Cover not available

Article published In: International Journal of Language and Culture
Vol. 9:1 (2022) ► pp.1–26

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

Stage-of-life words at the crossroads of language, culture and cognition

A contrastive semantic analysis between boy (English) and ragazzo (Italian)

 | University of Milan
Published online: 27 January 2022
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ijolc.21036.far
Abstract
Nowhere is the interface between language, culture and cognition more clearly visible than in word meanings and in cases of translational non-equivalence between words of different languages. One such case is that of the meanings of stage-of-life words in different languages. This paper presents a contrastive analysis between the English boy and the Italian ragazzo made adopting the principles and methods of cross-linguistic semantics. The analysis demonstrates that the semantic non-equivalence between these two stage-of-life words results from the different age and time spans covered by each word and different cultural assumptions about the transition to manhood, showing how these differences are reflected in discourse in the respective languages. First, a discourse analysis is made for each word; after that, two separate semantic explications are produced with the Natural Semantic Metalanguage methodology and then contrasted to highlight the differences in meaning and the role of culture in the formation of different conceptualisations of the human life cycle.
Article outline
  • 1.Why a cross-linguistic analysis of stage-of-life words
  • 2.General properties of stage-of-life words
  • 3.Methodology and data
  • 4.The meaning of boy
  • 5.The meaning of ragazzo
  • 6.Boy and ragazzo in official translations
  • 7.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
References (46)
References
Baker, P. (2002). Fantabulosa. A dictionary of polari & gay slang. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2006). Public discourses of gay men. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Barrie, J. M. (1999 [1911]). Peter and Wendy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cantarella, E. (1988). La bisessualità nel mondo antico. Milano: Feltrinelli.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chandos, J. (1984). Boys together. English public schools, 1800–1864. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Collins Wordbanks Online. Accessed in September 2021. [URL]
Corid-Codis corpus of contemporary written Italian. Accessed in September 2021. [URL]
Cohen, D. (1987). Law, society and homosexuality in classical Athens. Past and Present, 1171, 3–21. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Giovanni, M. (2013). I bastardi di Pizzofalcone. Torino: Einaudi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2016). The bastards of Pizzofalcone. Translated by A. Shugaar. New York: Europa Editions.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dover, K. (1978). Greek homosexuality. Harvard: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Farese, G. M. (2019). Italian discourse. A cultural semantic analysis. Lanham: Lexington Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(in press). The ethnopragmatics of English stage-of-life words as forms of address. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 42(1).
Felice, E. (2015). Ascesa e declino. Storia economica d’Italia. Bologna: Il Mulino.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fry, S. (1997). Moab is my washpot. An autobiography. London: Soho Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gamberale, C. (2013). Per dieci minuti. Milano: Feltrinelli.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Giordano, P. (2008). La solitudine dei numeri primi. Milano: Mondadori.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2009). The solitude of prime numbers. Translated by S. Whiteside. London: Black Swan.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goddard, C. (2016). Semantic molecules and their tole in NSM lexical definitions. Cahiers de Lexicologie, 109(2), 13–34.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2018). Ten lectures on the Natural Semantic Metalanguage. Leiden/Boston: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goddard, C., & Wierzbicka, A. (2014). Words and meanings: Lexical semantics across domains, languages and cultures. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gumperz, J. J., and Hymes, D. (Eds.). (1972). Directions in sociolinguistics. The ethnography of communication. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harry, J. (1982). Decision making and age differences among gay male couples. Journal of Homosexuality, 8(2), 9–21. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hickson, A. (1992). The poisoned bowl: Sex and the public school. London: Duckworth.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hornby, N. (1998). About a boy. New York: Riverhead Books.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hymes, D. (1971). Sociolinguistics and the ethnography of speaking. In E. Ardener (Ed.), Social anthropology and language (pp. 47–93). London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morante, E. (1957). L’isola di Arturo. Torino: Einaudi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2019). Arturo’s island. Translated by A. Goldstein. London: Pushkin Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moravia, A. (1945). Agostino. Milano: Bompiani.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1982). Two Adolescents. New York: Playboy Paperbacks.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nash, P. (1961). Training an elite. The prefect-fagging system in the English public school. History of Education Quarterly, 1(1), 14–21. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Parsons, T. (1999). Man and boy. 1999. London: Harper Collins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pasolini, P. P. (1955). Ragazzi di vita. Roma: Garzanti.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2016). The street kids. Translated by A. Goldstein. New York: Europa Editions.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pavese, C. (1948). La casa in collina. Torino: Einaudi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2021). The house on the hill. Translated by T. Parks. London: Penguin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pflugfelder, G. (1999). Cartographies of desire. Male-male sexuality in Japanese discourse, 1600–1950. Berkley: University of California Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2012). The nation-state, the age/gender system, and the reconstitution of erotic desire in nineteenth-century Japan. The Journal of Asian Studies, 71(4), 963–974. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rowling, J. K. (1997). Harry Potter and the philosopher’s stone. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2018). Harry Potter e la pietra filosofale. Translated by S. Bartezzaghi. Milano: Salani Editore.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Saikaku, I. (1990 [1687]). The great mirror of male love. Translated by P. G. Schalow. Stanford: Stanford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wierzbicka, A. (1972). Semantic primitives. Frankfurt: Athenäum-Verl.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1980). Lingua mentalis. Sydney: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(1996). Semantic primes and universals. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
(2004). The English expressions good boy and good girl and cultural modes of child-rearing. Culture and Psychology, 10(3), 251–278. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ye, Z. (Ed.). (2017). The semantics of nouns. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue