HISTORY OF THE ITALIAN LANGUAGE

This course is one of the defining activities of the Master's degree program in Philology, Linguistics, and Italian Literature. This course aims to provide advanced skills in the linguistic analysis of written texts, both ancient and modern, and in their historical and cultural contextualization. Achieving this goal will enable students to independently apply the methodologies and tools of historical and textual linguistics, discourse analysis, rhetoric and stylistics, and intellectual history to both past and contemporary texts, literary and non-literary.

Expected Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding:
1.1 Knowledge of the main lines of linguistic debate.
1.2 Knowledge and historical-cultural contextualization of the texts examined.
1.3 Understanding the supranational nature of the "language question," as well as the specificities of the phenomenon related to the developments of individual local histories and traditions.
Ability to Apply Knowledge and Understanding:
2.1 Ability to distinguish between different theoretical approaches in relation to the different genres and textual traditions studied, in order to identify analogies and differences.
Judgment Skills:
3.1 Ability to critically evaluate the linguistic positions of the authors examined.
3.2 Ability to correctly interpret the linguistic vocabulary of the authors studied.
Communication Skills:
4.1 Ability to communicate the expressive and rhetorical features of the texts examined using appropriate technical language.
Learning Skills:
5.1 Ability to study the reference texts critically, organizing information hierarchically and establishing connections between various concepts.

Students should have met the educational objectives of History of the Italian Language I and II (or Italian Linguistics I and II) and Italian Literature I and II.

Course Title: "Questioni della lingua" between Italy and Europe (14th-16th centuries)

The rise of modern national languages and their respective literary traditions was accompanied, in Renaissance Europe, by the emergence of many different "questioni della lingua", whose model, however, can be traced back to the reflection that began in Italy with Dante's De vulgari eloquentia, followed by the development, during the 15th century, of the renewed humanistic Latin grammar, and finally, to the linguistic debate that, particularly in the first half of the 16th century, swept across the Peninsula, shaping the fate of our literature. This course aims to shed light on this phenomenon, examining it from a comparative and supranational perspective.

Texts and bibliography will be provided during the lessons and made available on the Moodle platform. It is required to study C. Marazzini's Breve storia della questione della lingua, Rome, Carocci, 2018, chapters 1 and 2.

20-30 minute oral exam. During the exams, students shall demonstrate knowledge of the topics covered in class and the ability to integrate them with the notions contained in the reference texts.

oral

Assessment criteria:
A. scores in the 18-22 range will be awarded in the presence of:
- acceptable but barely or slightly more than adequate knowledge of the syllabus;
- limited text analysis skills and barely or little more than adequate expository skills.
B. scores in range 23-26 will be awarded in the presence of:
- fair knowledge of the examination syllabus;
- fair text analysis and expository skills (some inaccuracy in the use of discipline-specific language is noted).
C. scores in the 27-30 range and honors will be awarded in the presence of:
- good, very good or excellent knowledge of the syllabus;
- good excellent or excellent ability to analyze texts and exposition, with full mastery of the technical language of the discipline (27-30) and personal critical contribution (30L).

All materials read and commented upon during the lessons will be available in the e-learning platform moodle.unive.it. Although the course is not conceived as a seminar, feedback from students will be constantly solicited, according to an interactive and dynamic idea of teaching.