Syntagmatic Verbs in bilingual vocabularies: a comparative overview

When we speak of phrasal verbs we think at English phrasal verbs. In this language, in fact, this kind of structure is frequent and, above all, largely studied. Recently the interest for similar structures has led to individuate also in Italian - in which this kind of verbal formation is numerous more than in the other neo-Latin European languages - a considerable amount of linguistic constructions consisting in a head verb plus a modifier (generally an adverb). These structures (we will call them hence forth Syntagmatic Verbs) are characterised by a high cohesion and by a low separability and generally distribute their entire meaning - which is often totally or partially idiomatic- among the two elements. For example the formation tirare su in its compositional sense means to raise, to hold up (tira su quel libro da terra - hold that book up from the floor) but can assume idiomatic value with various graduation in the sense of building up (hanno tirato su la casa in tre settimane- the house has been built in three weeks) or in the sense of bringing up (ha tirato su tre figli da sola- she has brought up three children by herself). Our corpus counts 270 syntagmatic verbs collected in new Italian dictionaries (Gradit 2000; Zingarelli 2005). During the collection of data we realised that the lexicographic treatment of these formations is insufficient and not homogeneous. Just let us observe the case of the verb tirare. In Zingarelli 2005 it is defined as: spostare da un luogo o da una posizione; and explained in different contexts as: tirare su qlcu. = alzarlo, sollevarlo da terra, or (fig.) = aiutarlo a superare una crisi fisica, morale o economica; tirare su un bambino, allevarlo, dargli un'educazione; and also (fam.) tirare su col naso. From these examples it is evident that the verbal structures we are investigating, appear in dictionaries as particular cases of the head verb both for their construction and for their meaning. A fortiori in bilingual dictionaries, the reperibility and the definition of the syntagmatic verbs is totally inadequate, above all for what concerns the communicative information. Let's consider once again the case of tirare su. In the French-Italian dictionary (Boch 1992) the locution tirare su, in the sense of allevare- bringing up, is present only in the Italian-French part. Here it is followed by a suitable context and a corresponding example in French: tirare su bene i propri figli - élever ses enfants. In the French-Italian part, on the contrary, the entry élever, corresponds to the Italian verb allevare. At the French entry, then, corresponds only the synthetic verb allevare and there is no indications for any other translation possibility, such as the syntagmatic verb tirare su. Similarly also in the Italian section of the dictionary, there is a lack of information both from a semantic and a pragmatic point of view. Other bilingual vocabularies appear more efficient. The English-Italian vocabulary Hazon (1990), for instance, in its Italian section, presents, within the voice tirare, also the s.v. tirare su, meaning: to pull up; or to pick up: tira su quel pezzo di carta dal pavimento - pick up that piece of paper from the floor [...]. Hazon attests also contexts like tirare su un muro - to build a wall; or tirare su un bambino - to bring up a child; and finally le vacanze l'hanno tirato su - the holidays have set him up again. In the English section, on the contrary, corresponding to the verb entry build or bring up there is no mention of the Italian syntagmatic verb tirare su, but only its synthetic correspondents costruire, edificare and allevare, crescere. In this talk, after an attentive analysis of the lexicographic treatment of the syntagmatic verbs in Italian-English a