Italian Agri-Food Products Abroad: Word Formation Processes on Instagram

The present study focuses on the identification and categorization of some cases of lexical adaptation and innovation, i.e., compounds, acronyms and borrowings, in the American Instagram accounts of nine agri-food Italian companies selling their products worldwide. The aim of the analysis is to investigate how and to what extent word formation processes in advertising discourse contribute to enhancing Italian products abroad and to promoting the ‘made in Italy’ concept. Examples of adapted and new terms gathered from the Instagram profile pages will be presented and examined within the promotional framework. Their presence will be then contextualised outside the American photo and video sharing social networking service to hypothesise their future lexicalisation


Introduction
The 'made in Italy' concept is often associated with high-quality craftsmanship, design, and style.Italy has a rich history of artistic and artisanal traditions, and many of its products are renowned for their quality and attention to detail (Fortis, 1998;Bucci, Coldeluppi, & Ferraresi, 2011).The 'made in Italy' production is not limited to a specific industry but is commonly found in fashion, luxury goods, furniture, automotive, food and wine, and other sectors.Italian products are often valued for their creativity, innovation, and a combination of traditional craftsmanship.Overall, 'made in Italy' signifies a commitment to quality, authenticity, and a sense of style that has made Italian products popular worldwide (Bertoli & Resciniti, 2013a, 2013b).
During the second part of the 20th century, many Italian companies developed a growing interest in non-Italian markets, to the point that today they have a strong international presence, exporting their products around the world.The export of Italian goods not only promotes the country's economy but also enhances its cultural influence and brand recognition.
In the agri-food sector, Italy is known for its traditional food, which includes high-quality products.The Italian enogastronomic tradition is globally appreciated, as Italian wine, olive oil, pasta and cheese, among other products, are highly regarded.Hence, the 'made in Italy' label is also seen as a mark of authenticity and excellence (Beccattini, 2000(Beccattini, , 2007)).
For this reason, the promotion of agri-food products, as well as of other goods, has shifted from a national-only context to a much broader panorama, including product advertising to non-Italian audiences.This recent approach has led to the development of ad hoc strategies which means taking cultural differences and sensitivities into consideration, aligning with local tastes and preferences of the target audience and utilising a variety of marketing channels that are popular and effective in the target markets.Parallel to this, the use of English has become of central importance to spread the advertising message in areas where Italian is not spoken by customers (Bertoli & Resciniti, 2013a).
reinforcing the producer-customer relationship.
In the light of these considerations, investigating the way in which advertisers create the message can be important for two interconnected reasons.From a commercial perspective, linguistic strategies are essential for businesses to thrive in a competitive environment, attracting and retaining customers; from a more linguistic point of view, analysing the language used can be crucial to understand both how the message is moulded and, more specifically, how smaller units of meaning, such as words, may undergo changes to match the advertisers' creativity needs (Horninks & van Meurs, 2019).
In order to comprehend how specific words and expressions derived from advertisements can influence consumer perception, even to the point of entering the everyday lexical heritage, the next section aims to investigate how promotional message is built by the advertisers' skilful use of English.More specifically, the study focuses on the identification and categorization of new words, i.e. neologisms, acronyms and borrowings, which contribute to the successful promotion of Italian products worldwide.With this aim, the American Instagram accounts of nine agri-food Italian companies have been analysed: examples of new word formation gathered from the profile pages will be presented and examined within the promotional framework.Their presence will be then contextualised outside the American photo and video sharing social networking service to hypothesise their future lexicalisation.

