500988 - Italian Linguistics

courses

ID:

500988

Duration (hours):

72

CFU:

SSD:

LINGUISTICA ITALIANA

Located in:

CREMONA

Year:

2025

Date/time interval

Primo Semestre (29/09/2025 - 23/01/2026)

Course Objectives

The first part of the course – which follows the development of the Italian language from its very origins up to the Novecento – aims to provide students with a general historical frame, but also with the lexicon and tools that are indispensable to perform linguistic and stylistic analysis of ancient and more recent literary texts. The second part of the course deals with a single author, whose work will be the object of of close syntactic and textual readings. At the end of the lessons students are expected to know the main lines of the history of Italian and to demonstrate advanced skills in the linguistic analysis of the texts that have been discussed in class.

Course Prerequisites

Sound mastery of the Italian language and grammar is required, as well as a basic competence in the Latin grammar. A general knowledge of the history of the Italian literature is also expected.

Teaching Methods

Face to face lessons, organised through two intertwined paths: the illustration of the pivotal moments that led Italian from its origins to its adult phase; and the linguistic analysis, conducted also through the direct involvement of the students, of a selection of texts, which will accompany and document the historical itinerary. Power point presentations will be used for the section of the course dedicated to historical grammar, which will then be made available to the students on the KIRO platform. The second part of the course, dedicated to the analytical commentary of a single text, will be organised according to the ‘case study’ model, and will involve the participation of students in seminar form.

Assessment Methods

Students are required to have a complete and detailed knowledge of the contents of the lectures as well as the reference texts indicated above. The examination, which is oral, will test the candidates' preparation both on the general part and on the monographic part, with particular attention to the linguistic analysis of the texts commented during the lectures (which each student is required to print out and bring with him/her to the examination). The evaluation, in thirtieths, will take into account the following factors: completeness of knowledge (only partial knowledge of what must be fully mastered is not allowed); ability to use the acquired notions to construct coherent discourses; effectiveness of exposition and mastery of the specific vocabulary of the discipline; critical ability. Non-attending students must demonstrate knowledge of the entire textbook Pietro Trifone, Emiliano Picchiorri, Giuseppe Zarra, L'italiano nella storia. Lingua d'uso e di cultura, Le Monnier Università, 2023; as well as a choice of two of the following volumes: Luca Serianni, Prima lezione di storia delle lingua italiana, Laterza; Pier Vincenzo Mengaldo, Prima lezione di stilistica, Laterza; Mariarosa Bricchi, Manzoni prosatore. Un percorso linguistico, Carocci, 2021. They will also be required to download and study the recorded lectures from the 2020-21 academic year and the slides on historical grammar available on the KIRO portal. For the monographic part of the course, non-attending students will study the bibliography on Beccaria listed above.

Texts

First part. The textbook is: Pietro Trifone, Emiliano Picchiorri, Giuseppe Zarra, L'italiano nella storia. Lingua d'uso e di cultura, Le Monnier Università, 2023. Punctual knowledge of five chapters to be chosen from chapters 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 will be required. Second part. Students are required to read in their entirety before the start of the course Beccaria's «Dei delitti e delle pene» in one of the available paperback editions (for instance Oscar Mondadori). The knowledge is also required of Gianni Francioni's Nota al testo to «Dei delitti e delle pene», Mediobanca 1984; and of Gabriella Cartago's essay «La lingua dei Dei delitti e delle pene», in «Cesare Beccaria tra Milano e l'Europa», Laterza, 1990. Further bibliographical information will be provided during the course.

First part. The course will start by pointing out a series of aspects that make Italian peculiar in comparison with other Romance languages, such as the divide that, until the Novecento, has separated spoken and written language, or the leading role of dialects. The historical overview which will follow is aimed to make clear the reasons for this situation. The lessons will concentrate on a few vital moments: the birth of Italian, which slowly becomes a different language from vulgar Latin; the great season of Tuscan literature in the Trecento; the standardization of the literary language of the Cinquecento; the Vocabolario della Crusca and the following lexicographical tradition; the Questione della lingua in the Ottocento Second part. Monographic course dedicated to a key text in the history not only of language but also of the civil and cultural history of Italian literature: ‘Dei delitti e delle pene’ (1764) by Cesare Beccaria. The text will be framed in the cultural environment of the Italian and European Enlightenment; its genesis and publishing history will be traced, and its linguistic and stylistic peculiarities will be analysed.

Course Language

Italian

More information

Student who are eligible for inclusive teaching are welcome to contact the teacher immediately after the start of the course in order to plan, when needed, meetings of specific activities.