The right language for a better understanding
A recent book by the Bank of Italy helps us understand the importance of language and a proper use of words – in the economics sphere but not only
Writing (and speaking) with clarity and precision, in order to be better understood and to better understand – without falling into oversimplification but actually clarifying the most complex notions, wherever possible. An approach that should always come first, an attitude embodying freedom, democracy, and development. Qualities that have always distinguished the Bank of Italy, which with La lingua dell’economia in Italia. Caratteri, storia, evoluzione (The economic language in Italy. Styles, history, evolutions), by Rosanna Visca, offers yet another paving stone on the road to the new economic culture that we increasingly need.
The eight volume in the Collana Collezioni e studi (Collections and studies series), part of the Biblioteca Paolo Baffi library, this work provides an overview of the economic language through a wide selection of articles and research papers, including those focusing on the linguistic aspects of the Bank of Italy’s Annual Reports and, above all, the Governor’s Concluding Remarks. Its aim is twofold: on the one hand, it seeks to outline a profile of the economic language, from its more general and common features to its many varieties, within a historical perspective and in comparison with other specialised languages; on the other hand, it provides some food for thought on the evolution and communicative ability of such language, also taking into account the characteristics of the material produced over time by the Bank itself.
Thus, readers have the chance to retrace about eight centuries of texts concerning the economy and the Bank through documents that are key to the economic language, together with a description of chosen styles and textual strategies. In this way, the book exposes the “double aim” – scientific and informative – of the language adopted by the Bank of Italy and by economists more in general. Readers will therefore learn about some particular traits of the economic language – the widespread use of figures of speech (especially metaphors), which have distinguished it since the very first economic and financial texts; an extensive inclusion of loanwords and borrowings from English; the need (and the difficulties) economists experience in order to ensure that the greater public is able to understand them yet without compromising authoritativeness and accuracy.
Curated by Visca, this is a must-read volume, which includes in its conclusion – but not only – a few comments made by General Director Luigi Federico Signorini in 2021 concerning the Remarks by Luigi Einaudi, thoughts that not only pertain economic writers: “Language changes over time, but at the Bank of Italy we retained a desire for a clear, powerful and even, where feasible, aesthetic language; a literary style that, in essence, is able to ideally blend accuracy and elegance; effective, wherever possible, in outlining what facts teach us, explaining their reasons, warning about the implications – including those that are least obvious – of acting or (more often than not) failing to act. We did not always succeed, of course, and never entirely in any case; yet this was and still is our aim.”
La lingua dell’economia in Italia. Caratteri, storia, evoluzione (The economic language in Italy. Styles, history, evolutions)
Rosanna Visca
Collezioni e studi della Biblioteca Paolo Baffi, no. 8
Bank of Italy, 2023
A recent book by the Bank of Italy helps us understand the importance of language and a proper use of words – in the economics sphere but not only
Writing (and speaking) with clarity and precision, in order to be better understood and to better understand – without falling into oversimplification but actually clarifying the most complex notions, wherever possible. An approach that should always come first, an attitude embodying freedom, democracy, and development. Qualities that have always distinguished the Bank of Italy, which with La lingua dell’economia in Italia. Caratteri, storia, evoluzione (The economic language in Italy. Styles, history, evolutions), by Rosanna Visca, offers yet another paving stone on the road to the new economic culture that we increasingly need.
The eight volume in the Collana Collezioni e studi (Collections and studies series), part of the Biblioteca Paolo Baffi library, this work provides an overview of the economic language through a wide selection of articles and research papers, including those focusing on the linguistic aspects of the Bank of Italy’s Annual Reports and, above all, the Governor’s Concluding Remarks. Its aim is twofold: on the one hand, it seeks to outline a profile of the economic language, from its more general and common features to its many varieties, within a historical perspective and in comparison with other specialised languages; on the other hand, it provides some food for thought on the evolution and communicative ability of such language, also taking into account the characteristics of the material produced over time by the Bank itself.
Thus, readers have the chance to retrace about eight centuries of texts concerning the economy and the Bank through documents that are key to the economic language, together with a description of chosen styles and textual strategies. In this way, the book exposes the “double aim” – scientific and informative – of the language adopted by the Bank of Italy and by economists more in general. Readers will therefore learn about some particular traits of the economic language – the widespread use of figures of speech (especially metaphors), which have distinguished it since the very first economic and financial texts; an extensive inclusion of loanwords and borrowings from English; the need (and the difficulties) economists experience in order to ensure that the greater public is able to understand them yet without compromising authoritativeness and accuracy.
Curated by Visca, this is a must-read volume, which includes in its conclusion – but not only – a few comments made by General Director Luigi Federico Signorini in 2021 concerning the Remarks by Luigi Einaudi, thoughts that not only pertain economic writers: “Language changes over time, but at the Bank of Italy we retained a desire for a clear, powerful and even, where feasible, aesthetic language; a literary style that, in essence, is able to ideally blend accuracy and elegance; effective, wherever possible, in outlining what facts teach us, explaining their reasons, warning about the implications – including those that are least obvious – of acting or (more often than not) failing to act. We did not always succeed, of course, and never entirely in any case; yet this was and still is our aim.”
La lingua dell’economia in Italia. Caratteri, storia, evoluzione (The economic language in Italy. Styles, history, evolutions)
Rosanna Visca
Collezioni e studi della Biblioteca Paolo Baffi, no. 8
Bank of Italy, 2023