The semantic and cultural differences between Italian and English nouns used to address people can be further appreciated considering how Italian nouns used as forms of address are translated into English. Bearing in mind that English does not have the same number of nouns which can be used as forms of address as Italian, it should not surprise that in most English translations of Italian novels and plays the nouns used as forms of address are often omitted because of the
lack of an exact equivalent (cf. Avvocato, vs *Lawyer; Good morning, *Director vs Buongiorno, Direttore). In other cases, the Italian noun is rendered in English translations with a noun which is semantically quite different.
One of the most difficult tasks for an Italian-to-English translator is how to render the “generic titles” Signore, Signora, Signorina and Signori. Different translators opt for different solutions; some simply omit the Italian noun in the English text, whereas others translate Signore and Signora with Sir and Madam or with Mr./Mrs. which are all but equivalent in meaning. In (11), Signorina used in the original text is simply omitted in the English translation. In (5), the combination signorCommendatore in line 1 gets “lost” because Commendatore is omitted and Signore is rendered with Sir. The same applies to Signore in line 7, whereas Signore in line 9 is omitted. The case of Signori is even more interesting. In line 3 of the Italian text, Signori is used to refer to some people arriving, whereas in the English text they are simply addressed as “people”, but then a Sir which does not appear in the original Italian text is added at the end of the sentence.
There are three differences between Signore/Signora and Sir/Madam: (i) in Italian, Signore can be followed by a first name (e.g. Signor Mario), a surname (e.g. Signor Rossi) or a title (e.g. Signor Avvocato; signor Direttore), whereas in English Sir cannot be followed by a surname or by a title (*Sir Brown, *Sir Doctor); (ii) in Italian Signore can be used for reference if combined with a demonstrative (e.g. questo signore, ‘this signore’), whereas in English it is not possible to say *this sir; (iii) the contexts of use. At least in British and Australian English, Sir used in service encounters reflects a construed bottom-up relationship between the interactants, because the speaker puts themselves in a “position of “service” to the addressee. I present here the explication proposed by Wierzbicka (2015) for the interactional meaning of Sir:
(Your bag), Sir. (Wierzbicka 2015)
I can think about you like this now:
“in this place, at this time, this someone is someone above me if this someone wants me to do some things
I want to do these things because of this”
Although there are some contexts in which Signore does imply, contextually, a construed bottom-up relationship between the interactants, Signore is also used (among other cases) to attract the attention of a passer-by to ask for information (e.g. Scusi, signore, “Excuse me, Signore”), in which case the expressed attitude is not one of “service” and the speaker does not put themselves in a “lower” position to the addressee. Another important context in which Sir and Signore differ is the way God is addressed: in Italian God is addressed as Signore, whereas in English God is not addressed as Sir,but as Lord.
The differences between Signore/Signora and Mr./Mrs.,too, are significant. Both Signore and Mr. can be combined with a surname; however, in Italian Signore and Signora can also be combined with a first name (e.g. Signor Mario,Signora Clara) whereas *Mr. Charles and *Mrs. Clare are impossible combinations in English. In addition to that, Mr. and Mrs. can only occur with a following surname and never on their own, which means that they cannot be used to address strangers, whereas in Italian it is perfectly possible to use Signore and Signora on their own to address someone whom the speaker does not know.
Translation problems also arise with professional titles and titles for top positions. In the following example, Avvocato and Notaio are simply translated as sir, because English does not have equivalent nouns which can be used to address people:
(33) a. LO SCRIVANO: Si accomodi qua, signor Notaio. CLERK: Make yourself comfortable in here, sir.
b. LA SIGNORA CONTENTO: Povero Notaio, voi l’amavate veramente! BELLAVITA: Senza il ragazzo io morirei, signor avvocato! Sto morendo io,
signor avvocato, sto morendo di crepacuore, abbandonato così da tutti, senza
sapere perché!
MRS. CONTENTO: Poor Denora, you really did love her!
BELLAVITA: I’d die without the boy, sir! I’m dying now (ᴓ), dying of a broken heart, abandoned by everyone and I don’t know why!
(Luigi Pirandello, Bellavita, 1928, translated by William Murray, 1970)
Notaio has been replaced in English with the surname of the notary, which does not appear in the original text. In addition, in the original text signor avvocato is said twice, whereas in the English text only the first instance is rendered as Sir and the second one is completely omitted. As I will discuss in Chapter 11, this solution does not capture an important Italian cultural script which encourages speakers to repeat a title many times in the same exchange.
In (23) and (24) Dottore2 is translated respectively as sir and Chief. The semantic differences between Dottore2 and Chief cannot be discussed in detail here for reasons of space; it will suffice to say that while Chief expresses the way of thinking ‘this someone is someone above many people in this place, I am one of these people’, it does not also express the idea ‘people can think some good things about this someone’, associated with the idea that the addressee is ‘someone of one kind’ (section 6.3.4).
Likewise, in Pirandello’s Six characters in search of an author the prompter talks to the manager of the play addressing him as Direttore, for which there is no equivalent noun used as form of address in English. In the English text, the combination signor Direttore is rendered simply as Sir:
(34) IL SUGGERITORE: Scusi, signor Direttore, permette che mi ripari col cupolino? Tira una certa aria!
PROMPTER: Pardon, sir (ᴓ). May I get into my box? There’s a bit of a draught.