialization of the ELF variations caused by the migrants’ displacement from their native contexts in the Global South – where such variations often represent official pidgin/creole forms (as in the ex British colonies of Africa) – helps identify similar schematic patterns across different settings, especially when highly-emotional reports of traumatic experiences are involved. This phenomenon is assessed by applying a model grounded on Cognitive Linguistics, Possible-Worlds Semantics and Modal Logic to the analysis of a number of case studies focused on Nigerian refugees’ trauma narratives, involving the transfer of native-language structures into their ELF variations at the levels of ethnopoetic pragmatic patterns, idiomatic lexicon, ergativity, modality, and metaphorical frames grounded in metaphysical imagery. Data reveal that West-African refugees’ trauma narratives often personify traumatic events as cruel supernatural beings or deities, such as Yoruba divine entities or other mythological hybrids shared with the host Mediterranean cultures, which assume animate, agentive roles in ergative structures. The study also emphasizes how biomedical definitions provided by the American Psychiatric Association fail to address trauma effects in the Global migrating South, where not only physical and natural causes, but also sociopolitical factors, religious constructs and metaphysical beliefs deeply influence expressions of distress. These culturally-embedded ‘idioms of distress’, therefore, necessitate an alternative interpretive framework that acknowledges both physical and metaphysical elements to enhance clinical interactions in Transcultural Psychiatry. A discrepancy in this research is finally introduced with the presentation of a parallel corpus in progress focusing on schematic divergences from the findings analyzed in this paper, occurring when judgment on women’s traumatic experiences are involved within the same regions encompassed by the “Global migrating South”.
Acceptability in intercultural communication through multimodal uses of English as a Lingua Franca. A (Re)definition
This paper proposes a redefinition of the notion of acceptability in intercultural communication. The novel definition represents one of the outcomes of the PRIN 2022 PNRR research project “Acceptability Strategies through Variations of English as a Lingua Franca in Multicultural and Multimodal Discourse Types”. Building on and extending van Dijk’s logical model of acceptability, the paper advances a cognitive-functional redefinition that accounts for the multimodal uses of English as a Lingua Franca in the context of intercultural communication. Acceptability is connoted as a notion determining the design on texts after the authors’ communicative intent, as well as their expectation in terms of envisaged addressees and the empirical receivers’ interpretation of texts. After illustrating the phases leading to the alternative definition of acceptability, this paper offers an essential analysis of the multimodal compositions of a selected corpus of reformulations of institutional discourse about migration and international protection. The aim is to give evidence of the theoretical dimensions of the definition of acceptability in digital forms of communication and asynchronous intercultural mediation, revealing the multimodal strategies and practices that are activated by senders to make their messages available and acceptable to intercultural receivers.
Huellas lingüísticas del desgaste de la L1 en el siglo XVIII
The study analyzes Italian–Spanish linguistic contact in the eighteenth century on the basis of letters and documents preserved in the Archivio di Stato dell’Aquila. It focuses on the problem of describing how long-term immersion in Spain influenced the Italian writing of Blas (Biagio) Dragonet, an Italian-speaking military officer who lived in Badajoz, and how that influence is reflected in phenomena of interference, transfer, and code-switching.Among the aims of the study are the contextualization of episodes from Italian–Spanish families whose texts reveal real bilingual practices, and the linguistic examination of four Italian letters written by Dragonet and his circle.The methodology combines a sociolinguistic and historical–philological approach, drawing on classical theories of language contact and on the model of communicative immediacy/distance. The analysis covers graphic, phonetic, morphosyntactic, and lexical variation, as well as paleographic features. The results show systematic Spanish interference in Dragonet’s Italian writing: simplification of geminate consonants, vowel oscillations, lexical and syntactic calques, Spanish-like use of prepositions, hybrid neologisms, and instances of code-switching. The letters reveal greater competence in Spanish—the language of everyday and administrative use—and signs of L1 attrition, visible above all in the difficulty of maintaining formal registers in Italian.
