"Guadagnarsi da vivere": may it also be "guadagnare da vivere"?

Question

I have read the following sentence in an Italian learning tool:

Si guadagna da vivere suonando il violino. (= He/she earns a living playing violin)

Is "guadagnarsi da vivere" the only correct/usual form of that expression or could I say "guadagnare da vivere" too?

In my opinion the correct form is Si guadagna da vivere ; where "Si" means "for himself/herself"; I think you can just use "Guadagna da vivere" only in spoken language. — Riccardo De Contardi, Sep 22 '19 at 14:26
@RiccardoDeContardi: Ricercando "guadagna da vivere" -"si guadagna da vivere" su Google Libri si trovano parecchi esempi di "guadagna da vivere" senza "si". — Charo, Sep 22 '19 at 17:08
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22guadagna+da+vivere%22+-%22si+guadagna+da+vivere%22&client=firefox-b-m&sxsrf=ACYBGNSSOypc6xqrhPZmdDPUIrEmy5zQng:1569171892482&source=lnms&tbm=bks&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj2uvjp9OTkAhUQAmMBHYGQASYQ_AUICygG — Charo, Sep 22 '19 at 17:10

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 22 '19 at 15:42

4

Treccani.it suggerisce entrambe le versioni:

guadagnare o guadagnarsi la vita (o da vivere), il pane, ossia il denaro necessario ai bisogni della vita;

edited Sep 22 '19 at 15:42

Charo

answered Sep 22 '19 at 14:57

I also want to know if both expressions are usual. Could you please add that to your answer? – Alan Evangelista Sep 23 '19 at 02:08
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@Alan Evangelista - in my personal experience the reflexive form is more common, but I cannot support that with data. It is just my personal opinion. – Sep 23 '19 at 06:10
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@AlanEvangelista: A way to see that the form with "guadagnarsi" seems to be more common is searching "guadagna da vivere" in Google Books: practically all the occurences you find are of "si guadagna da vivere". To find "guadagna da vivere" without "si" you have to search "guadagna da vivere" -"si guadagna da vivere" (see the link on a previous comment) and even then you will find some false occurrences corresponding to "si guadagna da vivere". – Charo Sep 24 '19 at 08:17

1 Answers1