Corso di laurea magistrale in Letteratura, Filologia e Linguistica italiana

Willingness to read grammars published before the unification of Italy.

To analyze how the grammatical description of Italian developed from the first grammars written in the 15th century up to those used nowadays for the teaching of Italian as a second language.

By the end of the lectures, students must show:

1) an awareness of the major changes in the course of the grammatical description of Italian; the ability to explain this evolution;

2) the ability to recognize the models for describing Italian adopted by grammars written in different times;

3) the ability to evaluate which changes in grammatical description are useful to the teaching of present-day Italian;

4) the ability to describe, using modern linguistic terminology, the grammatical rules enunciated in the various historical phases of Italian grammatical description.

5) master the readings outlined in the exam bibliography.

A total of 36 hours of classes (6 CFU), over the course of which students will read and paraphrase selected extracts which the instructor will analyze in linguistic terms.

Using appropriate technical terms, students will orally paraphrase and analyze a selection of their own choosing of the pages examined during lectures. Students should make reference to what they have learned from the readings suggested in the exam bibliography; if that the student is not able to employ concepts from those readings, the instructor will ask specific questions in order to ascertain the student’s familiarity (which will count for up to 10/30). The final grade will be expressed in marks out of 30.

During the lectures students will read with the instructor pages from different Italian grammars, from those written in the 15th and 16th centuries by intellectuals such as Leon Battista Alberti and Pietro Bembo, to those proposed today in updated books used to teach contemporary Italian. The evolution of some rules in morphology and syntax will thus be investigated and explained.

In addition to the material covered in lectures, students are expected to study the following texts:

 - P. D'Achille, Sintassi del parlato e tradizione scritta della lingua italiana, Roma, Bonacci, 1990, one chapter of students' own choosing;

- P. Diadori, M. Palermo, D. Troncarelli, Insegnare l'italiano come seconda lingua, Roma, Carocci, 2015, chap. 8;

- M. Palermo, Linguistica italiana, Bologna, il Mulino, 2015, chapp. II.1, II.2 e III.2;

- D. Poggiogalli, La sintassi nelle grammatiche del Cinquecento, Firenze, Crusca, 1999, one chapter of students' own choosing;

and to read one of the following essays:

- H. Frei, La grammaires des fautes, Paris, Geuthner, 1929 (or any later edition up to 2011);

- O. Jespersen, Come si insegna una lingua straniera, Firenze, Sansoni, 1953.

In addition to the books listed above, students not attending lectures must double the number of chapters to be studied in the books of D'Achille and Poggiogalli, and must read the two essays indicated.

Additional bibliographical suggestions for interested students will be offered during lectures. It is recommended that students attend lectures.