The Language of Quakers: idioms, words and abbreviations

The paper examines some of the words and expressions that have distinguished the members of the Quaker movement and helped to establish their religious identity. The Quaker lexicon has not remained unaltered in the course of three centuries. As is typical of most religious movements, also the Quakers have continually been adapting to social and cultural changes. This explains the existence of four relatively recent glossaries that account for the Quaker terms used in the twentieth century. The paper pays particular attention to "One Explorer's Glossary of Quaker Terms" by Warren Sylvester Smith (1985).

Matteo Teresi in America sociologo tra gli emigrati

L'articolo tratta la figura di Matteo Teresi e le difficoltà socio-linguistiche delle comunità siciliane emigrate in America

Specialized Translators at work during the Risorgimento: the Biblioteca dell'Economista and its English-Italian Translations

The paper deals with the Biblioteca dell’Economista (BE) as an early corpus of specialized translation. It considers the different text-types included in this series, and the influence of English on the early evolution of the Italian language of economics. The paper focuses on the assumptions which led to the creation of the BE and the role it played in the spread of English economic texts in Italy under the leadership of the well-known Sicilian economist Francesco Ferrara (1851-1868). An overview of the translation work shows how this important venture could be exploited for linguistic, translational and contrastive research. The analysis of some extracts from the translation of Ricardo’s …

Economics Terms from Scotland to Italy: the First Italian Translations of Smith’s Wealth of Nations (1790/91-1851), in F. Forman (ed.), The Adam Smith Review, vol. 13 (1st ed.), New York: Routledge and Taylor Francis Book.

Adam Smith’s An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations has always been recognized as the first economic treatise that systematized political economy comprehensively by replacing mercantilist and physiocratic theories at the dawning of the Industrial Revolution. The most recent studies on Smith’s translations have been carried out so far by economic historians, whose research on this field has worthily traced the influence of Smith’s thought across time, countries and continents. The spread of Smith’s original works and translations in France also reflected the cultural activity of the country and its participation in the Enlightenment debates. Presumably, the Neapolitan…

Le traduzioni dall’inglese nelle prime due serie della Biblioteca dell’Economista : ipotesi di studio da una prospettiva linguistica

From 1850 to 1868, the Sicilian economist Francesco Ferrara was editor-in-chief of the Biblioteca dell’Economista, a series of economic treatises – published in Italy and abroad – among the best known and most important of that period. Ferrara and his assistants, among whom was his friend Emerico Amari, translated scores of economic pages into Italian laying the foundation to the specialized translation in the economic field. They also contributed to the development and further specialization of an Italian economic lexicon. This paper provides three research targets on Ferrara’s and Amari’s work from a linguistic point of view. The three proposals, already part of a study project carried ou…

ENGLISH LINGUISTICS IN MOTIVATING CLIL STUDENT TEACHERS

Research on teacher motivation has recently given evidence of being closely related to several variables such as pre-service and in-service teacher training, educational reform, teaching practice, student motivation, work environment, psychological fulfilment and general health conditions. Taking into consideration the most recent studies on EFL teacher motivation across different disciplines and cultures, this paper aims at sharing the author’s personal experience with colleagues who have taught in CLIL trainee courses for High School content teachers. The results of the project, carried out in university run-courses from 2013 to 2017, have shown that teaching certain linguistic aspects (s…

Fascist Terminology in English Lexicography: Considerations from the Merriam-Webster Unabridged and the Oxford English Dictionary

This paper analyses how English lexicography has received the fascist terminology derived from the Italian party ideology and put into practice by Mussolini during his leadership. The research has examined the online Oxford English Dictionary and the Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online after taking into consideration the huge literature on Mussolini’s language and cultural policy. In addition, several lexicographical sources such as the Dizionario di politica (1940), the new Dizionario del fascismo (De Grazia and Luzzato 2002) and current Italian lexicographic data banks such as the TRECCANI and DIFIT online have been consulted to compare collected data. Findings have suggested interesting le…

Standardization trends in medical language in the European Union

Il fenomeno emigratorio del XIX e XX secolo. Da Alia verso la Louisiana tra problemi sociali e linguistici

L'articolo tratta il fenomeno dell'emigrazione siciliana in America e i problemi socio-linguistici ad essa correlati

William Penn, solicitor of the Quakers, and the interplay between legal and religious language

English law is repeatedly referred to in the works of the Quaker leader William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania and a great advocate of religious tolerance. A literary and linguistic analysis of the works of William Penn, therefore, can give a vivid, interesting picture of the religious debate which characterized the political arena in 17th and 18th century England, especially as far as legal, political and religious discourse and terminology are concerned. The first part of my paper deals with the importance of law for William Penn and among Friends, underlining how such relevance was given expression in 17th century Quaker literature. Secondly, it concentrates on the interplay between l…

L'USO DELLE METAFORE IN ADR

Il contributo analizza il ruolo che la metafora può̀ assumere tra le strategie comunicative dei partecipanti a una mediazione, definita dal capo 1, lett. a), D.Lgs. n. 28/2010 come l’attività “svolta da un terzo imparziale e finalizzata ad assistere due o più̀ soggetti nella ricerca di un accordo amichevole per la composizione di una controversia, anche con formulazione di una proposta per la risoluzione della stessa”. L’analisi prende in considerazione i recenti contributi di alcuni studiosi anglo-americani – Haynes 1999; Smith 2003, 2004, 2005, 2009; Chmielecki 2013; Ebbesson 1988, 2008 – sull’uso e sull’utilità̀ delle metafore concettuali nei sistemi di ADR. Il contributo mostra le diver…

