“Applying fuzzy sets to specialised languages: Some pragmatic and (inter) linguistic issues in *The Big Bang Theory*”

The present article aims at exploring the way in which train travel is represented in the situation comedy The Big Bang Theory (2007 – in production). In particular, in an attempt to monitor the way in which the specialisation of language which characterises the series at more than one level, is inevitably affected by the idiosyncratic uses of language the characters make, the paper focuses on some of the pragmatic issues the series raises. The paper therefore proposes to conceive the notion of ‘specialised language’ as a ‘fuzzy set’. By so doing, the paper is able to detect the specialisation of language both in the television show in its entirety and in particular episodes which focus on specific topics. Among these, the language of train travel and railway journeys appears particularly interesting, as it often represents an important aspect of the plot and the characters’ development, thereby acquiring, throughout the various seasons of the show, many metaphorical meanings. Furthermore, by analysing the way in which the series was translated audio-visually, this paper tries to see how this relationship between pragmatic and specialised uses of language can actually “travel” from one language to the other.