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In her poetry collection falsche freunde the German-speaking artist Uljana Wolf develops a translinguale Lyrik, a poetic voice dwelling on a linguistic and geographical border zone. Building on Emily Apter’s concepts of untranslatability, this paper investigates how Wolf’s structural and thematic checkpoints instil a strong political commitment into her poetry. Furthermore, this engagement is here interpreted as the expression of the paradigm of the postmigrantische Gesellschaft. Finally, the paper argues that through the choice of the term ‘alien’ over the category ‘fremd’ Wolf suggests an innovative shift in the representation of migratory dynamics, from their cultural dimension to their biopolitical significance.

Theo Padnos published My Life Had Stood A Loaded Gun in 2004, when Prison Studies were burgeoning and gaining academic attention globally. Neglected by critics, the book relates the author's experience as literature instructor in an American prison. Engaging methods of pedagogical research and reader-response criticism, the paper investigates the role of literature in the cultural activities of young male inmates in a medium security jail in Vermont. An original amalgam of crime reports, pedagogy of literature, and autobiographical criticism, Padnos' study for the first time confronts young criminals with a literary canon dripping with violence. The experiment sheds light on the reading activities of prisoners, on their and the author's social background, and on the power of American literature to speak to marginal groups.

Linguists argued that the Cockney dialect, in London, is expected to be replaced by Multicultural London English in the years to come. However, this does not imply that Cockney is dead, as recent research revealed that it just moved to Essex. This paper aims at examining whether (l) vocalisation, a common feature of Cockney, is still present in the London district of Bermondsey. Ten working-class English speakers, stratified by age and sex, have been recorded by means of sociolinguistic interviews. The results, discussed both quantitively and qualitatively, show that: (a) (l) vocalisation is present in all age cohorts, with young speakers favouring the non-standard feature; (b) preceding long vowels trigger (l) vocalisation.

The so-called indirect passive, where the subject is not the argument of the underlying verb that bears the Theme/Patient role, is generally understood to be a bi-clausal phenomenon (cf. Kuno 1973; Shibatani 1978; Kuroda 1979). In other words, the passive morpheme rare is merged with a clause, and then the resulting item is combined with the subject. In this paper, however, we argue that the indirect passive is best understood as a mono-clausal phenomenon. We first point out that with some instances of the indirect passive, the passive morpheme rare is not understood as being combined with a verb or clause in syntax. Thus, we are led to assume that the lexicon contains numerous instances of the Vrare form. This implies that even when the passive morpheme rare is combined in syntax, it forms a constituent with the relevant verb; hence, the indirect passive is a mono-clausal phenomenon. We furthermore maintain that when the indirect passive involves the merging of rare with a verb in syntax, the verb must be a volitional verb, and demonstrate that this generalization, as well as the case particle alternation involved in the indirect passive, poses a challenge to the bi-clause analysis but not to the mono-clause analysis. Finally, we review one of the main arguments for analyzing the indirect passive to be a bi-clausal phenomenon, which concerns the antecedent of zibun. We show that it is inconclusive at best.

The goal of this paper is to reconcile the definite marking with the indefinite-like semantics of those superlatives that take a relative/comparative reading. Following Szabolcsi (1986) and Heim (1999), we will assume that the difference between absolute and relative readings of superlatives is represented at the syntactic level of semantic representation, LF (Logical Form). We will however depart from Heim’s hypothesis that what raises at LF is the superlative operator itself (EST). We will instead assume a quantificational-determiner analysis of EST, which involves two raising operations at LF: EST-raising to Spec,DP and raising of the whole superlative DP (Determiner Phrase) to a scope position in the sentence. We will examine the relative readings of quality superlatives. The generalizations and the proposed analysis are not assumed to extend to quantity superlatives.