Social Media Advertising and the Role of Language
As Charlesworth (2014, pp. 66-67) clarifies, digital technology and social media have changed the relationship between companies and customers, allowing them to be closer and closer.Through the constant content sharing, customers have the opportunity to learn about the existence of products and companies can get in touch with them understanding their interests.Hence, social media have become a marketing tool of crucial importance.To promote their products, companies apply the principles of interactive marketing (Gretzel & Yoo, 2014), which opens up the possibility of building information, directly and collaboratively, with the customer, and therefore of providing customised solutions, by attracting and engaging (prospective) clients (Parson, Zeisser, & Waitman, 1998;Hays, Page, & Buhalis, 2012).
For this purpose, taking Instagram into account seemed a reasonable choice, as it ranks among the five largest social networks worldwide, with more than 2 billion users browsing the app each day (Note 1).Launched in 2010, Instagram is a word combination of 'instant' and 'telegram' and it was first started with proving functions to share and edit photos; later, many other functions have been added, such as videos, photo messaging, new filters and even the function of 'direct messaging', which allows users to exchange messages one-to-one privately.This content sharing platform applies a visual-based strategy and it is used by both private users and companies, as it allows the latter to get real-time metrics on how stories and promoted posts perform through the day and get insights into followers and how they react with the brand.Through Instagram brands can reach millions of online users and market their brand to tech-savvy audiences who look for shopping inspiration on their social media feeds.
Along with videos and pictures, language used in social media, and specifically on Instagram, plays a pivotal role both in shaping the message and in developing the producer-customer relationship, as it is the space in which linguistic creativity and non-standardisation meet customers' attention (Milroy, 1991;Broderick & Pickton, 2005;Danesi, 2015;Epure & Mihăeş, 2018).Creating effective advertising content on Instagram, indeed, involves a combination of compelling visuals and engaging captions, with the ultimate aim at attracting the audience and making them remember the advertised product.The platform is designed to favour fast scrolling by the user so verbal messages have to be short and concise, choosing compelling language that resonates with the target audience as well as sharing the narrative behind the product to create a connection with them.As a consequence, words must be carefully selected to enable the customer to immediately recognise the product and the manufacturer.
In this regard, a considerable body of research (Loiacono, 2004;Kelly-Holmes, 2005;Jia-Ling & Bathia, 2008;Vettorel & Franceschi, 2019) agree on the fact that the language used in advertising "structures the vocabulary, [as well as] phraseological units" and "affects the speech characteristics of the individual" (Golubtsov et al., 2019, p. 117).From a linguistic perspective, this means that after a reasonable period of time, people tend to adopt the language used in their favourite promotional campaigns, replicating the same slogans in every-day life or using words which were earlier only associated with advertising.For this reason, identifying new or uncommon words and expressions coming from the world of advertising can help understand how language may change and be moulded.

Data and Methodology
In order to carry out the analysis, the American Instagram pages of nine Italian agri-food companies were analysed.All the posts published by each company from December 2022 to December 2023 were taken into account, for a total of 1064 posts.Of each post, the verbal message included by the company just below the image was examined; neither the images nor any replies given by the company in response to user comments were examined.The selection was aimed to identify new words or expressions recurring in the posts examined.
The methodology chosen to categorise the selected material is adapted from Kuiper and Allan (1996).Clarifying that "the total vocabulary of a language is never static", Kuiper and Allan (1996, p. 181) offer an eye-opening classification to explain how new words enter the language and become part of it in a (more or less) permanent way, identifying three processes, i.e. compounding, affixation and conversion.Kuiper and Allan (1996) also point out that lexical borrowing is one of the commonest ways through which a new word enters a language, i.e. when it is copied from the vocabulary of the original language into that of the target language.This phenomenon was common in the past when two communities of speakers came into contact, and it is even more common nowadays thanks to globalisation processes and the web.In addition to lexical borrowing, they include other two word formation processes, which result in blends and acronyms.The former are made by combining the first part of one word with the second part of another word, whereas the latter are created from the initial letters or syllables of a phrase.
As Crystal (1995) illustrates, coining new words is a natural linguistic process, but their survival cannot be taken for granted.A great number of coined words, indeed, are used temporarily by a small number of people and do not enter the language officially.If the coinage gains currency it means that the word has become lexicalised and it is used to conceptualise something new, as in the past when new words in the field of information technology were coined (Sari, 2013) or, more recently, when now terms entered people's every-day communication during the coronavirus pandemic (Franceschi, 2021).
For the purpose of the present analysis, quantitative keyword research could certainly have speeded up the selection process through automated sampling, but given the nature of the texts, it seemed more appropriate to evaluate the corpus qualitatively.Besides being very short and concise messages, as explained above, the verbal component is always linked to the image or the video to which it refers.Disassociating the verbal element from the visual one could therefore have contributed to misinterpreting selected materials, not allowing the full comprehension of what was advertised by the companies.Moreover, most part of the examples presented in the next section only occasionally appear within the corpus.Therefore, the context was essential for the comprehension of the word.
In the next paragraph new words included in the American Instagram pages have been identified according to Kuiper and Allan's (1996) categorization and contextualised within their promotional framework.Parallel to linguistic categorization, their existence has been checked on the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary.

