Italian sounding e italiano LS. L’italiano nella marchionimia e nei paesaggi linguistici tedeschi

Abstract

This thesis is based on the result of an industrial PhD project. It aims at investigating the presence of Italian in German brand names and linguistic landscapes, analysing their linguistic and semiotic-value trends. The research is based on a corpus of 767 entries, the Marschilia, divided into two sub-corpora: the Marcor, which contains 434 brand names, and the Schilcor, which contains 333 sign names, collected in 3 German Länder (Berlin, Bayern, Saarland). The aim of the database is, on the one hand, to analyse the naming and semiotic-value trends that characterise the phenomenon of pseudo-Italian brand naming in Germany, and, on the other hand, to offer a reservoir of didactic material to be used in Italian teaching. The first three chapters present the theoretical framework of reference and the fields of study in which the research is embedded: advertising language and brand naming, linguistic landscapes, studies on Italianism and on the prestige of Italian in the global public sphere. Chapter 3, in particular, outlines the historical and cultural context in which the striking presence of Italian in the global and German public spheres is explained: Italian, as the nineteenth language in the world by number of native speakers, is one of the most widespread languages in global branding and, after English, the most visible in global linguistic landscapes (Bagna / Barni 2007). Made in Italy, as a whole, is the third best known brand in the world (KPMG Advisory 2011). A vast range of imitations has been built around it, as a reflection of its success and as an effect of the willingness of foreign companies to take advantage of its recognised prestige. This refers to the so-called Italian sounding brands (in linguistic and semiotic terminology, brands with an italianising or pseudo-Italian name), i.e. brands that refer, in the name and in the semiotics of the brand, to an Italian character that is not reflected in the product. Germany, in particular, is at the top of the list both in terms of appreciation of the Made in Italy and in the spread of the parallel phenomenon of Italian sounding/pseudo-Italian products. Chapter 4 is dedicated to the description of the theoretical framework in which the morphosyntactic analysis of brand names is inserted, that is, extragrammatical morphology, a recent line of research that aims at analysing and placing within the linguistic theory word formation processes that have expressive, poetic or brevity purposes, which appear to diverge from the normal morphosyntactic processes. Chapters 5, 6 and 7 constitute the descriptive core of the phenomenon of Italianising brand names. Chapter 5 is dedicated to an examination of the areas in which the phenomenon of pseudo-Italian brand naming is observed, of the main functions of Italian in the commercial sphere and of its relationship with the other Romance languages and with Latin. Chapter 6 analyses the main formal and semantic aspects identified in the corpus of the brand names: the tendency to use phonosymbolism, in particular phonosymbolic effects evoking femininity, and the importance of "euphony" understood as obedience to the laws of preference for syllabic structure (Vennemann 1988). Chapter 7 constitutes a statistical analysis of trends in the morphosyntactic structure of brand names and sign names. Chapter 8 examines the role of Italian in organic food and cosmetics sectors, which is an evolution of the functions exercised in other sectors, making Italian - and italianising prosody - a catalyst of euphoric values of pleasure, delicacy and femininity. The prestige of Italian, linked to the cultural hegemony exercised from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance period to Italy as a destination for the Grand Tour in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and to the presence of Italian in the global public sphere, is at the base of its remarkable expansion as a language of study. According to the survey by De Mauro et al. (2002), Italian is the language most chosen as the fourth language of learning in the world.

The position of Italian as a foreign language is quite peculiar in the "language market" (Calvet 2002), since the main factor behind the choice, as indicated by surveys such as Giovanardi / Trifone (2012), is the cultural/existential motivation: a fact that contrasts with the preponderance usually attributed to factors of a political-economic nature. This fact is fundamental in the elaboration of strategies for teaching Italian as a foreign language. Chapters 9 and 10 illustrate the results of two parallel teaching experiments, the first carried out in the teaching of Italian as a foreign language at Humboldt Universität in Berlin, and the second in German language courses at the University of Salerno, in the context of Italian teacher training. In both experiences, the use of didactic materials from Marschilia was experimented with the

aim of providing students with interpretative, linguistic and semiotic tools, and a historical- cultural reading key, which would enable them to break down the advertising narrative into

its fundamental elements and to identify the signs of 'Italianness' that constitute the intangible value of the products. The ultimate aim of the work is the connection between the cultural and economic perspectives and between cultural institutions and corporate realities, in order to offer ideas for an industrial renaissance guided by culture and the expansion of Italian as a foreign language. [edited by Author]