This paper analyses Angela Carter’s desecrating tendency to taboo-breaking in thematic and formal terms. By referring to her short-fiction production and focusing on “John Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore", I intend to show how gender/patriarchal and genre/authorial taboos are similarly broken and transmuted into daringly subversive outcomes. In line with her feminist agenda and postmodern transformism, Carter superbly challenges, sabotages, violates, de- and re-constructs traditionally codified sexual and gender taboos by mimicking such reversals through new narrative solutions. If diversity, multiplicity and change guarantee the continuity of life, incest can easily metaphorise a taboo relationship based on repetition of the identical, sameness, and immobility, to be finally transformed, if not avoided. Consistent with many of her female characters’ incestuous relationships with parents or siblings, Carter also establishes incest-like relationships with previous authors and narrative discourses, which she predatorily appropriates. Carter’s resulting narrative testifies to the fact that taboos must be first experienced to be eventually broken. It is in the dialectic between rule and infraction, taboo and its violation that Carter’s writing is rooted, constantly looking for borders to be crossed.

Designed as a paper reflecting on the editorial mediation of early modern French literary texts, this article maps the educational activities conducted on the Tragiques Inventions site since 2020. In particular, it delves into the procedures linked to documenting, generating and manipulating descriptive and analytical (meta)data. A new concept of ‘hand-reading’ is being developed – the possibility of using digital technology to prioritize human intervention in the construction of knowledge through textual editing. This concept will bring a fresh perspective on early modern literary texts.

There is a substantial body of scholarship arguing for the relevance of magic realism to Toni Morrison’s fictional production, with one exception being her last novel God Help the Child, which, in that respect, has been remarkably overlooked. The present paper intends to fill this scholarly gap by focusing on what Morrison called “enchantment”, a powerful blend of magic and realism that she employed to represent a host of racial and ancestral issues of Blackness, often of a traumatic kind.

Sylvia’s Lovers is a novel about war. It is a historical novel set in the years 1793-1800 during the Napoleonic wars, and written by Elizabeth Gaskell in the years 1859-1862 when the American Civil War broke out, in April 1861. Examining Gaskell’s correspondence with Charles Eliot Norton in the years 1861-63 and the articles Norton wrote in support of the War and the anti-slavery cause, this paper explores the way in which the news coming from America and the debates on the contemporary events left a significant mark on the second part of the novel. The implied reference to the context of the American Civil War would shed new light on Gaskell’s narrative choices concerning the plot and the main male character’s development, which has been substantially overlooked.

Linguists argued that the Cockney dialect, in London, is expected to be replaced by Multicultural London English in the years to come. However, this does not imply that Cockney is dead, as recent research revealed that it just moved to Essex. This paper aims at examining whether (l) vocalisation, a common feature of Cockney, is still present in the London district of Bermondsey. Ten working-class English speakers, stratified by age and sex, have been recorded by means of sociolinguistic interviews. The results, discussed both quantitively and qualitatively, show that: (a) (l) vocalisation is present in all age cohorts, with young speakers favouring the non-standard feature; (b) preceding long vowels trigger (l) vocalisation.

The so-called indirect passive, where the subject is not the argument of the underlying verb that bears the Theme/Patient role, is generally understood to be a bi-clausal phenomenon (cf. Kuno 1973; Shibatani 1978; Kuroda 1979). In other words, the passive morpheme rare is merged with a clause, and then the resulting item is combined with the subject. In this paper, however, we argue that the indirect passive is best understood as a mono-clausal phenomenon. We first point out that with some instances of the indirect passive, the passive morpheme rare is not understood as being combined with a verb or clause in syntax. Thus, we are led to assume that the lexicon contains numerous instances of the Vrare form. This implies that even when the passive morpheme rare is combined in syntax, it forms a constituent with the relevant verb; hence, the indirect passive is a mono-clausal phenomenon. We furthermore maintain that when the indirect passive involves the merging of rare with a verb in syntax, the verb must be a volitional verb, and demonstrate that this generalization, as well as the case particle alternation involved in the indirect passive, poses a challenge to the bi-clause analysis but not to the mono-clause analysis. Finally, we review one of the main arguments for analyzing the indirect passive to be a bi-clausal phenomenon, which concerns the antecedent of zibun. We show that it is inconclusive at best.