Il flusso emigratorio italiano verso gli Stati Uniti d'America. Studi e opinioni a confronto

L'articolo tratta il fenomeno dell'emigrazione italiana in America secondo una prospettiva storica e socio-linguistica

L’insegnamento dell’inglese alla fine dell’800: una grammatica di Eugenio Wenceslao Foulques

A Stylistic Analysis of the English Translations of Machiavelli's The Prince: Mansfield, Skinner and Connell

The Prince is counted among those political works which gave rise to modern political science. Linguists have shown how the writing technique, that makes The Prince a unique work, is one of the main instruments used by Machiavelli to persuade his addressee to adopt the political tactics he was recommending. On the basis of their Italian studies on The Prince, the paper analyses how Machiavelli’s style was transferred from Italian into English in the most recent and authoritative English translations by Harvey C. Mansfield (1985), Quentin Skinner & Russell Price (1989 [1988]) and William J. Connell (2005). Three significant passages of Machiavelli’s masterpiece and their translations have be…

Migration Discourse and the New Socially Constructed Meanings of the English Lingua Franca

After the 1990s, the mass arrival of immigrants in Europe transformed the phenomenon of migration from a benefit into a problem and opened the debate to issues of first aid, security, expulsion and rejection. Even today, migrants are no longer seen as a socio-economic resource to be protected and regulated, but as a potential social problem affecting areas such as the economy, health and national security. The paper deals with the linguistically relevant literature about migration discourse (MD) and the role of English as lingua franca in public discourse related to the migration phenomenon. The latter part examines some traditional English key terms used to represent migrants since their m…

William Penn - Forme di governo e identità linguistica

William Penn (Tower Hill, Londra, 1644 - Ruscombe, 1718) è conosciuto in Europa come un leader quacchero e in America come il fondatore della Pennsylvania. Gli altri aspetti della sua personalità e l'importanza da lui attribuita alla lingua sono stati sinora posti in secondo ordine, anche se contribuiscono come i primi, a fare luce su un personaggio tanto complesso quanto contraddittore. Questo lavoro è il primo tentativo in Italia di una rielaborazione in maniera organica, del ruolo politico di William Penn nell'Inghilterra e nell'America del XVII secolo e del posto da lui occupato nella letterartura quacchera in difesa delle scelte linguistiche dei correligionari. Sono riportati in append…

Specialized Translators at work during the Risorgimento: the Biblioteca dell'Economista and the English-Italian translations (1851-1867).

During the Risorgimento, with the establishment of the Italian state and its liberal institutions, Political Economy became a subject of particular interest in many cultural and political environments all over the country. Considered the best discipline to cope with the new political situation, its study was promoted by a network of social institutions and individuals whose purpose of spreading an interest in economics led to the publication of a large number of informative texts such as books and book series, handbooks, encyclopaedias and specialized dictionaries. Between 1850 and 1860 Francesco Ferrara, the Sicilian economist, edited the Biblioteca dell’Economista (BE), a collection of ec…

Science and news articles on mirror neurons: two degrees of popularization

The paper deals with the linguistic strategies used by authors with a different degree of specialised expertise (scientists, experts, science and general journalists) to popularize and re-contextualize the mirror neuron discovery in the online Scientific American and New York Times versions. In particular, aiming at a comparison between the two journals, the authors focused on those linguistic and interdiscoursive strategies adopted to popularize three main aspects for each article: the definition of mirror neurons, the explanation of their activation in the brain and their function in social interaction.

The Popularization of Economics through the Biblioteca dell’Economista: analysing Amari’s translation of the High Prise of Bullion (1810) by D. Ricardo

Between 1850 and 1868, the Sicilian economist Francesco Ferrara edited the first two series of the Biblioteca dell’Economista (BE). This is a collection of economic treatises that were translated from English, French and German into Italian by Ferrara and his assistants (among whom was the scholar Emerico Amari) to popularize the international economic science in the Italian peninsula. The paper deals with Amari’s translation of the High Price of Bullion (David Ricardo 1810) entitled Dell’alto prezzo dei metalli preziosi and published in BE II vol. VI (1857). An analysis of the lexical and stylistic differences between source and target text (Malmkjaer 2004) points out the translation strat…

THE USE AND THE SHIFT OF METAPHORS IN ADR

This study on the use and shift of metaphors in alternative dispute resolutions aims to consider the clever use of conceptual metaphors among the linguistic competences that are desirable for mediators working in Europe under the provisions of the Directive 2008/52. The interest in developing the role of metaphors in influencing the resolution of disputes has called for a multidisciplinary approach that will focus on the studies carried out by experts in Cognitive Linguistics, Legal Pragmatics, Law and Mediation matters. Part I presents the claims made by Cognitive Linguistics on what a conceptual metaphor is and how it works in both every day and specialized language; Part II deals with th…

Palermo Symposium: Cross-disciplinary studies on Adam Smith’s Language and Translated Works in F. Forman (ed.), The Adam Smith Review, vol. 13 (1st ed.), London: Routledge, Taylor Francis Book.

This chapter lists five works by scholars belonging to different fields history, economics, language and translation studies. About fifty scholars from all over the world, interested in studying the international reception of Smithian thought, took part in the meeting at Palermo to share their ideas, methods, sources and knowledge. In “Economy” and “Political Economy” in the Theory of moral sentiments and the wealth of nations, Luigi Alonzi analyses the semantic evolution of the word ‘oeconomy’ and the term ‘political oeconomy’ in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by investigating their use in Adam Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments and Wealth of Nations.