'Overt' Calques from English and their currency in Italian

This paper analyses a selection of loanwords and calques triggered by the influence of English and used in Italian. We have introduced the term 'overt' calques to denote borrowings that are used in Italian both as loanwords and calques, such as full time and tempo pieno. The analysis is based on a sample of 22 'overt' calques and their equivalent loanwords. On the basis of lexicographic information, the chronology of borrowing and the development of calques is presented; we also illustrate common typological patterns of Italian calques and compare the usage frequency of the synonymic pairs (loanwords and calques) in three corpora of present-day Italian.