The author explains the seemingly illogical masculine gender of the Italian compound “il database” (1979), a loanword from the English «database» (c. 1962), with several principles (set out in descending order of importance): a) the Italian equivalent of the head of the compound noun («-base» translated as the masculine ‘archivio’, rather than the feminine ‘base’), b) the phonological pressure of lexemes ending in consonants, which are 85.3% masculine, c) the default gender, d) the paradigmatic pressure of about 20 compounds starting with data- all of which are masculine. The vitality of the English loan-word in Italian contrasts with the almost total absence of the same compound in French, Spanish, Portuguese and German, which prefer the loan translation (Fr. fem. la base de données, Sp. fem. la base de datos, Port. fem. a base de dados.; Germ. fem. die Datenbasis and die Data base, and so on). The feminine is likewise used for the It. la databank (1987) (‘banca dati’) from the English «data bank» (1966); Fr. fem. la banque de données, Sp. masc. el banco de datos with masc. el databank s.m., Port. masc. o banco de dados, and Germ. fem. die Datenbank.
L’A. spiega il genere grammaticale del composto il database 1979 (dall’inglese 1962 c.), ‘illogicisticamente’ maschile, con più motivazioni concorrenziali di diverso peso gerarchico: a) il traducente italiano della testa del composto (-Base ‘archivio’ s.m., anziché ‘base’ s.f.), b) la pressione fonologica delle parole terminanti in consonante (l’85,3% maschili), c) il genere di default, d) la pressione paradigmatica dei circa 20 composti con data- (tutti al masch.). La vitalità del prestito ingl. in italiano contrasta con la scarsa presenza di tale composto in fr., spagn., port. e ted., in cui si preferisce nettamente il calco (fr. base de données s.f., sp. base de datos s.f., port. base de dados s.f.; ted. Datenbasis s.f., ecc. accanto a Database s.f.). Analogamente per il composto databank s.f. ‘banca dati’ (1987) (dall’ingl. 1966); fr. banque de données s.f., sp. banco de datos s.m. accanto a databank s.m., port. banco de dados s.m., e ted. Datenbank s.f.
Il "data base": un maschile di solidarietà?
SGROI, Salvatore
2009-01-01
Abstract
The author explains the seemingly illogical masculine gender of the Italian compound “il database” (1979), a loanword from the English «database» (c. 1962), with several principles (set out in descending order of importance): a) the Italian equivalent of the head of the compound noun («-base» translated as the masculine ‘archivio’, rather than the feminine ‘base’), b) the phonological pressure of lexemes ending in consonants, which are 85.3% masculine, c) the default gender, d) the paradigmatic pressure of about 20 compounds starting with data- all of which are masculine. The vitality of the English loan-word in Italian contrasts with the almost total absence of the same compound in French, Spanish, Portuguese and German, which prefer the loan translation (Fr. fem. la base de données, Sp. fem. la base de datos, Port. fem. a base de dados.; Germ. fem. die Datenbasis and die Data base, and so on). The feminine is likewise used for the It. la databank (1987) (‘banca dati’) from the English «data bank» (1966); Fr. fem. la banque de données, Sp. masc. el banco de datos with masc. el databank s.m., Port. masc. o banco de dados, and Germ. fem. die Datenbank.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
