Verde: Italiano, inglese e sloveno tra simbologia e fraseologia

Helena Bažec

doi:10.4312/linguistica.65.1.27-43

Authors

Helena Bažec University of Primorska, Koper, Slovenia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4312/linguistica.65.1.27-43

Keywords:

contrastive phraseology, English, green, Italian, Slovene

Abstract

The article presents a contrastive analysis of phraseological units containing the chromonym zelen in Slovene, verde in Italian and green in English, with the aim of determining the extent to which the three languages overlap. The study combines an etymological, symbolic, and semantic comparison and includes both synchronic and diachronic perspectives. The research corpus consists of over sixty units collected from dictionaries, language corpora, and phraseological sources. These units were classified and analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The results show that English is the most productive language in terms of the number of phraseological units, followed by Italian and Slovene. Although the word for green has a different etymology in each of the three languages, they share several universal connotations, mainly related to nature, youth, freshness, as well as with negative physical (illness) or emotional states (envy), which, however, are not always realised phraseologically. The quantitative analysis reveals a low level of overlap (7.7%), confirming that most phraseological units are culturally and linguistically specific. The study also demonstrates a marked influence of contemporary English on Slovene and Italian phraseology, whereas geographical contact between Slovene and Italian does not statistically correspond to a higher degree of similarity compared to English, which has no direct geographical connection to either. The research also highlights the importance of combining lexicographic and corpus-based sources in order to obtain a comprehensive phraseological inventory.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Fonti primarie

AYTO, John (2020) The Oxford Dictionary of Idioms. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Cambridge Dictionary | English Dictionary. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/ <5 settembre> 2023.

Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana (DELI). https://www.etimo.it/ <20 marzo 2025>

eSSKJ: slovar slovenskega knjižnega jezika. https://fran.si/201/esskj-slovar-slovenskega-knjiznega-jezika/ <12 luglio 2025>

GLONAR, Joža (1936) Slovar slovenskega jezika. http://www.dlib.si <28 giugno 2025>

itWAC. https://www.clarin.si/ske/#dashboard?corpname=itwac <15 luglio 2025>

KEBER, Janez (2011) Slovar slovenskih frazemov. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC, ZRC SAZU.

Korpus Gigafida (CJVT). https://viri.cjvt.si/kolokacije/slv/ <13 giugno 2025>

KROONEN, Gus (2013) Etymological dictionary of Proto-Germanic. Leiden: Brill.

LAPUCCI, Carlo (2007) Dizionario dei proverbi italiani. Milano: Mondadori.

LURATI, Ottorino (2001) Dizionario dei modi di dire. Milano: Garzanti.

METERC, Matej (2020) Slovar pregovorov in sorodnih paremioloških izrazov. Ljubljana: ZRC SAZU.

Pleteršnikov slovensko-nemški slovar. http://bos.zrc-sazu.si/pletersnik.html <3 maggio 2025>

QUARTU, Monica (2012) Dizionario dei modi di dire della lingua italiana. Milano: Ulrico Hoepli Editore.

SNOJ, Marko (2015) Slovenski etimološki slovar. Ljubljana: Založba ZRC SAZU.

SPEAKE, Jennifer (2008) Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). www.english-corpora.org/coca/ <17 giugno 2025>

The Oxford English Dictionary. https://www.oed.com/ <4 dicembre 2025>

TITELMAN, Gregory (2000) Random House Dictionary of Popular Proverbs and Sayings. New York: Random House.

TURRINI, Giovanna (1995) Capire l’antifona: dizionario dei modi di dire con esempi d’autore. Bologna: Zanichelli.

UkWac complete. https://bellatrix.sslmit.unibo.it/noske/public. <7 marzo 2025>

Vocabolario Treccani Online. http://www.treccani.it/vocabolario/ <10 febbraio 2025>

*****

Bibliografia

ALLAN, Keith (2009) «The connotations of English colour terms: Colour-based X-phemisms.» Journal of Pragmatics 41, 626–637.

ALOUSQUE NEGRO, Isabel (2011). «A Semantic and Pragmatic Analysis of English Colour Idioms.» Babel – AFIAL: Aspectos de Filoloxía Inglesa e Alemá 20, 149–162.

ANDERSON, Wendy (2014) Colour Studies: A Broad Spectrum. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

APRILE, Marcello (2015) Dalle parole ai dizionari. Bologna: il Mulino.

BECCARIA, Gian Luigi (1999) Dizionario di linguistica. Torino: Einaudi.

BERLIN, Brent/Paul KAY (1969) Basic Color Terms: Their Universality and Evolution. Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press.

BURGER, Harald (a cura di) (2007). Phraseology: An international handbook of contemporary research. Berlin: De Gruyter.

CINI, Monica (2005) «La fraseologia tra teoria e pratica lessicografica.» Studi di lessicografia italiana 22, 283–318.

COWIE, Anthony Paul (1998) Phraseology: Theory, analysis and applications. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

DI CARLO, Miriam (2022) Mettiamo le carte in tavola! O sul tavolo? https://accade-miadellacrusca.it/it/consulenza/mettiamo-le-carte-in-tavola-o-sul-tavolo/18168 <3 luglio 2025>

DI FILIPPO, Marina (2020) «Cromonimi e indeterminatezza. Uno studio contrastivo russo-italiano.» In: O. Inkova/M.Nowakowska/S. Scarpel (a cura di) Systèmes linguistiques Et textes en contraste Études de linguistique slavo-romane. Cracovia: Wydawnictwo Naukowe UP, 177–192.

DJALILOVA, Sarvaroy M./Parvina T. ABDULLAYEVA (2024). «Phraseological worldview through the prism of color semantics: A comparative study of Uzbek and Spanish languages.» International Journal of Research Publication and Reviews 5/2, 12–14.

