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Article published In: Languages in Contrast
Vol. 25:2 (2025) ► pp.157–184

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A contrastive analysis of English deverbal -er synthetic compounds and their Italian equivalents

ORCiD logo with link | University of Pisa (Italy)
Published online: 1 February 2024
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/lic.23005.mat
Abstract
This study deals with English synthetic compounds ending in -er, such as heartbreaker, time-killer, and bodybuilder, and their Italian equivalents. Synthetic compounds are very productive in Germanic languages (e.g. E. heartbreaker, G. Herzensbrecher, D. hartenbreker), but virtually absent in Romance languages, where various morphological forms and word-formation strategies are used to render the same concepts (cf. It. rubacuori, Sp. rompecorazones, Fr. tombeur). The analysis of English synthetic compounds still remains a controversial topic in morphological accounts, with a lively theoretical debate between two mutually exclusive hypotheses, i.e. whether synthetic compounds have to be analyzed as derivations (i.e. [[heart break] [-er]]) or as compounds (i.e. [[heart] [break-er]]). In word-formation, they are part of transitional morphology, i.e. they have an ambivalent status between derivation and compounding. This study explores a collection of about 100 English synthetic compounds drawn from the English Lexicon Project database and compares them with their possible Italian renditions. The contrastive analysis mainly aims at highlighting differences between the two morphological systems (cf. E. time-killer/It. passatempo). Moreover, the study examines the translation procedures used to render English synthetic compounds in OPUS2 Italian. Corpus-based results confirm that English and Italian display language-specific constructions which may result in mis- or under-translation.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
  • 3.Data collection and methodology
    • 3.1Dataset
    • 3.2Methodology
  • 4.Contrastive analysis of SCs
    • 4.1Lexicographic and morphological investigation
      • 4.1.1Derived words
      • 4.1.2Compound words
      • 4.1.3Phrases/paraphrases
    • 4.2Illustration of translation procedures in the OPUS2 parallel corpus
      • 4.2.1Borrowing
      • 4.2.2aSemantic calque
      • 4.2.2bMorphological calque
      • 4.2.3Literal translation
      • 4.2.4Transposition
      • 4.2.5Modulation
      • 4.2.6aExpansion
      • 4.2.6bReduction
      • 4.2.7Equivalence
      • 4.2.8Adaptation
    • 4.3Quantitative analysis of translation procedures in the OPUS2 parallel corpus
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
  • Online dictionaries
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