I nomi d’agente in -tor nelle traduzioni latine del Nuovo Testamento.

Bible translations are a corpus of parallel texts theoretically ideal for comparing forms and structures pertaining to variously intertwined systems. However, scholars have also observed that, in these documents, fidelity to the original may alter the natural features of the target language. For Plater and White (1926: 29), the Vulgate echoes the “slavish literalness” of the Vetus Latina, which for Metzger (1977: 323) exhibits an unrefined style and “a strong exotic quality in both vocabulary and syntax”. As for the biblical lexicon, one can agree on the ‘exotic’ nature of certain borrowings and semantic extensions, but derived words deserve a separate discussion because here the interference of Greek and the potential of Latin morphology mix in a tangle that complicates the concept of translation verbum e verbo. Furthermore, it seems reductive to explain the increase in Wortbildung and Neubildung processes as depending on the “popular style” and “vulgarisms” of Christian Latin (Plater and White 1926: 41), or a generic “fondness for lengthened words” (Metzger 1977: 324). To prove Vineis’ intuition that morphological facts reveal pertinent choices with respect to the modus interpretandi enshrined in the Latin tradition (Vineis 1974: 36), I will analyze the nouns in -tor and their contexts of use in the New Testament. After some observations on the competence and techniques of the translators, I will focus on the expansion of agent nouns, their characteristics, and functions. The empirical basis of the research consists in the qualitative analysis of the different derivatives in -tor attested in New Testament books, compared with the corresponding expressions in the Greek original.