INTERPUNZIONE IN OTTICA TRADUTTIVA TEDESCO-ITALIANO. Studio di un caso.

The paper focuses on the contrastive analysis, applied to translation, of the Gedankenstrich/trattino lungo or lineetta. Starting from the normative point of view of grammars of German and from the actual use of the dash in different text types, the article outlines the most recurrent textual and cognitive features of <–> in its use as single mark and as dash-interpolation. In a second step it will be shown that the same mark occurs in contemporary Italian usage, though grammars and style handbooks do not quote this sign. The aim of this second part is to fill a gap in the description of the usage of the Italian dash/trattino lungo. The last part shows the translation strategies of this multifunctional punctuation mark in professional and non-professional translations German-Italian/Italian-German.