The goal of this paper is to reconcile the definite marking with the indefinite-like semantics of those superlatives that take a relative/comparative reading. Following Szabolcsi (1986) and Heim (1999), we will assume that the difference between absolute and relative readings of superlatives is represented at the syntactic level of semantic representation, LF (Logical Form). We will however depart from Heim’s hypothesis that what raises at LF is the superlative operator itself (EST). We will instead assume a quantificational-determiner analysis of EST, which involves two raising operations at LF: EST-raising to Spec,DP and raising of the whole superlative DP (Determiner Phrase) to a scope position in the sentence. We will examine the relative readings of quality superlatives. The generalizations and the proposed analysis are not assumed to extend to quantity superlatives.

This paper analyses Angela Carter’s desecrating tendency to taboo-breaking in thematic and formal terms. By referring to her short-fiction production and focusing on “John Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore", I intend to show how gender/patriarchal and genre/authorial taboos are similarly broken and transmuted into daringly subversive outcomes. In line with her feminist agenda and postmodern transformism, Carter superbly challenges, sabotages, violates, de- and re-constructs traditionally codified sexual and gender taboos by mimicking such reversals through new narrative solutions. If diversity, multiplicity and change guarantee the continuity of life, incest can easily metaphorise a taboo relationship based on repetition of the identical, sameness, and immobility, to be finally transformed, if not avoided. Consistent with many of her female characters’ incestuous relationships with parents or siblings, Carter also establishes incest-like relationships with previous authors and narrative discourses, which she predatorily appropriates. Carter’s resulting narrative testifies to the fact that taboos must be first experienced to be eventually broken. It is in the dialectic between rule and infraction, taboo and its violation that Carter’s writing is rooted, constantly looking for borders to be crossed.

Designed as a paper reflecting on the editorial mediation of early modern French literary texts, this article maps the educational activities conducted on the Tragiques Inventions site since 2020. In particular, it delves into the procedures linked to documenting, generating and manipulating descriptive and analytical (meta)data. A new concept of ‘hand-reading’ is being developed – the possibility of using digital technology to prioritize human intervention in the construction of knowledge through textual editing. This concept will bring a fresh perspective on early modern literary texts.

There is a substantial body of scholarship arguing for the relevance of magic realism to Toni Morrison’s fictional production, with one exception being her last novel God Help the Child, which, in that respect, has been remarkably overlooked. The present paper intends to fill this scholarly gap by focusing on what Morrison called “enchantment”, a powerful blend of magic and realism that she employed to represent a host of racial and ancestral issues of Blackness, often of a traumatic kind.

Theo Padnos published My Life Had Stood A Loaded Gun in 2004, when Prison Studies were burgeoning and gaining academic attention globally. Neglected by critics, the book relates the author's experience as literature instructor in an American prison. Engaging methods of pedagogical research and reader-response criticism, the paper investigates the role of literature in the cultural activities of young male inmates in a medium security jail in Vermont. An original amalgam of crime reports, pedagogy of literature, and autobiographical criticism, Padnos' study for the first time confronts young criminals with a literary canon dripping with violence. The experiment sheds light on the reading activities of prisoners, on their and the author's social background, and on the power of American literature to speak to marginal groups.

Sylvia’s Lovers is a novel about war. It is a historical novel set in the years 1793-1800 during the Napoleonic wars, and written by Elizabeth Gaskell in the years 1859-1862 when the American Civil War broke out, in April 1861. Examining Gaskell’s correspondence with Charles Eliot Norton in the years 1861-63 and the articles Norton wrote in support of the War and the anti-slavery cause, this paper explores the way in which the news coming from America and the debates on the contemporary events left a significant mark on the second part of the novel. The implied reference to the context of the American Civil War would shed new light on Gaskell’s narrative choices concerning the plot and the main male character’s development, which has been substantially overlooked.

