From Spanish <estar + gerund> to Italian <stare + gerund>. When teaching to unlearn is needed

The Spanish periphrasis is formally similar to Italian but has a wider range of aspectual values (it can express durativity, in addition to progressivity) and is compatible with more tenses (perfectives, in addition to imperfectives). As an effect of transfer, L1Spanish learners of Italian often use to express durativity and combine it with perfective tenses, thus producing incorrect utterances like *Sono stato studiando. In this paper we report an acquisitional study which reveals that input exposure, intensity of L2 use, and non-focused instruction may not be sufficient to pre-empt the transfer and unlearn the erroneous uses of the periphrasis. Based on this result, we propose that a focused teaching intervention is needed. A small-scale pedagogical study based on a Cognitive Linguistics inspired teaching approach gives encouraging results. Die spanische Periphrase ist strukturell ähnlich wie die italienische Periphrase , bietet aber eine größere Bandbreite an Aspektfunktionen (sie kann neben Progressivität auch Dauer ausdrücken) und ist mit mehreren Zeitformen (zusätzlich zu imperfek-tiven auch perfektiven Zeitformen) kombinierbar. In diesem Artikel berichten wir über eine Fremd-spracherwerbstudie, die zeigt, dass die Input-Exposition, die Anwendungsintensität der L2 ohne die Anwendung von noticing Strategien möglicherweise nicht ausreichen, um der negative Transfer zu verhindern und die fehlerhafte Anwendung der Periphrase zu verlernen. Auf Basis dieses Ergebnisses wird eine Intervention vorgeschlagen, die auf den Einsatz von noticing Strategien setzt. Eine aus einem kleinem Sampling basierten didaktische Studie, die auf einen von der kognitiven Linguistik inspirierten Lehransatz gründet, liefert bereits vielversprechende Ergebnisse

D7.1. Criteria for evaluation of resources, technology and integration.

This deliverable defines how evaluation is carried out at each integration cycle in the PANACEA project. As PANACEA aims at producing large scale resources, evaluation becomes a critical and challenging issue. Critical because it is important to assess the quality of the results that should be delivered to users. Challenging because we prospect rather new areas, and through a technical platform: some new methodologies will have to be explored or old ones to be adapted

Synaesthetic metaphors in translation

Many studies have been devoted to the analysis of synaesthesia within individual lan- guages, and to the description of properties shared by synaesthetic transfers in di erent languages. On the contrary, studies on the translation of synaesthesia from one lan- guage into another seem to be lacking. is article focuses precisely on this issue. e theoretical discussion is supported by the analysis of the translation of S\ufcskind\u2019s novel Das Parfum, which includes many occurrences of synaesthesia, into three languages. rough the analysis of relevant examples, it is shown that the choices made by the translators \u2013 ranging from word-by-word reproduction of the synaesthesia to its dele- tion \u2013 correlate with the type of synaesthesia to be translated. While for creative syna- esthesia (e.g., rundes Parfum) a word-by-word translation usually works, conventional synaesthesia (e.g., scharf ansehen) can be more challenging, and other strategies have to be found. e behaviour of synaesthesia in translation therefore seems to parallel that of other types of metaphors

La linguistica e le lingue

La linguistica esplora la complessit\ue0 del linguaggio umano e delle lingue che quotidianamente usiamo per comunicare. Il libro percorre in modo sintetico e con grande chiarezza le principali articolazioni della disciplina, dallo studio dei suoni linguistici a quello delle parole e delle frasi; e delle lingue esamina pi\uf9 in generale il funzionamento e l\u2019uso. Gli argomenti sono inizialmente illustrati per lo pi\uf9 con esempi di italiano, ma lo sguardo si allarga poi ad altre lingue, affinch\ue9 il lettore possa acquisire una maggiore consapevolezza degli aspetti che le distinguono le une dalle altre o che, al contrario, le accomunano. Per le sue caratteristiche, il testo \ue8 accessibile a chi affronti per la prima volta la materia e voglia farsene un\u2019idea d\u2019insieme

Sembra ma non \ue8. Studio semantico-lessicale sui verbi con completamento predicativo

