69391 - Italian Linguistics

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students know and are able to use the terms and concepts underpinning the Italian Linguistics appropriately. Students are also able to describe contemporary Italian according to the different levels of linguistic analysis, use the dedicated tools of the linguistic research (historical, etymological dictionaries, etc.) also electronic ones.

Course contents

Module 1 focuses primarily on the lexicon, in its quantitative and qualitative aspects. Special attention will be devoted to tools (historical, etymological dictionaries, etc.) also electronic ones (GRADIT, LIZ, Primo Tesoro della Lingua Letteraria Italiana del Novecento, etc.) and databases.

Module 2 presents the sociolinguistic situation of contemporary Italian in its range of varieties and describes the ongoing changes in the linguistic rules at its different levels.

Students who opt for the single exam of 6 CFU must attend Module 1.

Readings/Bibliography

Readings for Module 1:

1. Material (module 1) handed out in class, available on AlmaDL (AMS Campus section).

2. L. Serianni, G. Antonelli, Manuale di linguistica italiana. Storia, attualità, grammatica, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2011 (chapters 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10).

3. V. Della Valle, Dizionari italiani: storia, tipi, struttura, Roma, Carocci, 2005.

Readings for Module 2:

1. Material (module 2) handed out in class, available on AlmaDL (AMS Campus section).

2. L. Serianni, Italiani scritti, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2012 (new edition).

Non-attending students must replace 1 (material module 2) with:

C. Marazzini, L'ordine delle parole, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2009 (capitoli 3, 6, 7 e 8).

Teaching methods

Lectures, seminars and workshops.

Assessment methods

The course only envisages a written exam for both non-attending and exchange students (Erasmus and other types of exchanges). The test, which will change according to the number of CFU (6 and 12), will be held in the IT laboratory and consist in two parts: 1) multiple-choice test; 2) open-ended questions and exercises.

Only students who pass part 1 – the result of which will be immediately communicated – can take part 2 that will be held after the first part.

The final evaluation will consist in the sum of the results obtained in the two parts.

The final text aims at assessing:

- the knowledge of the basic concepts of the Italian Linguistics and its terminology;

- the ability to recognise and describe the structure and typology of the lexicographic tools;

- the ability to recognise and describe the features of the contemporary Italian (lexical, morphological, syntactic, textual ones).

- the ability to analyse texts belonging to the different text-typologies and varieties of the Italian language.

 

Teaching tools

Online IT tools and databases will be used.

Office hours

See the website of Fabio Atzori