Russo e italiano nei contatti linguistici: immagini riflesse

Abstract

The paper aims to enlighten the image of Italy through Russian and the image of Russia through Italian in the mutual lexical input of languages. Language contacts affect borrowing words from a language-donor by a recipient language; the choice of loan words can tell something about the donor to the recipient. The analysis was based on the data of dictionaries and on the experimental inquiry. As dictionaries show, loan words pertain mostly to the passive lexicon of a recipient language, though in different proportions in Russian and in Italian. The results of experiment reveal active lexical items which create the respective stereotype images; they can focus on the spheres of nowadays interest and can serve as labels for tourist business.