A todo chancho le toca su Navidad: Estudio de corpus sobre la variación geoparémica en el español actual
Although limited, research on paremiological variation constitutes a valuable contribution to achieving a more balanced representation of the various voices within the Hispanophony. An even smaller number of studies have explored the connection between paremiology and corpus linguistics, partly attributable to the structural and semantic complexity of paremias. This work aims to shed light on the advantages of combining these two disciplines. This article is the result of a corpus-based study on geoparemiological variation. We have worked with two lexical variants of a proverb: the first, traditionally considered canonical in the European context; the second, which, according to our findings, has attained the status of reference form on the American continent. After identifying global patterns of dispersion for the lexical variants in question, an interterritorial comparison was conducted on their diffusion and frequency in two macro-varieties of contemporary Spanish: Rioplatense Spanish and European Spanish. This methodological approach to paremiology opens new lines of investigation, providing an enriching perspective on the proverb as a unit of linguistic and cultural analysis. Additionally, this methodology for data consultation and collection is of significant relevance to other fields of knowledge, such as language acquisition and translation, insofar as it enables the identification of functional and translation equivalents across the various geolinguistic varieties of Spanish.
Persuasive und informative Elemente der Wahlkampfkommunikation. Analyse einiger Wahlwerbespots zur Bundestagswahl 2025
Within the paradigm of political campaigning, the medium of election advertising assumes a pivotal role, and consequently, its dissemination occurs in the period immediately antecedent to elections. The objective of these advertisements is to persuade undecided voters to cast their vote for the party, thereby underscoring its ideological stance and its supporters, even among those who align with competing parties. This approach draws parallels with traditional commercial advertisements, highlighting unexpected similarities in their strategic approach. Consequently, election advertisements possess both an informative and persuasive character, with the persuasive elements stemming from a skillful integration of verbal and non-verbal components. The purpose of this paper is to undertake a multimodal analysis of five of the most viewed YouTube advertisements for the federal elections in Germany, with the aim of identifying which verbal and non-verbal elements contributed most to their popularity. Multimodal analysis therefore aims to identify the characteristics that contribute most to the persuasive objective of the election campaign, to create an emotional bond between the parties and the electorate and to build trust. The paper is divided into three sections. The first one provides a theoretical foundation, introducing and classifying election commercials. The second section presents an analysis of the commercials, while the third section offers a discussion of the strategies employed by the various parties and some final considerations.
With a ‘beat’ of salt. The evolution of recipes as a genre in the TikTok era
Recipes provide a compelling illustration of how genres are conventionally understood and exemplify this concept in a clear and structured manner. In addition to serving as culinary instructions, they exhibit distinctive linguistic features and clearly defined communicative tasks, with a structure that has remained remarkably stable for several centuries. However, changes in the communicative landscape have brought about significant transformations, not only in the contexts in which cooking recipes are created and shared but also in their textual design and organization. The paper examines the evolution of recipes as a genre in relation to the media through which they are realized and disseminated. Specifically, it examines how the genre has been influenced by digital mediation, focusing on the video-sharing platform TikTok, an influential hub for entertainment content that was launched globally in 2018 and gained widespread popularity in 2020. The paper employs a multimodal analysis of a qualitatively selected dataset of TikTok cooking recipes to investigate how semiotic resources are distributed across the various affordances and constraints offered by the digital platform. Additionally, it examines whether the ‘semantic regime’ of the media environment -which articulates its communicative and ideational aims - shapes the overarching purpose of this procedural genre.