Results
Before presenting the results from the qualitative analysis of the posts, it is worth making a brief premise, which could help better frame the type of advertising context which the Italian companies have chosen.In line with the discourse strategies used in the English version of Italian agri-food companies' websites (Corrizzato, 2018(Corrizzato, , 2019)), the typical 'made in Italy' imprint is preserved and strengthened throughout the publication of the posts, although promotion is not intended for the Italian public.Looking at the posts through a linguistic lens, this means that the language used in the verbal passages frequently evokes the idea of social gathering, emphasizing the importance of enjoying delicious food with family members.The advertisements suggest preparing an Italian meal on the occasion of typically American celebrations, for example the Halloween night or Thanksgiving Day (barillaus, parmigianoreggianousa, kinderus, lavazzausa), traditional celebrations, i.e., Christmas Eve (giovanniranausa, ferrerorocherusa, allegriniwinery) and Easter (kinderus), or more Italian festivals, such as the San Gennaro feast (muttipomodorousa).A special attention is also generally given to specific days of the year, in which the concept in the background is again to spend time with family members or close friends, as in the case of the National Linguine Day (barillaus), the National Ice Cream Day (fratelliberetta_usa), the National Relaxation Day (barillaus), the National Coffee Day (lavazzausa) or the National Tree Week (muttipomodorousa).
In addition to that, references to the Italian origin of the ingredients, which is a guarantee of high quality, is frequently included in the posts that promote Italian espresso (lavazzausa), Genovese pesto (barillaus) or pecorino Romano (giovanniranausa).The authenticity of the products is also guaranteed by the places that are mentioned, such as Piazza San Fedele in Milan (lavazzausa) and Allegrini's vineyards of the Oasi Mantellina (allegriniwinery).
Within this promotional framework, the qualitative analysis of the posts has revealed that the advertising strategies used to promote products, as well as their origin, draws on a series of morphological processes that make it possible to include uncommon or new words in their narrative.Following Kuiper and Allan's categorization (1996) all the occurrences have been identified and classified, as the following paragraphs illustrate.

