28862 - Italian Language and Culture (LM)

Academic Year 2021/2022

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Italian Studies, European Literary Cultures, Linguistics (cod. 9220)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student is aware of the evolution and stabilization processes of the Italian language. He is able to frame in a sincronic and diachronic way phonological, morphosyntactic and lexical aspects of Italian, with particular attention to its varieties. Trough the use of specialized scientific methods, he is able to investigate the linguistic and philological studies, with specific reference to the relationship between language and culture.

Course contents

Lexicon and Italian specialised languages

Starting from the assumption that everyone knows that language is the mean that a people uses to represent itself and its culture and that linguistic history can be read as the story of a people (the Italians) and of the language they speak, then the Italian of yesterday and today will be analyzed in its lexical parts, focusing on the diatopic varieties and on the sectoral varieties.

Taking into account the history of words and the conversion and stabilization processes of the Italian vocabulary, specialised language features will be investigated in the second part of the course, examining fundamental issues, such as the relationship between Italian and English in the era of globalization and the consequent, profound changes that seem to endanger the very survival of Italian as a language of culture.

By examining Italian linguistic history, it will be possible to analyze the role that some specialized languages (for example, the language of gastronomy or the bureaucratic-administrative language) have had in the diffusion of the Italian language in the territory of the peninsula.

Where the organization of teaching allows, groups of attending students will be involved in seminars on some specialized languages.

For non-native Italian speakers, the course requires an excellent knowledge of the Italian language.

Readings/Bibliography

  1. Teaching materials available on the e-learning platform of the course.
  2. Short essaies or entries of the Enciclopedia dell’italiano (<www.treccani.it) which may be indicated on the e-learning platform of the course.
  3. The basics of Italian Linguistics can be studied on Massimo Palermo, Linguistica italiana, Bologna, Il Mulino, second edition 2020, only chap. II “Lessico”, chap. IIII “Morfologia”, chap. VI “L’italiano nello spazio sociale e comunicativo”, chap. VII “Le varietà nello spazio geografico”.
  4. Riccardo Gualdo and Stefano Telve, Linguaggi specialistici dell'italiano, Roma, Carocci, 2011, only §§ 1.1 Una definizione ancora oscillante (pp. 17-21), 1.2 Dimensione e variazione nei linguaggi specialistici (pp. 21-77), 1.3.1 La formazione del lessico specialistico (pp. 77- 117), 1.3.4 La semantica lessicale (pp. 130- 136).
  5. Jacqueline Visconti (ed.), Parole nostre. Le diverse voci dell'italiano specialistico e settoriale, Bologna, il Mulino, 2020.

Non-attending students must complement the programme with:

  1. Tullio De Mauro, Storia linguistica dell’Italia repubblicana, Bari-Roma, Laterza, 2014.
  2. Giovanni Adamo and Valeria Della Valle, Le parole del lessico italiano, Roma, Carocci, edition 2018, only chap. I Che cos’è il lessico, pp. 9-34.

Teaching methods

Lecturers and seminars.

Assessment methods

The exam will consist of a written test containing five open-ended questions: structured answers will be required in response to the first two questions (maximum score: 10 points each), three questions will require a short and targeted response (maximum score: 4 points each). All the questions will have the objective of verifying the comprehension and the knowledge of the course contents, they will require the critical elaboration of the main topics covered by the course and will refer to the bibliography.

The final grade will be given in thirtieths as the result of the sum of the scoring obtained from each answer (scores 31 and 32 correspond to the high distinction, cum laude) and will be based on the verification of the course contents and of the knowledge of the assigned bibliography; the ability to elaborate the contents in a critical way, the correct use of a specific lexicon, the good exposition, the application of learned topics to real cases will be part of the global evaluation.

May be subject to further evaluation also the seminars on individual specialist languages that attending students will choose to hold during the course.

Teaching tools

All students could use the materials made available online by the teacher.

Office hours

See the website of Chiara Coluccia

SDGs

Quality education Gender equality

This teaching activity contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN 2030 Agenda.