Bijouterie et joaillerie éthiques en France: Métamorphoses linguistiques et stratégies sémio-communicationnelles des marques durables
The rise of ethical French jewellery and watchmaking brands in recent years is a tangible response to the environmental and social challenges faced by the traditional sector. At the same time, they have adopted sustainability-focused terminology and introduced concepts like ‘recycled gold’ or ‘responsible jewellery’ to meet the increasing consumer expectations for ethics and transparency. This evolution largely relies on semiotic and communicational strategies aligned with the principles of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and green marketing. This study examines a collection of digital promotional discourses from the websites of leading brands in the industry using social and pragmatical terminology, semiotics, and communications approaches. The aim is to explore lexical innovations and discursive strategies specific to eco-responsible jewellery. The analysis highlights the emergence of a new sociolect and the lexical processes redefining the traditional vocabulary of jewellery-making, while also shedding light on the narrative and semiotic strategies used to showcase brands’ ethical and environmental commitments. This study thus underscores the growing integration of the ethical dimension as a strategic lever, contributing to the transformation of values and practices within the luxury industry. This study thus underscores the growing integration of the ethical dimension as a strategic lever, contributing to the transformation of values and practices within the luxury industry. Ces dernières années, l’essor de marques françaises de bijouterie et joaillerie éthiques reflète une réponse concrète aux enjeux environnementaux et sociaux du secteur traditionnel. Ces entreprises privilégient l’utilisation de matériaux recyclés, de pierres traçables, et s’engagent à améliorer les conditions de travail des artisans et des mineurs. Parallèlement, elles adoptent une terminologie axée sur la durabilité, introduisant des concepts tels que « or recyclé » ou « bijou responsable », pour répondre aux attentes croissantes des consommateurs en matière d’éthique et de transparence. Cette évolution repose, en grande partie, sur des stratégies sémio-communicationnelles alignées avec les principes de Responsabilité Sociale des Entreprises (RSE) et le marketing vert. En s’appuyant sur des approches socio-pragmaterminologiques et sémio-communicationnelles, cette étude analyse un corpus de discours promotionnels numériques issus des sites des principales marques du secteur, dans le but d’explorer les innovations lexicales et les stratégies discursives propres à la bijouterie écoresponsable. L’analyse met en avant la formation d’un nouveau sociolecte et les procédés lexicaux qui redéfinissent le vocabulaire traditionnel de la joaillerie, tout en soulignant les stratégies narratives et sémiotiques utilisées pour promouvoir les engagements éthiques et environnementaux des marques. Cette étude met ainsi en évidence l’intégration croissante de la dimension éthique comme levier stratégique, participant à la transformation des valeurs et des pratiques dans l’industrie du luxe.
Lotta di classe e lotta di lingua. Il massimalismo e il grottesco nel cinema di Lina Wertmüller
Il saggio indaga la dimensione linguistica del cinema di Lina Wertmüller attraverso lo studio di Mimì metallurgico ferito nell’onore (1972) e Travolti da un insolito destino nell’azzurro mare d’agosto (1974). Inserito nel quadro degli studi sul parlato filmico, sulla variazione dell’italiano e sulle rappresentazioni del Meridione e del genere, il lavoro legge il “massimalismo” stilistico e il grottesco di Wertmüller come dispositivo che articola, sul piano della lingua, il conflitto di classe e la violenza di genere. L’analisi si concentra su una selezione di sequenze e combina l’esame qualitativo delle scelte lessicali, delle strutture morfosintattiche e dei tratti pragmatico-discorsivi. In entrambi i film, le varietà di italiano e di dialetto (in particolare il siciliano) vengono impiegate per costruire la frattura Nord/Sud e per codificare gerarchie tra borghesia e ceti subalterni, tra uomini e donne. Il saggio mostra come il cinema di Wertmüller costruisca uno spazio ideologico complesso, in cui alla lotta di classe corrisponde una vera e propria “lotta di lingua” – un conflitto su chi può parlare, in quale codice e con quale legittimità nella sfera pubblica – collocandosi in una dimensione ibrida che appartiene insieme alle categorie del cinema impegnato e politicizzato e della commedia popolare.
A comparative analysis of environmental discursive strategies: Joe Biden and Donald Trump
This article presents a comparative discourse analysis of environmental rhetoric in the speeches of Donald J. Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr., focusing on their contrasting approaches to climate change. Drawing on a small, focused corpus of eleven texts—including presidential speeches and electoral debates delivered between 2017 and 2022 – the study combines tools from discourse analysis and corpus linguistics to investigate how language constructs political stances, social identities, and ideological positions. Particular attention is paid to vocabulary (including “hooray” and “boo” words), grammatical structures (such as nominalizations and ergative constructions), and rhetorical strategies (metaphors, euphemisms, dysphemisms, and logical fallacies). Trump’s emphasis focuses on nationalistic, adversarial, and economically framed discourse, in which climate regulations are depicted as threats to prosperity and freedom, while environmental issues are minimized or reframed through euphemism. By contrast, Biden seems to employ a cooperative and institutional rhetoric, aligning environmental action with justice, responsibility, and global leadership, often invoking collective pronouns and legal-rational authority. The analysis demonstrates how similar keywords (e.g., “clean,” “jobs,” “freedom”) are strategically deployed to produce divergent ideological narratives. Ultimately, this study illustrates how environmental discourse functions as a site of political struggle in U.S. presidential rhetoric, where language not only reflects but actively shapes competing visions of economic development, environmental responsibility, and global governance.
