Diplomacy

The twelfth entry is la dichiarazione congiunta, and the adjective inside it leads a second life an English reader will not guess at. Used as an adjective it behaves exactly as expected and agrees like any other participle: un conto congiunto is a joint account, un’azione congiunta a joint operation, una dichiarazione congiunta the joint declaration of this list. Turn the same word into a noun, though, and it stops meaning « joint » altogether. I congiunti are a person’s close relatives, the family a hospital telephones and a court hears — i congiunti della vittima is « the victim’s next of kin », and un congiunto stretto is a close relation. English takes no such step. Our noun « joint » went off to the body, to the butcher and to the building, and it never once arrives at the family. The signal to watch is what stands beside the word. With a noun after it, congiunto is « joint »; standing alone behind i or un, it is a person, and the sentence has stopped being about two governments.