Il tedesco tra lingua difficile e "lingua facile". Prospettive sulla Leichte Sprache, 2024
The present contribution aims at investigating rendering strategies of com-pound nouns (noun + no... more The present contribution aims at investigating rendering strategies of com-pound nouns (noun + noun) in Leichte Sprache, a simplified variety of Ger-man. At first, the main aspects of composition in German and its potential sources of difficulty are discussed. The subsequent empirical analysis is based on five speeches given by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and their transpositions in Leichte Sprache. All the compounds in the source texts are identified and opposed to the corresponding expressions in the target texts in order to postulate a ty-pology of the main rendering strategies (substitution or reduction of single elements; type of paraphrase of the underlying semantic relation). Finally, the various expressions are analyzed in terms of possible semantic changes and losses.
Il tedesco tra lingua difficile e "lingua facile" . Prospettive sulla Leichte Sprache, 2024
Guidelines for writing texts in Leichte Sprache generally suggest to avoid figurative expressions... more Guidelines for writing texts in Leichte Sprache generally suggest to avoid figurative expressions since they could hinder the conceptualization of the content of the texts. These guidelines generally limit themselves to provide few examples of metaphorical expressions without further exploring the no-tion of figurative language or the putative negative consequences of its use. Moreover, they do not mention other types of figurative expressions. Thus, the present contribution aims at further exploring the role of conceptual me-tonymy in Leichte Sprache. Firstly, it will be argued that metonymies are the result of a fundamental cognitive function and as such cannot be exclud-ed from Leichte Sprache. The focus will then be turned to metonymies that are more likely to be found in texts of this variety as well as on those which should be avoided.
The present paper aims at conducting an analysis of the two German expressions Messermänner and P... more The present paper aims at conducting an analysis of the two German expressions Messermänner and Parasiten, with particular reference to the fundamental role of metonymic phenomena operating in their conceptualizations. The abovementioned expressions were used by two AfD politicians to refer to the social category IMMIGRANTS. The discussion will highlight differences and commonalities between the two expressions with reference both to metonymic and metaphoric patterns and to their relation to the conceptualization of the "immigrants" in German political discourse. The results will show that, even if in different ways metonymic models play a fundamental role in both expressions in the definition of the negative social stereotype.
The present study has as its object three of the most frequent and representative metaphors of th... more The present study has as its object three of the most frequent and representative metaphors of the first part (paragraphs from 1 to 133) of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations. In particular, the analysis focuses on the following mappings: LINGUISTIC EXPRESSIONS ARE TOOLS, LANGUAGE IS A CITY and MEANING IS A PURE CRYSTAL. The methodological approach adopted in the study as well as the analytical proceedings are both borrowed from the theory of conceptual metaphor (see: Lakoff and Johnson 1980, Lakoff 1993 and Kövecses 2002, 2020). The three metaphors were identified through a careful manual search of the text. An automatic search for source domain vocabulary followed to identify any further instances of the metaphors. In a second step, the conceptual structure of the metaphors was outlined; the entailments of the mappings were listed and interpreted on the backdrop of the arguments developed in Wittgenstein's work. Finally, a comparison of the structures of the three conceptual metaphors was made. The analysis revealed the existence of complex and coherent conceptual mappings motivating the use of the identified metaphorical expressions. The comparison among the three metaphors confirmed the hypothesis that the entailments of the first two mappings mentioned above are all consistent with each other, playing a fundamental role in the comprehension of Wittgenstein's position on language and meaning. Conversely, the internal logic of the third metaphor reflects a conception of language rejected by the philosopher.
L'articolo mira ad approfondire un aspetto parzialmente negletto dalla teoria della metonimia... more L'articolo mira ad approfondire un aspetto parzialmente negletto dalla teoria della metonimia formulata da Radden e Kövecses (1999): il grado di consapevolezza dei parlanti nell'uso delle espressioni di ordine metonimico e le implicazioni che ne derivano. In particolare, in questo lavoro vengono prese in analisi tali implicazioni, al fine di evidenziarne la natura di incongruenze teoriche. Inoltre, l'articolo propone due possibili soluzioni teoriche per l'analisi dei fenomeni metonimici che implicano considerazioni circa l'intenzionalità e il grado di consapevolezza dei parlanti.
Die Metonymie im Deutschen ist bislang sowohl auf theoretischer wie auch auf empirischer Ebene ve... more Die Metonymie im Deutschen ist bislang sowohl auf theoretischer wie auch auf empirischer Ebene vernachlässigt worden. Bei dieser Forschungslücke setzt das Buch an und befasst sich mit dem deutschsprachigen Migrationsdiskurs. Die Arbeit ist interdisziplinär ausgerichtet und verbindet kognitionstheoretische Ansätze mit einer qualitativen und quantitativen Korpusanalyse von knapp 300 Artikeln aus Bild.de und Spiegel Online. Metonymien sind im Migrationsdiskurs allgegenwärtig, operieren oftmals unbemerkt in ihrer Interaktion mit diskriminierenden metaphorischen Mappings und erscheinen somit im Rahmen von Persuasionsstrategien als besonders effizient. Die Arbeit verfolgt zwei Ziele. Zum einen sollen die sprachspezifischen Realisierungsarten der Metonymie im Deutschen dargelegt werden, dies mit Schwerpunkt auf Konversionsvorgängen und Komposita. Zum anderen soll untersucht werden, wie metonymische Phänomene wesentlich dazu beitragen, stereotype und antimigrantische Vorstellungen zu vermitteln.