Uses of English as a Lingua Franca in contexts of the new digital-financial communications for migrant communities in Italy
The present paper intends to explore the impact of the new emerging digital modes of communication in the field of financial support to migrant communities residing locally in the South of Italy, as they could represent not only social tools for integration but also important instruments of linguistic mediation. One of its main aims is to analyse the mini-corpus of available texts, which linguistically may represent new resources to explore both in terms of intercultural communication, as well as disciplinary genres. The main issue is indeed correlated to the levels of accessibility and acceptability, and the potential need to revise ‘standard’ Western codes of communication, which are intuitively applied even to these kinds of direct communication. Text types that could be taken into account will be mainly of an informative type, i.e. aiming to target a wider audience of people speaking English and which could be also analysed in order to test: a) the text accessibility, and b) the actual strategies applied to enhance or which prevent communication in certain fields of action. One of these is banking and the EU/national communications as a social system, which could be considered here in the perspective of text simplification, as well as a setting for communication in English. Indeed, although various studies in the field of migrations and English as a lingua franca have been the object of recent research, it is important to reconsider the ‘variations’ of English as a core of this study, generating a new focus into the implications of such uses. In other words, the research addresses migrants as the main receivers of these informative texts, and could be also of interest to future mediators (also involving students of non-linguistic faculties at an academic level), who may interact with foreign nationals and migrants resident in the local area and need to perform economic transactions.
Polifonía y argumentación en los discursos de los representantes aymara en la convención constituyente de chile de 2021-2022
This study analyses the discursive phenomenon of polyphony in the interventions of Aymara representatives during the Chilean Constitutional Convention (2021-2022). Based on an examination of 81 plenary interventions by Luis Jiménez Cáceres and Isabella Mamani Mamani, it investigates the polyphonic strategies employed to construct legitimacy and reinforce Indigenous demands within a historically exclusionary institutional space. The findings reveal that polyphony functions as a fundamental argumentative tool in the political discourse of Aymara delegates. The main results include: the absence of reportative evidential markers, largely attributed to the explicit reference to the original source of information; the use of the pronoun “we” as an expression of collective agency; the invocation of ancestral knowledge as a source of cultural authority; and the citation of legal texts and international organizations as a strategy of institutional legitimization. The study demonstrates that polyphony not only structures Indigenous political discourse but also operates as a mechanism of resistance and visibility, through which Aymara representatives challenge dominant narratives and assert their identity and history within the framework of the Chilean constitutional process.
Productivity in phraseological constructions from Construction Grammar. The “[de + N]INTENSIF” pattern as a flexible and productive construction in Spanish
This study focuses on Spanish phraseological constructions of the type “[de + N]INTENSIF”, which combine structural stability with flexibility of modification, from the perspective of Construction Grammar (CG). Unlike traditional approaches that view them as fixed units, CG understands them as cognitive constructions that allow variability depending on the context, highlighting the inherent flexibility of language. Through a qualitative analysis based on linguistic corpora (CORPES XXI; esTenTen23), the study investigates the variability of these constructions in discourse, emphasizing how CG provides an appropriate framework to understand their flexibility and creativity in use, and demonstrating how speakers manipulate and accommodate these expressions within a shared structural schema. This work contributes to the understanding of linguistic constructions as dynamic and generative processes that adapt to discourse contexts.
Guillevic, Sonnets, édition établie par Bertrand Degott, postface de Lucie Albertini-Guillevic, Gallimard, Paris, 2003