Borrowings
As Crystal (1995) maintains, borrowings are words taken from one language and incorporated into another.They play an important role in language evolution and development, as they express new concepts or indicate objects that may not have existed in the borrowing language.Besides linguistic enrichment, which is assured, borrowings also carry cultural connotations and nuances from the source language, providing speakers with a way to express concepts or practices that may not have direct equivalents in their own language.This is what happens in the Instagram posts which promote Italian products: in many cases they include Italian words to emphasise the quality and authenticity of the product.
From a lexicographical point of view, only a few words (ex.1-3) have already become part of the American linguistic repertoire -cavolo nero and tortelloni are included in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and antipasto in both the Merrian-Webster Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary.On the other hand, the other Italian terms (ex.4-11) appear to be still unpopular, although they are massively used in the Italian cuisine.However, they cannot be found within dictionaries.
1) There's no better feeling than sharing a warm and cozy night in with friends-and no better recipe to do that with than this Pasta e Ceci recipe by @joechef_!With carrots, onions chickpeas, kale (or cavolo nero, for our friends across the pond!), warm vegetable stock, and plenty of delicious Ditalini, this is one winter soup recipe you won't soon forget.Get the full recipe below!(barillaus) 2) The gang's all here!Coppa, peppered salami, prosciutto-with their friends mozzarella, olives, crackers and more, waiting for you and your next get-together.The Fratelli Beretta Entertainment Line of antipasto platters have you covered! (fratelliberetta_usa) Unlike the previous posts, the following caption presents a typical type of pasta from Northern Italy, tortelloni, which are similar in shape to tortellini but are usually larger in size and are generally filled with ricotta and spinach.Giovanniranausa offers a different version of tortelloni, using a very common adjective for the Italian audience, i.e., asciutti, which means that they are served with oil or melted butter, as explained in the post. (giovanniranausa) 3) This Christmas, our prosciutto & cheese tortelloni are once again the kings of the table.Adults and children, grandparents and grandchildren, tortelloni always please everyone with their classic and irresistible taste!The can be also prepared "asciutti"-i.e., without broth-then seasoned with melted butter and the company of a few fresh chervil leaves.(giovanniranausa) Muttipomodorousa includes specific terms which pertain to the world of tomato processing: the four terms pelati, concentrato, polpa and ciliegini describe the four ways in which tomatoes are presented to customers.
4) Mutti's Peeled Tomatoes (Pelati) make this Salmorejo (Chilled Spanish Tomato Soup) a breeze!(muttipomodorousa) 5) Smooth, dense, and bold, our Tomato Paste (Concentrato) is the ultimate hack for adding the richness of Italian tomatoes to your dish.(muttipomodorousa) 6) For holiday cooking or everyday meals, our Crushed Tomatoes (Polpa) are sure to make dinnertime delizioso!(muttipomodorousa) 7) Mutti Cherry Tomatoes (Ciliegini) are the perfect addition to a delicious plate, bursting with sweet tomato flavor!(muttipomodorousa) Interestingly, parmigianoreggianousa introduces a tool that is generally used to cut Parmisan cheese.Although in the Italian kitchen this type of knife is available, the clarification in brackets suggests that such a knife is not commonly used by non-Italian people (and this is confirmed by the fact that the term is not found in reference dictionaries).
8) Unkock the symphony of flavours!Have you noticed that funny little tool in our pictures, or maybe seen one being used in a restaurant?That's the "coltello a mandorla" (literally "almond-shaped knife") and it plays a crucial part in the sensory symphony that is Parmigiano Reggiano (parmigianoreggianousa) The borrowing included in ex. 9 is a typical Italian expression and it is always used before lunch or dinner to wish the people who are eating with you a happy meal.Unlike buon appetito, which is traditionally rooted in the cultural context, the expression aperi-cena is a neologism that found its way into the Italian dictionary Treccani in 2012 to identify an eating moment which replaces dinner (Note 2).9) @michelecasadeimassari is a curious culinary traveler-here is his quick and easy recipe for Chapati, an Indian flatbread that has become popular all over the world!Buon appetito!(parmigianoreggianousa) 10) Too hot to cook? :( Savor the summer vibes with a light and easy "aperitivo".All over Italy, it's traditional to have an assortment of light bites with a drink or two in the early evening… and sometimes it turns an "aperi-cena", a happy hour "snack-as-dinner!" (parmigianoreggianousa)

