ID:
511699
Duration (hours):
36
CFU:
6
SSD:
LINGUISTICA ITALIANA
Year:
2025
Overview
Date/time interval
Primo Semestre (22/09/2025 - 19/12/2025)
Syllabus
Course Objectives
The course aims to provide basic notions of the history of the Italian language, in particular on its evolution from the texts of the Origins to the sixteenth-century codification of the literary linguistic norm. At the end of the course, students will have to know the salient moments in the history of the Italian language up to the mid-sixteenth century; be able to recognize the main phenomena of historical grammar and be able to conduct an accurate analysis of a text in ancient Italian.
Course Prerequisites
Required competences: basic acquaintance with the linguistic and cultural italian context; basic italian grammatical knowledge.
Teaching Methods
Lectures during which the theoretical framework of the discipline will be accompanied by the exemplification of some historical grammar phenomena and by the reconstruction of some phases of our linguistic history. For both aspects, texts or passages written up to the middle of the 16th century will be read and commented on.
Assessment Methods
The exam will be written. Attending students: The written test will consist of a set of open-ended questions designed to assess knowledge of the history of the Italian language and of historical grammar, as well as the skills developed during the course, in particular the ability to recognize the features of Old Italian discussed in class. Non-attending students: The written test will consist of a set of open-ended questions designed to assess knowledge of the history of the Italian language and of historical grammar, as well as the readings specified in the bibliography for non-attending students, including the texts analyzed in the reference manuals. Erasmus students: Erasmus students may take an oral exam, to be arranged with the instructor.
Texts
Attending students 1) For historical grammar: Giuseppe Patota, Nuovi lineamenti di grammatica storica dell’italiano [New Outlines of the Historical Grammar of Italian], Bologna, Il Mulino, 2007. 2) For the general institutional part: Pietro Trifone, Emiliano Picchiorri, Giuseppe Zarra, L’italiano nella storia. Lingua d’uso e di cultura [Italian in History: Everyday and Cultural Language], Florence, Le Monnier, 2023, chapters 1–6. 3) All texts and materials discussed in class. Non-attending students 1) Luca Serianni, Lezioni di grammatica storica italiana [Lessons in Italian Historical Grammar], Rome, Bulzoni, 2001. 2) Pietro Trifone, Emiliano Picchiorri, Giuseppe Zarra, L’italiano nella storia. Lingua d’uso e di cultura [Italian in History: Everyday and Cultural Language], Florence, Le Monnier, 2023, chapters 1–6. 3) Giuseppe Patota, La grande bellezza dell’italiano. Dante, Petrarca, Boccaccio [The Great Beauty of Italian: Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio], Rome-Bari, Laterza, 2015. Erasmus students Erasmus students are requested to contact the instructor to arrange the exam program.
Contents
The course is set up according to two main guidelines followed in parallel by the lessons. 1. Notions of History of the Italian language (periods, debates, authors, decisive for the definition of the characteristic features of our language). 2. Notions of historical grammar (the main phonetic-morphological phenomena that characterize the transition from vulgar Latin to fourteenth-century Florentine vulgar).
Course Language
Italian
More information
Office Hours: Student meetings are held by appointment via email (giuseppe.antonelli@unipv.it) and take place either online or in person at the office located in the new premises, Tower B, San Tommaso building.
Degrees
Degrees
HUMANITIES
Bachelor’s Degree
3 years
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