In this paper we investigate two linguistic and financial systems and consequently two cultures by analysing the pay-with-plastic system on both sides of the Atlantic, focusing our research on two expressions, i.e. credit card and carta di credito contained in EIFECO (English and Italian Financial and Economic Corpus), a bilingual comparable corpus assembled at the University of Foggia. The texts in EIFECO come from The Economist for the English data and from Il Sole 24 Ore for the Italian. In this study we find unexpected and substantial differences in the behavior of two supposedly ‘true friends’ usually believed to be direct equivalents from a denotative point of view. After analysing the concept of equivalence and equivalent effect, we endeavor to find the best equivalent expression that might convey the spirit and manner of the source language and might produce a similar response in both users. Beyond the formal equivalence of the two payment systems taken into consideration, we try to find what Nida terms “dynamic equivalence”, or the principle of “equivalent effect” (Nida 1964). Our aim is to show that although some words sound and look the same, they convey different meanings, and traditional reference books do not seem to be suitable for capturing and relaying the nuances of meaning and function of given fixed expressions across languages and cultures.
A contrastive analysis of English and Italian financial lexis: the pay-with-plastic system
MILIZIA, DENISE
2004-01-01
Abstract
In this paper we investigate two linguistic and financial systems and consequently two cultures by analysing the pay-with-plastic system on both sides of the Atlantic, focusing our research on two expressions, i.e. credit card and carta di credito contained in EIFECO (English and Italian Financial and Economic Corpus), a bilingual comparable corpus assembled at the University of Foggia. The texts in EIFECO come from The Economist for the English data and from Il Sole 24 Ore for the Italian. In this study we find unexpected and substantial differences in the behavior of two supposedly ‘true friends’ usually believed to be direct equivalents from a denotative point of view. After analysing the concept of equivalence and equivalent effect, we endeavor to find the best equivalent expression that might convey the spirit and manner of the source language and might produce a similar response in both users. Beyond the formal equivalence of the two payment systems taken into consideration, we try to find what Nida terms “dynamic equivalence”, or the principle of “equivalent effect” (Nida 1964). Our aim is to show that although some words sound and look the same, they convey different meanings, and traditional reference books do not seem to be suitable for capturing and relaying the nuances of meaning and function of given fixed expressions across languages and cultures.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
