Gestural idioms in Italian and English: a contrastive analysis
Author(s)
Date Issued
2020
Type
bookPart
Start Page
61
End Page
74
Abstract
This paper proposes a contrastive study of Italian and English gestural idioms, i.e. that describe gestures. The analysis of 568 Italian gestural idioms shows that 60% of them have an English equivalent (e.g., it. incrociare le dita, lit. to cross one’s fingers, and eng. to cross one’s fingers, it. girarsi i pollici, lit. to turn one’s thumbs, and eng. to twiddle one’s thumbs). The highest rate of equivalence is found in idioms referring to expressions and eye movements, and in idioms that have a metaphorical meaning. The results of the analysis are discussed in detail and a possible explanation of the data is presented.