This article aims to explore cognitive and cultural differences througha contrastive analysis of English and Italian fashion terms. The analysisplaces the focus on English nominal compounds that exhibit a location-located semantic structure [e.g. E. Capri trousers (It. pantaloniCapri); E. beach dress (It. copricostume), E. topcoat (It. soprabito),E. college heel (It. tacco college)] and their correspondent forms inItalian.Data extracted from three fashion dictionaries (Lorusso 2017;Canonica-Sawina 1994; Tortora & Keiser 2014) reveal that locativenominal compounds are far more frequent in English than in Italian,and that, therefore, different cognitive schemas (and morphotacticmeans) are used in the two languages to conceptualise the same entity.Since fashion spatial compounds are mostly metonymy and/ormetaphor-based, data are analysed within a Cognitive Linguisticframework, i.e. by means of conceptual metaphor theory (Lakoff &Johnson 1980) and metonymy theory (Radden & Kövecses 1999).

Stefania Biscetti is Assistant Professor of English Linguistics at the Department of Human Sciences, University of L’Aquila, Italy. Her research interests are mainly in the fields of pragmatics (and its interface with morphology, lexicon and text/discourse) and cognitive linguistics, from both a synchronic and a diachronic perspective. She has already contributed to terminological and cognitive linguistic research with a study on the use of Italian and English diminutives in technical terminology and three publications on the conceptualisation of gentlemen and gentlewomen in 17th century England.

Annalisa Baicchi is Full Professor of English Linguistics at the Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Genoa, Italy. Her main research interests lie in areas of cognitive semantics, inferential pragmatics, construction grammar and contrastive linguistics. Recent publications include the volumes Cognitive Modelling in Language and Discourse across Cultures (Cambridge Scholars), Figurativity We Live By. The Cognitive Underpinnings and Mechanisms of Figurativity in Language (Carocci), Revisiting Shakespeare’s Language (Benjamins), and Sensory Perceptions in Language, Embodiment, and Epistemology (Springer).