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The functional category of general extenders (e.g. and so on, or something, etcetera) has been mainly analysed in previous work with a focus on spoken language. The aim of this paper is to further explore its use in standard written language, through the analysis of a corpus of Italian texts. The paper shows that general extenders in written language display several specific features that need to be considered within a general account of the class: (i) from a quantitative point of view, their frequency of use is lower than that of their spoken counterparts; (ii) forms like the abbreviation ecc./etc. and the ellipsis <...> are exclusive of written language; (iii) they are often employed in lists that exemplify a co-occurring referring expression, thus reinforcing text cohesion without the proper online categorization that regularly takes place in spoken language; (iv) their frequency of use is higher in formal texts, whereas in spoken language it increases in interactive and informal discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the present paper is to reconstruct De Mauro’s interest in sign languages by emphasizing how the perspective on language he offered is fundamental in describing sign languages, but also to recall his civic commitment. From the very beginning of the research in Italian Sign language (LIS) De Mauro supported early investigations and fought for a recognition of LIS and its acceptance on par with other languages. His direct and indirect influence both in the description of this language and in the affairs of the Italian deaf community appears evident even if still little known and recognized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to single out the changes that occur in onomastic functions when a literary name is translated to the target language. After introducing the main functions outlined by Polish scholars and presenting the specificity of the onomasticon in the fantasy genre, the author describes the main changes that onomastic functions undergo in the Italian version of Sapkowski's fantasy saga: preservation, loss, addition, alteration, accumulation, substitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the Rapporto, an essay on the Chinese calendar, composed by Sabatino de Ursis S.J., priest and missionary in China, in 1612. In the Rapporto, the first of its kind to be written in a European language, de Ursis accurately reported on the features of the Chinese calendar, in the perspective of reforming it. On the basis of the western developments in the science, he gave a critical account of the notable lacks present in Chinese astronomy and other scientific disciplines. Sabatino de Ursis’s scientific contribution is to be considered in the wider context of Matteo Ricci’s strategy aimed at promoting the evangelization of the populations of the Far East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After an excursus on the peculiarity of the Sardinian language and the difference between a language and a dialect, the paper analyses the changes applied to the treatment of Sardinian language in different Dewey Decimal Classification editions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the library of Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli (1658-1730), scientist, military engineer and diplomat of the Habsburgs during the Hungarian wars, then founder of the Istituto delle Scienze in Bologna, in order to understand his image of the Balkan world. For this purpose, the paper discusses the creation of Marsigli's library, by ascertaining when he gathered it (mainly between 1696 and 1703), in which way (contacts with intellectuals and booksellers, thematic bibliographies) and on the basis of what criteria (to build a reference library for politicians); then, it identifies the 37 works about Balkan matters Marsigli got and analyzes them quantitatively and qualitatively. The emerging image is heavily conditioned at a cultural level: Marsigli chose important books, but solely written in Western languages and mainly referring to the Hungarian regions and to the Greek-Turkish world, and he neglected the Slavic and Romanian areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

‘Italian’ notation — in opposition to ‘French’ notation, that rather should be called ‘international’ — in the present paper is delimited to notation using a punctus divisionis continuously. All Trecento sources exhibiting this feature are explored with regard to the use and meaning of the notational signs within the divisio. On the basis of two new concordances to the Rossi Codex, the variability of ‘Italian’ notation, as a phenomenon existing from its beginning, is displayed. Criteria such as applying the principle of via naturae, the downward stemmed semibrevis, the implementation of new notational signs as those featuring a diagonal stem on the left side, or the direction of the flags of semiminimae lead to the identification of temporal and regional distinguishable or even individual notational practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]