Attraverso una riflessione sul complesso rapporto fra verbi e predicazione, questo lavoro propone di definire i verbi con complemento predicativo come verbi predicativi che necessitano, per descrivere un evento, dell'ausilio di un predicato non verbale, riferito al soggetto o all'oggetto. Un'analisi dettagliata, basata su dati estratti da corpora, permette di individuare i criteri per una classificazione originale, in cui \ue8 secondaria la dicotomia fra verbi transitivi e intransitivi, e che guarda invece al tipo di evento delineato dal verbo e al ruolo giocato dal c. pred. Sono cos\uec individuate due macroclassi: eventi semplici ed eventi complessi. Per gli eventi semplici (stativi; verbo e c. pred. sono predicazioni temporalmente coincidenti, es.: sembrare, ritenere), l'analisi si concentra sulla semantica dei singoli verbi, che spazia principalmente fra modalit\ue0 epistemica ed evidenzialit\ue0. Gli eventi complessi (dove verbo e c. pred. codificano due subeventi ordinati fra loro temporalmente, es.: diventare, rendere) sono invece efficacemente descritti in base alla teoria del Lessico Generativo, che consente un'analisi fine della struttura dell'evento e dei rapporti fra i subeventi

Synesth\ue9sies. Croisements des sens entre langage et perception

Cet article porte sur la synesth\ue9sie, une figure par laquelle diff\ue9rentes modalit\ue9s sensorielles sont associ\ue9es dans leur expression linguistique. Lorsque l\u2019on dit par exemple qu\u2019une musique est douce, on caract\ue9rise une exp\ue9rience auditive (musique) par une propri\ue9t\ue9 (douce) qui se r\ue9f\ue8re normalement au go\ufbt, voire au toucher. Le terme synesth\ue9sie est \ue9galement employ\ue9 \ue0 propos des associations \uab exceptionnelles \ubb des sens qui se v\ue9rifient dans l\u2019exp\ue9rience perceptive de certains individus, qui, par exemple, en \ue9coutant une m\ue9lodie, peuvent avoir une perception visuelle de couleur associ\ue9e aux sons. Apr\ue8s une introduction synth\ue9tique \ue0 la synesth\ue9sie prise dans cette derni\ue8re acception, c\u2019est-\ue0-dire comme ph\ue9nom\ue8ne neuropsychologique (\ua7 2), l\u2019article se concentrera sur la synesth\ue9sie linguistique. Nous introduirons des \ue9tudes qui ont observ\ue9 des pr\ue9f\ue9rences claires pour ce qui concerne les associations des sens (\ua7 3), et une possible explication sera discut\ue9e (\ua7 4). Les propri\ue9t\ue9s de la perception humaine sembleraient jouer un r\uf4le dans ces pr\ue9f\ue9rences, et quelques \ue9tudes ont m\ueame propos\ue9 l\u2019existence d\u2019une connexion entre synesth\ue9sie linguistique et neuropsychologique (\ua7 5). Nous montrerons qu\u2019il faut distinguer plusieurs types de synesth\ue9sie linguistique, tr\ue8s diff\ue9rents entre eux (\ua7 6). Cela permettra de montrer qu\u2019une explication (en partie) li\ue9e \ue0 la perception ne peut \ueatre envisag\ue9e que pour un des sous-types de synesth\ue9sie linguistique (\ua7 7). Quant \ue0 la synesth\ue9sie neuropsychologique, de tr\ue8s fortes raisons sugg\ue8rent de r\ue9sister \ue0 la tentation d\u2019y voir des ressemblances ou encore des connexions avec la synesth\ue9sie linguistique

Constructing judgments: The interaction between adjectives and clausal complements in Italian

This paper puts forward a corpus-based analysis of two constructions in Italian: \u201cV + ADJ + infinitive clause\u201d and \u201cV + ADJ + che (\u2018that\u2019) clause\u201d. Some verbs, such as essere (\u2018be\u2019) and sembrare (\u2018seem\u2019) occur in both constructions; in addition, many adjectives can appear in the predicative complement position of both constructions. The che- clause and the infinitive construction are apparently semantically similar, both express- ing a judgment or an attitude (codified by the adjective) toward the content of the sub- ject clause. However, upon examining corpus data with a distinctive-collexeme analysis (Gries / Stefanowitsch 2004), subtle differences clearly emerge: the che-clause construc- tion tends to be associated with epistemic/evidential adjectives while the infinitive construction shows a stronger association with evaluative adjectives. As a result of the analysis, it can be stated that constructions appear to be characterized by a meaning (see Goldberg 2006), which can be influenced by lexical choices (adjectives, verbs, clitics)