I verbi generali italiani come sfida nella traduzione verso il tedesco L2 e l’ontologia IMAGACT come supporto

The article deals with the difficulty of translating Italian action verbs into German. In an empirical study it tests how the online ontology IMAGACT can help in this process, compared to a traditional bilingual dictionary. The translation of these verbs is problematic because Italian, as an exocentric language, following the term suggested by the Danish research group TYPOlex, prefers to express actions in general verbs, whilst German, as an endocentric language, prefers precise verbs that contain the MANNER component. The ontology IMAGACT contains about 1010 prototypical actions represented by video animations and the corresponding verbs in around 20 languages. With their help, the translation of Italian general verbs into German and their acquisition by learners can be facilitated. In an experiment with 22 Italian German students, who were divided in two groups, one using a traditional bilingual dictionary, one using IMAGACT, it could be demonstrated that the IMAGACT-group performed significantly better in the translation of simple Italian sentences with a general verb into German. The limitation of the resource to verbs and its deliberately reduced microstructure was criticized by the students, but could be balanced easily by combining it with other online resources.