Virginia Pulcini

Attitudes Toward the Spread of English in Italy

This paper focuses on attitudes toward the spread of English in Italy in the course of this century, with particular reference to the Americanization of Italian society. The twentieth century Italian scene presents two radically different reactions to the penetration of American culture: hostility and xenophobia in the first half of the century; accommodation and acceptance after the Second World War. The socio-cultural and linguistic profile of present-day Italy will be completed by data on the presence of English in education.

ENGLISH JOB TITLES IN ITALIAN: THE CASE OF ‘MANAGER’ AND ‘ENGINEER’

Abstract - In a globalized job market, the use of English job titles to advertise vacancies and positions in non-English-speaking countries is becoming increasingly frequent. This trend seems to be primarily motivated by the desire to give jobs an international appeal. While some job titles fill lexical gaps and are successfully integrated, others enter in competition with national equivalents, generating ‘multiple terminology’ in the receiving languages. The aim of this paper is to identify the stylistic and pragmatic reasons which determine the success of an Anglicism in the receiving language, despite the existence of a domestic equivalent. To this end, we have conducted a linguistic analysis of two terms used in the Italian job market – manager and engineer – which have entered the Italian language in the same historical period (end of the 19 th century). However, manager has developed into a very successful general purpose term in Italian, generating a wide range of compounds, vice versa engineer has given rise to several compounds but has not been integrated as a standalone lexical item. Our data indicates that the reasons for the success of manager are linked to its equivalents not being domain-specific, whereas for engineer the existence of the Italian cognate ingegnere , formally similar but semantically different, prevents the assimilation of this Anglicism. The data discussed are drawn from general and specialized dictionaries, official descriptions of occupations in Italian and in English, and from web corpora queried through the Sketch Engine system. Abstract - In un mercato del lavoro globalizzato e frequente che i nomi delle professioni utilizzati negli annunci di lavoro, anche in paesi non anglofoni, siano in inglese. Questa tendenza sembra essere principalmente motivata dal desiderio di attribuire al lavoro un carattere internazionale. Mentre alcuni titoli sopperiscono a vuoti lessicali e vengono integrati con successo nella lingua ricevente, altri entrano in competizione con equivalenti nativi, dando cosi origine a casi di terminologia multipla. Questo studio mira a identificare le ragioni stilistiche e pragmatiche che stanno alla base del successo di un anglicismo in una lingua ricevente, laddove esista gia un equivalente. A questo scopo abbiamo analizzato due termini utilizzati nel mercato del lavoro italiano – manager e engineer – entrati nella lingua nel medesimo periodo storico (fine del XIX secolo). Manager ha avuto notevole successo, diventando un termine multiuso che ha generato una vasta gamma composti; al contrario engineer ha dato origine a qualche composto, ma non e stato integrato come prestito in italiano. I nostri dati indicano che le cause del successo di manager sono da ricondursi al fatto che gli equivalenti italiani non sono termini specialistici. L’esistenza del corradicale ingegnere , formalmente simile ma semanticamente diverso da engineer , ostacola l’assimilazione dell’anglicismo. I dati sono stati raccolti attraverso lo spoglio di dizionari generali e specialistici, di descrizioni ufficiali delle professioni in italiano e in inglese, e di corpora creati dal web e interrogati attraverso il software SketchEngine.

L'INGLESE VEICOLARE. OPINIONI A CONFRONTO

The aim of this article is to introduce the ongoing debate on the adoption of English Medium Istruction (EMI) in Italian universities. First, it focuses on the strategic motivations of EMI, i.e. the internationalization of Italian higher education and the role of English in this process. Then, starting from the case of the Politecnico di Milano , the author presents the cultural debate on the defence of Italian in higher education which was initiated by the Accademia della Crusca and has recently raged among Italian academics. Subsequently, the linguistic and pedagogical challenges posed by EMI are discussed with reference to the competence in English required to study and teach in this new mode. In fact, data shows that many national and international students do not possess adequate competence in the use of English, and lecturers are rarely offered training or support, if needed. The author concludes by arguing that the adoption of EMI requires strategic planning and monitoring to meet the demands of internationalization, on the one hand, and implement a high-profile educational policy, on the other.