This thesis opts to explore the theme of the transmission of trauma across generations in three literary works by three Italian women authors. By the way of a narratological, contextual and...Show moreThis thesis opts to explore the theme of the transmission of trauma across generations in three literary works by three Italian women authors. By the way of a narratological, contextual and comparative analysis we will be considering the significance of the theme in the novels Cenere by Grazia Deledda (1904), Una donna by Sibilla Aleramo (1906) and La casa nel vicolo by Maria Messina (1921); while also examining the plot, themes, endings and structure through a historic-contextual lens.Show less
Research master thesis | Linguistics (research) (MA)
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In Italian complement clauses, the use of subjunctives can often alternate with the use of indicatives. While the phenomenon is well documented in the literature, little is known about the...Show moreIn Italian complement clauses, the use of subjunctives can often alternate with the use of indicatives. While the phenomenon is well documented in the literature, little is known about the mechanisms operating behind mood selection in choice contexts. It is consensus that subjunctive choice is triggered by both language internal and sociolinguistic factors. Multiple studies have suggested that the power of each language internal factor to predict subjunctive choice is not stable across different sociolinguistic varieties. However, this has never been object of investigation, and the value that speakers attribute to subjunctives in different sociolinguistic varieties remains a confused matter. The aim of this thesis is to provide an overarching understanding of the function that speakers’ attribute to subjunctives in complement clauses across different diaphasic and diachronic varieties of Italian. A corpus study was carried out in order to gain insight into this issue. This research is conducted following the probabilistic grammar framework (Bresnan 2007), which investigates cross-lectal changes in the probabilistic constraints shaping linguistic variation through the usage of multifactorial statistical techniques. The results of this corpus study indicate that subjunctive selection in Italian responds to slightly different mechanisms in different sociolinguistic varieties. This is particularly evident from a diachronic point of view, as subjunctives in Italian are nowadays correlating with new semantic values with respect to the past.Show less
In the discussion on identity, there is a strong tendency to limit the existence of national sentiments to the modern period. In this thesis, the existence of such thoughts are explored in the...Show moreIn the discussion on identity, there is a strong tendency to limit the existence of national sentiments to the modern period. In this thesis, the existence of such thoughts are explored in the letters of three ruling families from the late fifteenth century: the d’Este, Gonzaga and Sforza. The letters have been scrutinized from several perspectives, eventually indicating both the existence of an idea of Italy and its limited application in the political realm. As for the letters in material sense, they show great similarities in their composition, suggesting a common cultural horizon. This is no great surprise, as these ruling elites were socially strongly intertwined through marriages and friendships. From the ongoing discussion on the state of the war, there speaks a strong awareness of a common Italian interest. The expression of this awareness, however, occurred in such a way that underwrites personal interest and the preservation of the own state. In this sense, the political importance of the idea of Italy was constituted by the accumulated interest of the princes in the peninsula. But, because personal interest eventually always prevailed, it was simultaneously also its limitation in the political realm.Show less
A comparative study comparing regional and minority language policies in Spain, Italy and the European Union. Particular focus on language policies in Italian and Spanish regions, regarding French,...Show moreA comparative study comparing regional and minority language policies in Spain, Italy and the European Union. Particular focus on language policies in Italian and Spanish regions, regarding French, German, Galician, Catalan and Basque. Topics include historical Spanish and Italian language policies, European language policies and frameworks.Show less
Topic: In this thesis we will examine the oral production in Italian of Dutch students, in their second year of bachelor in Italian Language and Culture at Leiden University. According to the...Show moreTopic: In this thesis we will examine the oral production in Italian of Dutch students, in their second year of bachelor in Italian Language and Culture at Leiden University. According to the Common European Framework for Languages, the language proficiency of these students ranges between the B1 and B2 level and what will be analyzed is their linguistic accuracy, by spotting the presence of grammatical errors, in order to demonstrate that the peer review method can be efficiently used to contrast the risk of fossilization. Hypothesis: we would like to demonstrate that with the use of the peer review method in a second language learning environment, students will show improvements at a morph- syntactic level after having received feedback from their classmates and teacher. Therefore, it will also be possible to refute the theory according to which fossilization is an irreversible process. Methodology: The investigation will be done by listening to all the oral presentations of the students but also by reading the transcriptions, to make sure all the elements of interest will be included. The analysis will be realized into two discerned parts: first of all, because the field of morph-syntax is too wide to be analyzed in this context, a selected number of markers will be chosen according to their problematic nature for learners of Italian: prepositions and syntactic agreement. The second part of the analysis will focus on the comparison of the students’ performances before and after they received their feedback. This will be done with the help of a software, Wordsmith Tools, which will define the frequency of each marker before and after the feedback to determine if there has been an improvement or not.Show less
I outlined two varieties of Italian-American Englishes used in the eastern part of the US. One is the Super Mario English, which belongs to speakers who have just arrived in the US. The second one...Show moreI outlined two varieties of Italian-American Englishes used in the eastern part of the US. One is the Super Mario English, which belongs to speakers who have just arrived in the US. The second one is the Wiseguy English, which belongs to speakers who have lived in the US for a longer period of time and belong to the Italian-American culture. Three films were selected from a plethora of other films concerning the Italian-American culture. The purpose of this study was to determine whether these varieties of English exists from a linguistically stereotypical basis or whether these varieties are true-to-life representations of the features of the Italian-American English speaking culture. One monologue of every main character in the 3 films has been phonetically analysed. The phonetic analyses were then compared to the theoretical framework analysis of the aforementioned varieties of Italian-American Englishes. The hypothesis is that these three films perpetuate linguistic features in Italian-American Englishes that border among the stereotypical imagery of the Italian-American culture. The results outline the most salient features of Italian-American linguistic stereotypes.Show less