In this paper, Old High German mood alternations in the different types of subordinate clauses (complement, adverbial and relative clauses) are discussed. The use of the subjunctive in subordinate clauses is notoriously more frequent than in Modern German and has not yet been thoroughly investigated. Based on a comprehensive corpus study, the paper will show that the licensing conditions for the subjunctive in Old High German are determined by notions such as veridicality and – in relative contexts – specificity. These conditions are thus similar (but not always identical) to those observed for Modern Greek and Romance languages. Furthermore, a syntactic analysis is provided in order to account for the licensing of the subjunctive in each type of subordinate clause.

In this paper, Old High German mood alternations in the different types of subordinate clauses (complement, adverbial and relative clauses) are discussed. The use of the subjunctive in subordinate clauses is notoriously more frequent than in Modern German and has not yet been thoroughly investigated. Based on a comprehensive corpus study, the paper will show that the licensing conditions for the subjunctive in Old High German are determined by notions such as veridicality and – in relative contexts – specificity. These conditions are thus similar (but not always identical) to those observed for Modern Greek and Romance languages. Furthermore, a syntactic analysis is provided in order to account for the licensing of the subjunctive in each type of subordinate clause.

Abstract –In communication a great deal of meaning is exchanged through body language, including gaze, posture, hand gestures and body movements. Body language is largely culture-specific, and rests, for its comprehension, on people’s sharing socio-cultural and linguistic norms. In cross-cultural communication, L2 speakers’ use of body language may convey meaning that is not understood or misinterpreted by the interlocutors, affecting the pragmatics of communication. In spite of its importance for cross-cultural communication, body language is neglected in ESL/EFL teaching. This paper argues that the study of body language should be integrated in the syllabus of ESL/EFL teaching and learning. This is done by: 1) reviewing literature showing the tight connection between language, speech and gestures and the problems that might arise in cross-cultural communication when speakers use and interpret body language according to different conventions; 2) reporting the data from two pilot studies showing that L2 learners transfer L1 gestures to the L2 and that these are not understood by native L2 speakers; 3) reporting an experience teaching body language in an ESL/EFL classroom. The paper suggests that in multicultural ESL/EFL classes teaching body language should be aimed primarily at raising the students’ awareness of the differences existing across cultures. Keywords: ESL/EFL teaching; body language; cross-cultural communication; speech; gestures. Abstract –Nella comunicazione una buona parte del significato viene trasmetto attraverso il linguaggio del corpo, che include lo sguardo, la postura, i gesti delle mani e i movimenti del corpo. Il linguaggio del corpo è per lo più specifico di ciascuna cultura e si affida, per la sua comprensione, sulla condivisione di norme socio-culturali e linguistiche. Nella comunicazione interculturale l’uso del linguaggio del corpo da parte dei parlanti di L2 può trasmettere significati che non vengono compresi o vengono malinterpretati dagli interlocutori, con effetti sulla pragmatica della comunicazione. Nonostante la sua indiscussa importanza per la comunicazione interculturale il linguaggio del corpo è trascurato nell’insegnamento di ESL/EFL. Questo lavoro sostiene che lo studio del linguaggio del corpo dovrebbe essere integrato nel curriculum dell’insegnamento e dell’apprendimento di ESL/EFL. A tale scopo, questo studio: 1) fa una rassegna della letteratura che mostra lo stretto collegamento tra lingua, parlato e gesti e dei problem che potrebbero sorgere quando, nella comunicazione interculturale, i parlanti usano e interpretano il linguaggio del corpo secondo convenzioni diverse; 2) riporta dati da 2 studi pilota che mostrano il transfer dei gesti dalla L1 alla L2 e come i gesti trasferiti nella L2 non vengano compresi dai parlanti native della lingua target; 3) riporta una esperienza di insegnamento di linguaggio del corpo in un corso di ESL/EFL. Il saggio suggerisce che nelle classi multicultural di ESL/EFL l’insegnamento del linguaggio del corpo dovrebbe essere mirato in primo luogo a fare crescere la consapevolezza degli studenti delle differenze esistenti tra culture diverse. Keywords: insegnamento ESL/EFL; linguaggio del corpo; comunicazione interculturale; parlato; gesti.

