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This paper presents a case study on the teaching of a 30-hour module of English Linguistics for two courses in the first-cycle degree programme in Modern Cultures and Languages. Data gathered through students’ evaluation forms have been contradictory: the module scored high as far as students’ satisfaction was concerned but it scored low regarding interest. This paper shows how students’ feedback has helped us introduce changes. These are illustrated in the main part of this paper. They engage with pedagogical knowledge, methodologies and practices, as well as linguistic approaches specifically chosen to unpack the potential of the content of the module, improving students’ language awareness and language skills.

This paper examines from a codicological and bibliographical point of view the manuscript M-139 of the Menéndez Pelayo Library (Santander, Spain). The aim is to provide new information on the materiality of the codex while linking the study of the material and content of the manuscript, in order to draw conclusions about its configuration. After the identification of the manuscript, the contents are explained in detail. The material aspects are then dealt with, from the composition and markings of the paper, through the systems of arrangement to a brief paleographic analysis.

In this paper we focus on an aspect of the change in the syntax of the Gallo-Italic variety of Nicosia (Enna), which is presumably fostered by prolonged contact with Sicilian: the use of the Aviri a + Infinitive Construction (AICo). This periphrasis can cover different functions (deontic, epistemic, futural, and optative) and, in Nicosiano, can surface in different configurations (usually featuring a [d] element). We considered a written corpus containing works (poetry, short stories, novels, theatre plays) by the two major authors in Nicosiano: La Giglia (1862-1922) and Castrogiovanni (1933-2007). We compared the occurrences of the AICo in the corpus with those of modal dövë̀ ‘must’ and synthetic future forms. The functions of the latter two, which are not productive in Sicilian anymore, generally overlap with those of the AICo. The data collected confirm the effects of Sicilian on Nicosiano: the AICo has almost completely taken over dövë̀ and synthetic forms for all the functions considered, the latter constructions generally occurring in crystallised expressions in the corpus.

Cross-linguistic variation in future-tense sentences has been extensively documented in the literature. Despite this diversity, there is a prevailing sense that a common core meaning exists and that the various interpretations in each language are connected. To account for both the similarities and the differences, Escandell-Vidal proposes that the meaning encoded by verbal tenses can be analysed into two components: i) core meaning; and ii) semantic micro-parameters (additional fine-grained constraints on specific categories of the core meaning that account for subtle differences between related languages or dialects). The purpose of this paper is twofold. On the descriptive side, it aims to refine the approach in terms of microparametric distinctions by suggesting some modifications. On the theoretical side, it seeks to offer a simpler and more powerful tool to account for interlinguistic variation by restricting its range to a limited set of predictable combinations.

In this paper, I shall deal with quasi-(proper) names, that is expressions like ‘Mum’, ‘Dad’, ‘Grandpa’, ‘Grandma’ in English or ‘Papà’, ‘Mamma’, ‘Nonna’, ‘Nonno’ in Italian. My aim is to describe their uses and to throw further light on the theory of proper names. My view is that quasi-names are even more directly referential than proper names, as they stress continuity in the reference to a certain person. While proper names are always contextual, in so far as the context can select the referent in question (e.g. through salience), a quasi-name guarantees semantic continuity in that the referent is normally anchored to the speaker.

Different studies in generative grammar have tried to explain the optionality with respect to the complementizer omission across languages and across structures. Specifically, the complementizer omission in declarative embedded contexts introduced by the so-called bridge verbs. In this paper, we test two models postulating different derivations and marking different predictions to the nature of the complementizer omission: one model stipulates the deletion of the complementizer (complementizer deletion), whereas the second model focuses on the verbal elements of the embedded clause (complementizer rise, when present). To reach our goal, we explore large-scale datasets (syntactically annotated treebanks of German, Italian and Old Florentine) and adopt simple computational models to compare and test the models under investigation. Our results suggest that the predictions of the complementizer deletion hypotheses are confirmed by German data, while those of the complementizer rise model are partially corroborated by Italian data. We consider this study as a blueprint for finer-grained research.

In reply to Alessandro Capone’s paper entitled “On quasi-proper names”, I provide relevant data in Japanese and discuss the properties and status of quasi-names from a cross-linguistic perspective. A close look at the properties of Japanese quasi-names indicates that they are a special case of yobina (lit. ‘call name’), a subcategory of nicknames in Japanese which are used both to refer to and to call someone. Specifically, they are like stage names systematically given to older family members. The yobina status of quasi-names appear to hold cross-linguistically, while the peculiarity within the yobina category has general and language-specific elements.

The subversive semantic power of the revenant or reanimated corpse in Victorian literature serves as a crucial indicator of the era’s preoccupation with the body as a cultural domain. Deeply entwined with the uneasy relationship between the advancement of anatomical science and criminality, the body is marked as the site of fraught boundaries imbued with social order and its attendant anxieties. This paper explores the narrative strategies of Stevenson’s short story “The Body Snatcher” (1884) where resurrectionist motifs resist the enforcement of the condition of anonymity that was entailed by anatomical dissection and signal the impossibility of closure through the trope of return of the repressed sub specie of the dissected cadaver. This dual ‘resistance’ culminates in the symbolism of the revenant corpse’s movement, abandoned in its progress towards the future. Stevenson’s story reveals a hermeneutic complexity that intertwines the themes of contamination, ethical collusion, commodification of the dead body through the entanglement of medical practice and narrative opacity. This offers further insights into the Victorian resurrectionist imagination, in the light of that ‘aura’ of the corpse which the regulation of the 1834 New Poor Amendment Act failed to dispel.