Il tedesco tra lingua difficile e "lingua facile". Prospettive sulla Leichte Sprache, 2024
The present contribution aims at investigating rendering strategies of com-pound nouns (noun + no... more The present contribution aims at investigating rendering strategies of com-pound nouns (noun + noun) in Leichte Sprache, a simplified variety of Ger-man. At first, the main aspects of composition in German and its potential sources of difficulty are discussed. The subsequent empirical analysis is based on five speeches given by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and their transpositions in Leichte Sprache. All the compounds in the source texts are identified and opposed to the corresponding expressions in the target texts in order to postulate a ty-pology of the main rendering strategies (substitution or reduction of single elements; type of paraphrase of the underlying semantic relation). Finally, the various expressions are analyzed in terms of possible semantic changes and losses.
Il tedesco tra lingua difficile e "lingua facile" . Prospettive sulla Leichte Sprache, 2024
Guidelines for writing texts in Leichte Sprache generally suggest to avoid figurative expressions... more Guidelines for writing texts in Leichte Sprache generally suggest to avoid figurative expressions since they could hinder the conceptualization of the content of the texts. These guidelines generally limit themselves to provide few examples of metaphorical expressions without further exploring the no-tion of figurative language or the putative negative consequences of its use. Moreover, they do not mention other types of figurative expressions. Thus, the present contribution aims at further exploring the role of conceptual me-tonymy in Leichte Sprache. Firstly, it will be argued that metonymies are the result of a fundamental cognitive function and as such cannot be exclud-ed from Leichte Sprache. The focus will then be turned to metonymies that are more likely to be found in texts of this variety as well as on those which should be avoided.
The present paper aims at conducting an analysis of the two German expressions Messermänner and P... more The present paper aims at conducting an analysis of the two German expressions Messermänner and Parasiten, with particular reference to the fundamental role of metonymic phenomena operating in their conceptualizations. The abovementioned expressions were used by two AfD politicians to refer to the social category IMMIGRANTS. The discussion will highlight differences and commonalities between the two expressions with reference both to metonymic and metaphoric patterns and to their relation to the conceptualization of the "immigrants" in German political discourse. The results will show that, even if in different ways metonymic models play a fundamental role in both expressions in the definition of the negative social stereotype.
The present study has as its object three of the most frequent and representative metaphors of th... more The present study has as its object three of the most frequent and representative metaphors of the first part (paragraphs from 1 to 133) of Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations. In particular, the analysis focuses on the following mappings: LINGUISTIC EXPRESSIONS ARE TOOLS, LANGUAGE IS A CITY and MEANING IS A PURE CRYSTAL. The methodological approach adopted in the study as well as the analytical proceedings are both borrowed from the theory of conceptual metaphor (see: Lakoff and Johnson 1980, Lakoff 1993 and Kövecses 2002, 2020). The three metaphors were identified through a careful manual search of the text. An automatic search for source domain vocabulary followed to identify any further instances of the metaphors. In a second step, the conceptual structure of the metaphors was outlined; the entailments of the mappings were listed and interpreted on the backdrop of the arguments developed in Wittgenstein's work. Finally, a comparison of the structures of the three conceptual metaphors was made. The analysis revealed the existence of complex and coherent conceptual mappings motivating the use of the identified metaphorical expressions. The comparison among the three metaphors confirmed the hypothesis that the entailments of the first two mappings mentioned above are all consistent with each other, playing a fundamental role in the comprehension of Wittgenstein's position on language and meaning. Conversely, the internal logic of the third metaphor reflects a conception of language rejected by the philosopher.
L'articolo mira ad approfondire un aspetto parzialmente negletto dalla teoria della metonimia... more L'articolo mira ad approfondire un aspetto parzialmente negletto dalla teoria della metonimia formulata da Radden e Kövecses (1999): il grado di consapevolezza dei parlanti nell'uso delle espressioni di ordine metonimico e le implicazioni che ne derivano. In particolare, in questo lavoro vengono prese in analisi tali implicazioni, al fine di evidenziarne la natura di incongruenze teoriche. Inoltre, l'articolo propone due possibili soluzioni teoriche per l'analisi dei fenomeni metonimici che implicano considerazioni circa l'intenzionalità e il grado di consapevolezza dei parlanti.
Die Metonymie im Deutschen ist bislang sowohl auf theoretischer wie auch auf empirischer Ebene ve... more Die Metonymie im Deutschen ist bislang sowohl auf theoretischer wie auch auf empirischer Ebene vernachlässigt worden. Bei dieser Forschungslücke setzt das Buch an und befasst sich mit dem deutschsprachigen Migrationsdiskurs. Die Arbeit ist interdisziplinär ausgerichtet und verbindet kognitionstheoretische Ansätze mit einer qualitativen und quantitativen Korpusanalyse von knapp 300 Artikeln aus Bild.de und Spiegel Online. Metonymien sind im Migrationsdiskurs allgegenwärtig, operieren oftmals unbemerkt in ihrer Interaktion mit diskriminierenden metaphorischen Mappings und erscheinen somit im Rahmen von Persuasionsstrategien als besonders effizient. Die Arbeit verfolgt zwei Ziele. Zum einen sollen die sprachspezifischen Realisierungsarten der Metonymie im Deutschen dargelegt werden, dies mit Schwerpunkt auf Konversionsvorgängen und Komposita. Zum anderen soll untersucht werden, wie metonymische Phänomene wesentlich dazu beitragen, stereotype und antimigrantische Vorstellungen zu vermitteln.
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