Bĭsàbĭ o bĭsà? Interferenza ed integrazione lessicale in cinese: il lessico dell’alimentazione

Abstract

The article investigates and classifies the different types of lexical structure resulting in Modern Chinese (mainly in Mandarin) from contact with other linguistic traditions, particularly western traditions, in the lexical field of the “food and cuisine”. The study focuses on the process of formal and semantic adaptation that such forms undergo in order to be assimilated into Chinese lexicon. While taking into account credited approaches to the study of linguistic interference, such as the works by Gusmani (1981; 1983; 1986; 1387), and thee results of specific analyses of lexical interference in Chinese by Novotná (1967; 1969a; 1969b), Masini (1993) and Shi Youwei (2000), the present study both proposes reformulations of previous descriptive criteria and provides further typological categories necessary to a full understanding of the complex phenomenology of lexical interference in Chinese. In the last section of the paper a brief account is given of the role of linguistic and sociocultural factors underlying the processes of lexical interference and adaptation in modern Chinese vocabulary of food.