Affixation
As the selected examples show, affixation processes in this context turn out to be creative, requiring a completely intuitive understanding of them.In ex.11 the two interjections ooh and aah are followed by the suffix -ing becoming two verbs which aim to symbolise the guests' astonishment.
11) #CookingInspiration that's easy to make, but will have all your dinner guests ooh-ing and aah-ing?Try there fancy Parmigiano Reggiano Sablés with Mortadella Mousee and Pistachios! (parmigianoreggianousa) The same construction can be seen in ex. 12, in which the adjective one becomes one-ish, which is used to mean approximately.In this specific case, the linguistically creative solution is particularly relevant, as the One-Pot Monday is a key concept in the Barilla advertising campaign.Many of the culinary specialties promoted by the Italian agri-food company are in fact thought to be prepared cooking everything together at once.In the Barilla American Instagram page this hyphenated compound is always associated to Monday, which seems to be the day of the week when people have the least time to cook.
12) @chefrobthomas' recipe for #RastaPasta makes the most of seasonal grocery staples like peppers, onions, garlic, and of course, Barilla pasta!Let us know what you're cooking up for #OnePotMonday-or One-ish Pot Monday -in the comments.(barillaus) Seeking to understand the linguistic process that led to the construction of the name of the chocolates in ex.13, it is possible to suppose that the marketing creators chose to preserve the noun mandorla (almond in English), which is the main ingredient of this confectionary product, and to add the suffix -ly, which produces the transformation of the noun into an adjective or adverb (i.e.almondly).
13) Ferrero Collection Grand Assortment is best enjoyed with loved ones.Which flavor are you most excited to enjoy together?
[…] Manderly… a delightful confection with a velvety hazelnut creamy filling and almond at its heart (ferrerorocherusa) As shown in the ex.14, creative affixation also works to combine two languages, English and Italian.The Italian inflectional suffix -o is added to the English root classic to intensify the connection of the place in which the company was born.
14) It's time to treat yourself to a new take on a classic(o) drink.This Café Mocha, paired with Kinder Bueno, is meant to be savored in a moment of unrushed bliss.(lavazzausa) The last two posts of this category reverse the direction and show two examples where prefixes play a key role in building ad hoc words: in the first case the syllable be of the verb believe is replaced by the noun brie (ex.15).Out of the culinary context the substitution would make no sense, but in this case, brie means soft cow's-milk cheese, which is one of the ingredients of the daily special.
The same linguistic transformation occurs in ex.16, in which the adjective beautiful loses its first syllable to be replaced by the suffix boo-, evoking the spooky atmosphere of Halloween night.
15) For a Thanksgiving side that your dinner guests won't brie-lieve, try this #OnePotMonday Brie Mac and Cheese from @chelseapeachtree! Barilla Large Shells hold this delicious sauce for cheesy perfection in every bite.And for the topping, grated frozen cranberries!This tiny burst of color and flavor can turn a normal side dish into the star of the Thanksgiving spread.(barillaus) 16) Spooky craft time?Now that's what we call a BOO-tiful bonding moment!Let us know if you and your family will be making a sinisterly sweet paper chain craft or an at-home Boo Basket build!(kinderus)

Acronyms
The main purpose of acronyms within the corpus is to designate products that have been produced, processed and developed in a specific geographical area (e.g., the Italian acronyms DOP and DOC, and the English acronym DPO) or to indicate the quality of the product, such as EVOO olive oil.
In addition to that, barillaus in a few captions chooses acronyms to identify the main ingredients of a gastronomic delight.This is the case of PSL, which stands for Pumpkin (seed), (butternut) Squash, and (red) Lentil (pasta) or BTL sandwich, where B, T and L are the initial letters of its primary ingredients, i.e. bacon, lettuce, and tomato.
Although this language process is not widespread on the Instagram pages analysed, one acronym is worthy of examination, i.e., ASMR, since it is becoming very popular thanks to YouTube videos.The acronym, which stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, "is a sensory phenomenon, in which individuals experience a tingling, static-like sensation across the scalp, back of the neck and at times further areas in response to specific triggering audio and visual stimuli" (Barratt & Davis, 2015, p. 1).The increasing number of online video sharing platforms have contributed to facilitating the spread of this phenomenon, finding more and more people who experience ASMR.As a consequence, a huge amount of videos have been produced and shared with the goal of provoking this pleasant sensation.As Barratt and Davis clarify, "ASMR videos also typically appear to include an emphasis on the use of sound to trigger the static sensation of ASMR, which include the subjects of these videos cycling through a variety of household items which make various noises when tapped upon or used" (2005, p. 2).Food-focused ASMR has also spread on the web, encouraging the diffusion of the phenomenon.
In this regard, parmigianoreggianousa enhances the qualities of Parmigiano Reggiano by focusing on the auditory characteristics associated with it.17) Here's an ASMR classic for you-the sound of a rich, dense chunk of Parmigiano Reggiano being perfectly grated over some lucky person's bowl of pasta (parmigianoreggianousa) 18) Enjoy some "cheesy" ASMR this Saturday and listen to the bright, satisfying snare-drum sound of an expert inspector tapping a wheel of Parmigiano Reggiano for quality control (parmigianoreggianousa) According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the first known use of the word was in 2011, but a more in-depth analysis of the presence of the acronym in the food world would be useful to understand how frequently it is used and how the concept has adapted to the gastronomic context.

