1. Complex lexically dense NPs as a feature of specialized langauges
Slightly dilated intrahepatic ducts
A severe hepatic artery stricture
An HTML editing programme
Document file icon
Private foreign investors
Exchange-rate policies
The continuing post-industrial transformation
The inner city rioting

2. Equivalents in Italian: lack of sistematicity
English Noun_Noun
antibiotic resistance
antibiotic treatment
Host DNA
Italian:
resistenza agli antibiotici (N_prep_N)
trattamento antibiotico (N_A)
DNA ospite (N_N)
substantial lack of sistematicity, with hardly predictable patterns across the two languages from the viewpoint of parts-of-speech.

3. Effect of the lack of one-to-one correspondence
Selectable marker > *Marcatore selezionabile?
Tissue culture > dei tessuti? tissutale?
Genome sequencing> Sequenziamento del genoma? Sequenziamento genomico?
DNA sequencing > sequenziamento del DNA no

4. Corpus check: selectable marker
1° step: look for possible equivalents (Linguee)

6. Checking against the Web as a corpus
Selectable marker: results
Marcatore di selezione: results
Marcatore genetico: results
Marcatore genico: 308 results

7. Noun_noun phrases Levi (1978)
Noun_noun phrases are the result of two types of process:
Predicate deletion
tear gas = gas that causes tears
Predicate nominalization
Cell decomposition (cell decompose)
Birth control (to control births)

8. N_N Eng > ? Italian generalizeable ‘rule’:
If a N-A (or more rarely N_N) pattern is possible in Italian, then that is the default option
NpN as a “second best”

10. Why? Tentative explanation:
N_A (or N-N) perceived as more lexicalized than N_prep_N
As scientific discourse aims at precision and monoreferentiality, a higher extent of lexicalization resembles more closely the one-term-for- each-referent ideal

11. Also register differences testify in favour of this explanation
In Italian if both N_A and N_prep_N are possible, N_A is (or is perceived) as more technical, hence more scientific
Nucleo cellulare vs nucleo della cellula
Latte vaccino vs latte di mucca
Carne avicola vs carne di pollo
Carne suina vs carne di maiale
Carne equina vs carne di cavallo

12. Other factors affecting N_A vs N_prep_N choice
textual distribution: N_A in headlines and topicalised (thematized) position

13. Huge ceremonies, known as ku
Huge ceremonies, known as ku.éex’ (literally meaning ‘invitation to a ceremony’), have punctuated their lives for thousands of years, marking special occasions with lavish home-cooked feasts, songs and gift giving. In this deep tradition to honour deaths, births, weddings, totem raisings and changes in social ranking, hosts would traditionally feed hundreds of guests and give away large sums of cash and gifts

14. Our motorboat left from the quaint yet burgeoning tourist-and-cruise hub of Ketchikan, Alaska, weaving past evergreen-covered mountains with their peaks obscured by the misty morning fog.
She led us to Totem Park, the site for which the former fishing camp and cannery hub is now most famous, to see Alaska’s larger collection of authentic totem poles

15. Orangutan squeaks reveal language evolution, says study
Dr Adriano Reis e Lameira from Durham University recorded and analysed almost 5,000 orangutan "kiss squeaks".
He found that the animals combined these purse-lipped, "consonant-like" calls to convey different messages.
This could be a glimpse of how our ancestors formed the earliest words.

16. With thousands of hours of listening as the apes communicated, the researchers found that the animals embedded several different bits of information in their squeaks.
The team compared this to how we might use more than one word to convey the same meaning - saying "car" but also "automobile" and "vehicle“.
"They seemed to make doubly sure that the message was received, so they would send the same message with different [kiss squeak combination] signals,"
The scientists say their study suggests that, rather than a concerted effort to form complex words, it might have been this "redundancy" - forming different sounds that had the same meaning, in order to reinforce a message - that drove early language evolution.
Dr Reis e Lameira added: "It's a way of making sure you don't end up in a game of Chinese whispers."

17. Translation task
Today is the first day of the European Flower Week, which will promote the EU's eco-label in nine European Countries. A wealth of different marketing activities aimed at consumers and events for children will take place, raising the profile of the Flower and showing people how to find products and services that have been awarded the prestigious European eco-label. Launched in 1992, the Flower certifies that a product complies with strict ecological criteria but also satisfies high performance standards. The Flower Week campaign is a co- operative venture involving retailers and producers, consumer and environmental groups and national authorities; activities range from competitions in schools to in-store advertising campaigns and fashion shows.
(EU Commission press release)

18. Translation task: make hypotheses as to the equivalents of the following noun phrases
Today is the first day of the European Flower Week, which will promote the EU's eco-label in nine European Countries. A wealth of different marketing activities aimed at consumers and events for children will take place, raising the profile of the Flower and showing people how to find products and services that have been awarded the prestigious European eco-label. Launched in 1992, the Flower certifies that a product complies with strict ecological criteria but also satisfies high performance standards. The Flower Week campaign is a co- operative venture involving retailers and producers, consumer and environmental groups and national authorities; activities range from competitions in schools to in-store advertising campaigns and fashion shows.
(EU Commission press release)

19. Check them against reference texts
Patricia Proia, dell’ Organismo Nazionale francese per l’Eco-label e presidentessa del gruppo di gestione del marketing (GGM), ci parla dell’evoluzione recente del Fiore e delle azioni che dovrebbero essere organizzate in futuro.
Patricia, hai diretto il gruppo di gestione negli ultimi tre anni e hai contribuito all’affermazione del Fiore (con un aumento del 130% delle imprese con marchio di qualità ecologica in tre anni). Secondo te, quali sono stati gli eventi più significativi di questo periodo?
Sicuramente l’evento di marketing più importante è stato la Campagna per la Settimana del Fiore europeo: per la prima volta in 10 anni è stata organizzata una campagna di comunicazione di tale portata, rivolta direttamente al consumatore europeo.
[…]
Il progetto è stato realizzato con il coordinamento dell’Agenzia danese per la protezione dell’ambiente e in collaborazione tra le autorità nazionali, i produttori, le organizzazioni dei commercianti e dei consumatori.

20. Vs about 30.000 for ‘marchio di qualità ecologica’

21. Translation task: key
EU eco-label > marchio europeo di qualità ecologica /ambientale;
Marketing activities > Attività promozionali
The Flower Week campaign > La campagna per la settimana del fiore Europeo
High performance standards > Elevati standard di qualità