Ateneo - UPO

EDMONDO DE AMICIS and the “questione della lingua” after the political Unification of Italy. Complete reading of the essay “L’idioma gentile”.

1. E. DE AMICIS, L’idioma gentile, a cura di A. Giardina, Milano, Dalai Editore, 2006 (or any other edition).

2. The student will choose one of the following books written by De Amicis (free available in Google Libri or in other digital libraries). The book will be chosen according with the teacher at the beginning of the lessons, as the reading will be followed by exercises on digital philology and digital lexicography: Amore e ginnastica, La carrozza di tutti, Cinematografo cerebrale, Cuore, Costantinopoli, Marocco, La maestrina degli operai, Novelle, Olanda, Ricordi di Parigi, Ricordi di Londra, Ricordi d’infanzia e di scuola, Fra scuola e casa, Spagna, Sull’oceano, La vita militare.

3. Texts, ppt and web sites archived in DIR.

Students who cannot attend the course have to study the following program (they will NOT have to submit any exercises of digital philology and digital lexicography: their exam will be an oral exam on the texts listed below):

1. C. MARAZZINI, Da Dante alle lingue del Web. Otto secoli di dibattiti sull’italiano, nuova edizione, Roma, Carocci, 2013.

2. C. MARAZZINI, L’italiano è meraviglioso. Come e perché dobbiamo salvare la nostra lingua, Milano, Rizzoli, 2018.

3. E. DE AMICIS, L’idioma gentile, a cura di A. Giardina, Milano, Dalai Editore, 2006 (or other edition).

4. Texts, ppt and web sites archived in DIR.

1. Good knowledge on “questione della lingua” in Italy after the political Unification and in the first decades of the XX century.

2. Thorough knowledge of the essay “L’idioma gentile” by De Amicis.

3. Good knowledge of digital tools useful for studying Italian Linguistics, Italian Lexicography, History of the Italian language, Italian literature.

4. Knowing how to use the RALIP computer program to extract first attestations of words from the examined texts; be able to identify any improvements in words backdating by querying Google Books and other electronic corpora.

Expected goals for NOT attending students:

1. Good knowledge on “questione della lingua” in Italy, from Dante to present days.

2. Have an in-depth knowledge of the debates that concerne Italian and its relations with dialects and with other languages in the years of the political Unification of our Country, in the XX century and in the new Millennium.

3. Thorough knowledge of the essay “L’idioma gentile” by De Amicis.

Students who have not achieved 12 cfu in History of the Italian language (sector L-FIL-LET/12) in their previous career DO NOT access this monographic master’s programme. They will have to contact the teacher via email and follow the lessons and the program of the course titled History of the Italian language A.

In-class lectures and computer classroom lessons. PPT and video clips. During the lessons, students are actively involved through the submission of exercises.

Educational strategies used by Italian teachers in the late XIX century and in the beginning of the XX century will be presented and discussed, starting a useful comparison with today’s teaching of the Italian language. This comparison can let usefully recover strategies of the past that nowadays appear mostly abandoned, combining them with the use of new digital instruments.

Oral exam on the lessons topics and on the materials indicated in the bibliography.

For attending students who will deliver the written exercises on word backdatings and who will discuss with the teacher, during the lessons, a reading, the exam has an average duration of 10 minutes.

The oral exam will take place as follows:

- Two questions on the essay “L’idioma gentile” by De Amicis (the oral presentation and the dialectic conversation with the teacher will be assessed). Value 50%.

- The teacher will comment on the written exercise delivered by the student before the end of the lessons and previously discussed in class: exercises in digital philology and extraction of words backdating from the texts examined. Value 50%.

For students who CANNOT attend the course, the exam lasts an average of 20 minutes.
The oral exam will take place as follows:

- Two questions on the essay “L’idioma gentile” by De Amicis (the oral presentation and the dialectic conversation with the teacher will be assessed). Value 40%.

- One question concerning the “questione della lingua” before the political Unification of Italy. Value 20%.

- Three questions concerning the “questione della lingua” after the political Unification of Italy, in the XX century and in the present days. Value 40%.

1. The “questione della lingua” after the political Unification of Italy: “manzoniani” and “antimanzoniani”.

2. Manzoni’s ideas to promote the linguistic unification of Italy. Teachers, grammarians and lexicographers who followed Manzoni’s ideas: dictionaries of use, dictionaries of synonyms, domestic dictionaries, grammars, reading books.

3. Full reading and commentary of the essay “L’idioma gentile” by De Amicis.

4. Assignment of readings to students. Presentation of electronic corpora of literary texts and techincal texts. Presentation of IT tools for linguistic analysis of texts: RALIP and AntConc. Corpus VoDIM and VIVer. ArchiDATA project.

5. Students will present their reading, showing the results of the analysis of the text read through the computer program RALIP (Automatic “retrodatatore” of Italian post-unification words) and trough a check in Google Books, in order to find modern Italian words born after the political unification of Italy.

Students who CANNOT attend the course will follow the exam bibliography over mentioned.

1. Good knowledge on “questione della lingua” in Italy after the political Unification and in the first decades of the XX century.

2. Thorough knowledge of the essay “L’idioma gentile” by De Amicis.

3. Good knowledge of digital tools useful for studying Italian Linguistics, Italian Lexicography, History of the Italian language, Italian literature.

4. Knowing how to use the RALIP computer program to extract first attestations of words from the examined texts; be able to identify any improvements in words backdating by querying Google Books and other electronic corpora.

Expected results for NOT attending students:

1. Good knowledge on “questione della lingua” in Italy, from Dante to present days.
2. Have an in-depth knowledge of the debates that concerned Italian and its relations with dialects and with other languages in the years of the political Unification of our Country, in the XX century and in the new Millennium.
3. Thorough knowledge of the essay “L’idioma gentile” by De Amicis.