Compounds
Compounding allows languages to efficiently create new words by combining existing morphemes (Jurida, 2018).For this reason, in the language of advertising this linguistic process is widely used, as it allows content creators to work on new products, making them popular through innovative linguistic structures.This is the case of the two compounds created by Barilla and Kinder Ferrero, although  Unlike the previous example, the blend included in the caption by Lavazza has gradually entered every-day communication, although it has not yet been included in dictionaries.Coffeetail (coffee + cocktail), in fact, is an umbrella term used by experts in the field to group cocktails in which the main ingredient is coffee.The analysis of the Lavazza Instagram page reveals a massive presence of the term, as coffeetail can be easily prepared at home.

24)
Entertaining with #Lavazza 101: try a new coffeetail for the special holiday gathering.Brew fresh #LavazzaCoffee and mix up a variety of options for your guests, or craft a signature party drink.Which are you trying?(lavazzausa) 25) Have a martini glass, Lavazza Nitro Cold Brew, and the desire for a refreshing, not too sweet, chilled drink?This coffeetail will be ready in just moments-enjoy! (lavazzausa)

Conclusions
The linguistic analysis of the American Instagram profiles of Italian companies has led to the identification of two main trends.On the one hand, the promotional language, targeting non-Italian customers, aims to promote and reinforce the main concepts on which the 'made in Italy' label is built, i.e. the quality of Italian products, the authenticity of raw materials and producers' know-how.
On the other hand, the qualitative analysis of the Instagram captions has made it possible to recognise and classify all the new words or expressions identified.Every term examined in the present study belongs to the enogastronomic context (with the exception of the acronym ASMR) and can be divided into two categories: words created for a specific advertisement, and which are therefore expected to disappear in a short space of time, and words that are expected to have a long life in the linguistic-cultural context taken into account, as for friendsgiving and coffeetail or in the case of borrowings, e.g.pelati, concentrato and aperi-cena.
In this regard, this preliminary study has laid the groundwork for further research both from a lexico-semantic and lexicographic perspective, with the aim of understanding whether already existing or new words are likely to become a permanent part of the food lexicon.The drafting of a specialised glossary of innovative terms in this area could thus be the first step in an attempt to monitor the development of new formations.

Table 1 .
Italian agri-food companies-number of Instagram captions their uses on Instagram are different.Pastastrology (see ex. 19) was a recurring term on Barilla's Instagram profile during the year 2023, as the advertising campaign was based on the idea that each type of pasta can represent the personality of the person eating it.The open compound Kinder tree only appeared during the 2023 Christmas period, referring to the very popular song "Oh Christmas tree".19)Just in time for the holidays, it's the Barilla Pastastrology Gift Guide with @itstaylorshapiro!Need some more gifting inspiration?Check out our Pastastrology personality alignment list below and share your pasta matches in the comments for a custom gift suggestion.(barillaus)20)OhKindertree, oh Kinder tree-how lovely are your Kinder Joy Holiday toy ornaments!Check out the link in our bio to create these magical holiday decorations.(kinderus)Thesameattentionshouldbe given to the close compound friendsgiving, which officially entered the English language in 2007 (Note 3) but it is still not so popular.Used to indicate a meal shared with friends at Thanksgiving, the term frequently appears on the Instagram pages of the Italian companies, as examples 21 and 22 show: 21) Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving… whatever table you sit at, share the ravioli and tortellini recipes with the ones you love! (giovanniranausa) 22) We think that the best way to tell someone you love and appreciate them is to cook for them!And this Gratitude we're making it easy with this Lemon Orzo and Kale Pasta Salad.It's perfect for game night, family holidays, or a Friendsgiving spread-and don't worry, there will be enough to go around.(barillaus)Thelastcategorytaken into consideration is blending.In example 23, the company Giovanni Rana from Verona builds a blend astrorana (astronaut + the Italian surname) to humorously refer to the United States Air Force.23)Astrorana.What do astronauts eat when preparing for a space mission?The menu of Pastificio Rana, the star of a truly interstellar mission of course!To celebrate and honor Italian cuisine-a candidate for UNESCO's intangible heritage-the Rana chef team has developed an exclusive, super gourmet, and entirely Italian food program, which focuses on taste and nutrition: Ravioli stuffed with sweet Nerano lobster with courgettes fries and grated provola cheese (giovanniranausa).