Il Corpus parallelo italiano-russo per lo studio del causativo in chiave contrastiva
abstract
In this paper I will show how a parallel corpus can be used to compare Russian and Italian causative constructions. While the first is mainly lexical, causation in Italian is almost exclusively expressed through the construction ‘make + infinitive’. This corpus-based analysis will show, on the one hand, how Italian causative often loses its primary function and, on the other, how Russian, that does not always mark the opposition between direct and indirect causation, could be ambiguous when expressing the actants of a given causative situation. This confirms, once again, the predominantly synthetic nature of Russian compared to Italian.
Keywords: Causation • Causative verbs • Italian verb ‘fare’ • Corpus-based contrastive analysis • Parallel corpora