DOBROVOL’SKIJ, Dmitrij (1999) «On the Cross-Linguistic Equivalence of Idioms.» In: C. Beedham (a cura di), Langue and Parole in Synchronic and Diachronic Perspective. Selected Proceedings of the 31st Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europea, St. Andrews, Amsterdam/Oxford: Elsevier, 203–219.

DOBROVOL’SKIJ, Dmitrij/Elisabeth PIIRAINEN (2005) Figurative Language: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Linguistic Perspectives. Oxford: Elsevier.

DOYNIKOVA, Marina (2024) Features of the semantics of the grün color designation component in German phraseology. https://ssrn.com/abstract=5023941 <14 novembre 2024>

FINEGAN, Edward (2008) Language: its structure and use. Boston: Thomson Wadsworth.

FRANKLIN, Anna (2002) The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Fairies. London: Paper Tiger.

GRANDI, Nicola (2003) Fondamenti di tipologia linguistica. Roma: Carocci.

GROSSMANN, Maria (1988) Colori e lessico: studi sulla struttura semantica degli aggettivi di colore in catalano, castigliano, italiano, romeno, latino ed ungherese. Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.

GUNDERSHEIMER, Werner (1993) «‘The Green-Eyed Monster’: Renaissance Conceptions of Jealousy.» Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 137/3, 321–331.

ISHIDA, Priscilla (2008) «Japanese and English idioms of anger: A contrastive study.» In: M. Skovgaard-Petersen/K. Okada (a cura di), Idioms: Structural and pragmatic perspectives. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 205–222

KAC, Urša (2018) «Leksem kruh in njegove tvorjenke v specializiranih in splošnih slovarskih ter korpusnih virih.» Jezikoslovni zapiski 24/1, 103–115.

KAY, Paul/Luisa MAFFI (1999) «Color appearance and the emergence and evolution of basic color lexicons.» American anthropologist 101/4, 743–760.

KIGEL, Tali (2021) «Contrastive analysis of English, Russian, and Hebrew Green idioms.» In: A. F. Petrenko (a cura di), Russkoe slovo v mezhdunarodnom obrazovatel’nom prostranstve: istoriia i sovremennost’. Materialy Mezhdunarodnoĭ nauchno-prakticheskoĭ konferentsii. Piatigorsk: PGU, 76–82.

KIGEL, Tali (2022) «Contrastive analysis of English, Russian, and Hebrew color idioms.» European Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics Studies 6/2, 39–53.

KOVAČEV, Asja Nina (1997) Govorica barv. Ljubljana: Prešernova družba.

KULICHENKO, Yulia Nikolaevna/Ekaterina Mikhailovna KOROLEVSKAYA (2020) «The symbolism of the color green in the phraseological worldview: A comparative perspective (based on material from Russian, English, German, and Italian).» Issues of Theory and Practice 8/110, 197–200.

KUUSI, Matti (1972) Towards an International Type-System of Proverbs. Helsinki: Finnish Academy of Science and Letters.

La Sacra Bibbia. 20 giugno 2025. https://www.vatican.va/archive/ITA0001/_INDEX.HTM

LAUHAKANGAS, Outi (2001) The Matti Kuusi International Type System of Proverbs. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia.

LURATI, Ottorino (2002) Per modo di dire: storia della lingua e antropologia nelle locuzioni italiane ed europee. Bologna: CLUEB.

MEL’ČUK, Igor (1995) «Phrasemes in language and phraseology in linguistics.» In: M. Everaert/E. van der Linden/A. Schenk/R. Schreuder (a cura di), Idioms. Structural and Psychological Perspectives. New York: Psychology Press, 167–232.

MIEDER, Wolfgang (2004) Proverbs: A handbook. Westport: Greenwood Press.

MOLLICA, Fabio/Paola COTTA RAMUSINO (2020) Contrastive Phraseology: Languages and Cultures in Comparison. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

MUSEK, Janez (1990) Simboli, kultura, ljudje. Ljubljana: Znanstveni inštitut Filozofske fakultete.

O’CONNOR, Mark/Raje AIREY (2007) Symbols, Signs and Visual Codes. London: Southwater.

OVIDIO (1990) Le Metamorfosi. Trad. G. B. Conte. Milano: BUR.

PAGANI, Caroline (2001) «Le variazioni antropologico-culturali dei significati simbolici dei colori.» Leitmotiv 1, 175–197.

PHILIP, Gill (2011) Colouring meaning. Collocation and connotation in figurative language. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

PIIRAINEN, Elisabeth (2012) Widespread idioms in Europe and beyond: toward a lexicon of common figurative units. New York: Peter Lang.

SKUZA, Sylwia (2014) Rosso, giallo, blu: un’analisi etnolinguistica sui colori primari in italiano e in polacco in prospettiva sincronica e diacronica. Toruń: Nicolaus Copernicus University Press.

STANIČ, Daša (2012) «Il bianco e il nero nella fraseologia italiana e spagnola.» Vestnik za tuje jezike 4/1-2, 43–59.

TAJANI, Filippo (1944) Storia delle ferrovie italiane: A cento anni dall’apertura della prima linea. Milano: Garzanti.

TRESIDDER, Jack (1998) A Dictionary of Symbols: An Illustrated Guide to Traditional Images, Icons, and Emblems. San Francisco: Chronicle Books.

VACCARELLI, Francesca (2012) «Colour metaphors and metonymies in business English domain: a corpus-based analysis.» The Journal of Cultural Mediation 2, 7–34.

VEDUTA, Ol’ga Vital’evna (2019) «Symbolic saturation of the color designation green in English idioms.» Voprosy teorii i praktiki 12/3, 11–14.