LANGUAGE AND ACCESSIBILITY

This course aims at discussing aspects of Italian linguistics from the viewpoint of contemporary linguistic research, in a comparative perspective with other languages and dialects. The topics of complexity and language simplification will also be addressed. Aim of the course is to develop the skill of formal analysis of language, with a focus on the syntax of Italian. Students will develop skills to analyse syntactic constructions in context and to conduct research in Italian linguistics.

1. Knowledge and understanding
The student knows the recent analyses on the grammar of Italian.
The student knows the phenomena of Italian in the context of language use.
The student has full understanding of the technical terminology and the main methodologies that allow to do research on Italian.

2. Applying knowledge and understanding
The student knows how to use the hypotheses of formal linguistics to describe and understand aspects of Italian.
The student knows how to use the technical terminology in all stages of application, e.g. when analysing new data or when teaching Italian.
The student knows how to collect new Italian data.
The student knows how to discuss different hypotheses on the same Italian data.

3. Making judgements
The student is able to formulate empirically and theoretically grounded hypotheses on Italian data.
The student is able to provide relevant data from Italian in favour or against different hypotheses.

4. Communication skills
The student is able to write with sound argumentation and appropriate terminology about the topics discussed during the course.
The student is able to elaborate on one of the topics discussed during the course.
During class, the student is able to ask questions and discuss with peers and professors in a critical and respectful manner.

5. Learning skills:
The student is able to develop critical thinking.
The student is able to share information, hypotheses, linguistic problems and solutions on Italian data.
The student is able to look for and select bibliographical resources to study Italian data.

Good knowledge of linguistics and syntactic theory.

The following topics will be discussed:
1. sentences and context: marked and unmarked word orders of Italian (interrogative and cleft sentences; focalizations)
2. language in context: syntactic properties of the registers of Italian; contact phenomena (Italian and dialects: indefinite articles, restructuring, particle verbs)
3. language and accessibility: complexity and simplification; explicit teaching of complex syntactic structures; accessible language testing

The following texts will be discussed:

1.
Benincà P. (2001), L’ordine degli elementi della frase e le costruzioni marcate, in Renzi, Salvi e Cardinaletti (eds), Grande grammatica italiana di consultazione, Bologna, il Mulino, Vol.1: pp. 129-162.
(new edition 2022, Padova, Libreriauniversitaria.it, with additions and corrections)
Cardinaletti A. (2023) Cleft wh-questions as biclausal structures. A comparison with simple wh-questions, cleft declaratives, and focalizations in in C. Bonan, A. Ledgeway (eds), It-Clefts. Empirical and Theoretical Surveys and Advances, Berlin, De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 11-34

2.
Cardinaletti A. e N. Munaro (eds) (2009) Italiano, italiani regionali e dialetti, FrancoAngeli: Chapters by Egerland, Iacobini-Masini, Poletto.

Cardinaletti, A.; Cerutti, S.; Volpato, F. (2024),On the acquisition of clitic placement in restructuring: A study on monolingual Italian children in ISOGLOSS, vol. 10(4)/8, pp. 1-30
Cardinaletti A., G. Giusti, G.E. Lebani (2024), Clitic climbing across Italy: Variation, optionality, and the role of bilectalism, ms.
Rizzi, L. (1978/1982), A restructuring rule in Italian syntax. In S.J. Keyser (ed.), Recent Transformational Studies in European Languages, 113-158. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press; reprinted in Issues in Italian Syntax, 1-48. Dordrecht: Foris.

Procentese C., G.E. Lebani, G. Giusti, A. Cardinaletti (2023) Microvariazione al confine tra grammatiche: l’espressione dell’indefinitezza nei parlanti bilettali italo-ferraresi in Silvia Dal Negro e Daniela Mereu (a cura di), Confini nelle lingue e tra le lingue. Atti del LV Congresso Internazionale di Studi della Società di Linguistica Italiana (Bressanone, 8-10 settembre 2022), Milano, Officinaventuno, pp. 127-143
Procentese Cristina, Gianluca E. Lebani, Giuliana Giusti, Anna Cardinaletti (2024) The Expression of Indefiniteness in Italo-Ferrarese Bilectal Speakers: True Optionality and Grammatical Hybridity. in Sviatlana Karpava; Natalia Pavlou; Kleanthes K. Grohmann, New Approaches to Multilingualism, Language Learning, and Teaching, Cambridge, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 12-39

3.
Borghi, M. (2018), Il testo semplificato semplifica la vita? Breve indagine sull’efficacia dei testi ad alta leggibilità nella comprensione testuale degli studenti stranieri, Italiano LinguaDue, n. 1. 2018, 373-394.
Cardinaletti, A. (2018) Test linguistici accessibili per studenti sordi e con DSA, FrancoAngeli.
Volpato F., G. Bozzolan (2017), Explicit Teaching of Syntactic Movement in Passive Sentences and Relative Clauses. The Case of a Romanian/Italian Sequential Bilingual Child, Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie occidentale 51, 357-381

Other readings may be provided in class.

Reference grammar:
Renzi L., G. Salvi, A. Cardinaletti (eds.) (2001), Grande grammatica italiana di consultazione, il Mulino, Bologna, 3 voll. (new edition 2022, Padova, Libreriauniversitaria.it, with additions and corrections)

Written exam (2 hours), consisting of 9 open-ended questions with the aim of verifying the acquisition of abilities to analyze data coming from studies on Italian and to simplify texts.
Written term paper (10 pages) on one of the topics discussed in the course. The topic should be approved by the instructor.

written

ach open-ended question is assigned a maximum of 3 points.
3 points: very good knowledge and understanding of the discussed topics; very good ability to analyse linguistic data; very good ability to use sound argumentation and appropriate terminology.
2 punti: good knowledge and understanding of the discussed topics; good ability to analyse linguistic data; good ability to use sound argumentation and appropriate terminology.
1 punto: sufficient knowledge and understanding of the discussed topics; sufficient ability to analyse linguistic data; sufficient ability to use sound argumentation and appropriate terminology.
The term paper is assigned 3 points, with the same criteria.
Cum laude is assigned presence of excellent knowledge and understanding of the discussed topics; excellent ability to analyse linguistic data; excellent ability to use sound argumentation and appropriate terminology.

Face-to-face lessons;
collaborative learning with peers;
individual tutoring by the teacher.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development