Ateneo - UPO

Language, orality and writing: the voice as an instrument of knowledge.

1) F. Albano Leoni, Voce. Il corpo del linguaggio, Roma, Carocci, 2022 (ALL);
2) D. Crepaldi, Neuropsicologia della lettura, Roma, Carocci, 2020 (ALL);
3) A. De Dominicis (a cura di), La voce come bene culturale, Roma, Carocci, 2002 (caps. 1 to 8, pp.7-157).
For non-attending students add:
4) C. Severi, Il percorso e la voce. Un’antropologia della memoria, Torino, Einaudi, 2004 (part.: cap. III, pp. 185-239).
Those who did not take the examination of
General Linguistics A or Fundamentals of Linguistics must add to the programme:
5) R. SIMONE,Nuovi fondamenti di linguistica. Edizione riveduta e corretta, Milano, McGraw-Hill, 2016 (ALL).

The first objective of the course is to provide the student with the main linguistic, sociolinguistic and ethnopragmatic notions necessary to correctly analyze language in all its diaphasic and diamesic aspects (orality, aurality, literacy, etc.), both in the examples provided in class than during the final check. A second, more advanced objective is to enable the student to apply the metalanguage and independently develop the concepts and methodologies learned for linguistic reasoning on theoretical and empirical data connected to the performative component of languages and to the mythical-ritual aspects of the voice. A third objective is to prepare students for the teaching of applied linguistics.

Given the monographic, seminar and advanced nature of the course, attendance is
highly recommended. Anyone who has not taken the three-year exam of
A General Linguistics or Fundamentals of Linguistics is required to
add to the program R. SIMONE, New foundations of linguistics.
Revised and corrected edition, Milan, McGraw-Hill, 2016 (ALL); such
text will form the initial part of the exam, which will last in this case
45-60 minutes. This program is valid until the exam session of
February 2025, after which everyone is required to ask the teacher for a
new updated program.

Lectures and online teaching (DIR); the material in DIR is, however, only and exclusively an aid and does NOT in any way replace the texts indicated in the programme bibliography. During the lessons, the active involvement of students through analysis and commentary of
linguistic and ethnological data, even with short term papers and reports, in order to
develop the ability to analyze material diachronic and synchronic, the assimilation of teaching methodologies
of applied linguistics and specific communication skills.

Anyone wishing to take the exam as a single or external course will necessarily have to agree a personal program with the teacher.

Oral examination lasting approximately 30-40 minutes (45-60 for those who have never taken a linguistics examination before). The examination will be passed when the grade is 18/30 or higher. During the examination it is possible to withdraw and at the end of the examination to reject the grade if positive; the grade accepted on the spot can no longer be changed. The formulation of the overall grade will be based on the assessment of the appropriate use of the specific metalanguage and the accuracy and appropriateness of the answers to the questions on the texts indicated in the syllabus and in class. Honours will be awarded on the basis of an assessment of in-depth and independent elaboration skills. In accordance with Art. 35 of the University Teaching Regulations, students may sit for the same examination no more than three times in one academic year.

The course will focus on the analysis of the main characteristics of the voice as an intrinsic and indissoluble element of language and its co-evolution, both from a pragma-linguistic, socio-cultural and historical-cognitive point of view. After having identified the animal and human origins and the basic functions related to the use of the phonic-acoustic apparatus and its biological evolution, the voice will face perception and classification, its use as a work tool and as a cultural asset, and the relationships between voice and historical-natural languages, between voice and writing, between voice and neurolinguistics of reading (graphematics of languages and history of alphabets, reading aloud, dyslexia, etc.). Finally, the examination of the ethnolinguistic characteristics of the ritual voice will highlight some metalinguistic and cognitive peculiarities of the voice that is embodied in a traditional cantor, linking them to the development of consciousness and self-awareness, to the voices within.

The pre-established objective is the achievement of a level of competence such as to profitably allow the conclusion of the course of study and subsequent work applications wherever in-depth and advanced knowledge of general and applied linguistics are required.

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING: knowing how to illustrate the theoretical bases of linguistic and ethnopragmatic analysis presented in the course with the appropriate specific metalanguage; knowing how to understand the linguistic differences between the different types of performative agency and texts produced in the utterance. • ABILITY TO APPLY KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING: Knowing how to set up the linguistic analysis of texts, even those that have never been analyzed before; identify, explain and evaluate at least three of their main pragmatic, diamesic and diaphasic characteristics (context characteristics and their textual impact, type of linguistic register chosen, focusing mechanisms, discursive signals, interruptions, overlaps, dialogic repetitions, evaluate the degree of involvement , of symmetry or dissymmetry between the interlocutors, self-referentiality and identity of those who take turns, etc.); provide examples of at least two of the types of written and oral texts addressed during the course. • MAKING JUDGMENTS: Knowing how to recognize which are the main linguistic phenomena that operate in the proposed examples and appropriately propose their own. • COMMUNICATION SKILLS: knowing how to express one's knowledge using the specific metalinguistic terminology with awareness. • LEARNING SKILLS: knowing how to deepen the topics presented and develop a capacity for critical analysis with respect to the theoretical references presented during the course and their concrete application.