Abstract - The aim of this paper is to explore the ‘literary’ in literary translation. It begins with a discussion of what makes a text literary, focussing on some very famous literary works which did not (and indeed do not) necessarily fit what is generally considered the literary canon. The features that translators should identify when first reading a text, on the look-out for potential literary value, are then outlined. These features are both textual (covering non-casual language, rhetorical features and equivalences) and contextual (connotations, implicatures, intratextual and culture-bound associations). The paper then discusses changing translation theory and practice, in particular illustrating points with comments made by translators and theorists in this book and elsewhere. Importance is also given to the profession itself, to literary translator beliefs about their role, the changing importance of the model reader and to changing beliefs about accepted style, making reference also to results of a global survey recently carried out on the subject. Riassunto -L’articolo si propone di esplorare il “letterario” nella traduzione letteraria. Si parte da una discussione di ciò che rende letterario un testo, facendo riferimento ad alcune opere letterarie molto famose che non rientravano (e non rientrano tuttora) in ciò che viene generalmente ritenuto il canone letterario. Si definiscono, poi, gli aspetti che i traduttori dovrebbero individuare leggendo un testo per la prima volta nella prospettiva di ricerca di un potenziale valore letterario. Tali aspetti sono sia testuali (il linguaggio ‘non casuale’, le figure retoriche e le equivalenze) sia contestuali (connotazioni, implicature, associazioni intratestuali e legate alla cultura). L’articolo discute, poi, l’evolversi della teoria e pratica della traduzione, illustrando in particolare alcuni punti commentati da traduttori e teorici di questo volume e al di fuori. Si sottolinea inoltre l’importanza della professione del traduttore e della percezione che il traduttore letterario ha del proprio ruolo, mettendo in evidenza come l’importanza del lettore modello e dei valori relativi a uno stile condiviso stia cambiando, facendo anche riferimento ai risultati di una recente intervista globale sull’argomento.

Abstract – This paper will analyze the ‘historical’ novel Gould’s Book of Fish (2001) by the Tasmanian writer Richard Flanagan with the aim of reflecting upon the power of the creative word as a means to forge reality, shape identities, mask or unmask truths, and also to prefigure a different, alternative world order based on commonly negotiated and thus shared values. The postmodernist revisiting of the traditional genre of the historical novel does not compromise the postcolonial commitment of the writer: Flanagan’s incursions into the Australian colonial past are informed by his concern for urgent social and political causes which has characterized his unswerving fight against all systems of inequality and exploitation. In his novel, the subversion of the linear causal relation of events which calls into question the truthfulness and objectivity of history, together with the foregrounded metanarrative reflection on the art of writing, contribute to the revisiting and re-discussing of the myth of progress and the cult of rationality at the very roots of Western civilization and of its imperialistic enterprise. Flanagan’s ‘anti-historical’ historical novel tackles urgent questions about modernity interrogating the founding narratives of the Australian national identity, in order to explore the uncontrollable and shifting areas of the contemporary ‘transnation’ in which the traditional categories shaping subjectivities are disrupted. As the paper will demonstrate, the writer digs into the past of his nation not simply in order to unravel its hidden histories but to detect the profound, inextricable interconnections with the present across different times and spaces. Feelings and experiences that exist above and beyond historical contingencies and cultural differences represent the writer’s privileged area of investigation as they trespass upon conventional and artificial boundaries revealing what it is that makes us all human.

Abstract - The luxury fashion is an important industry from both the economic and socio-cultural perspectives, since the high sales volume marks it as a crisis-proof sector, where the luxury fashion brands trigger specific cognitive, emotional, and behavioural effects on their end users. Yet, marketing and semiotics literatures still have to fully enquire into the use of multimodality in the production of advertisements. This paper explores this multimodal construction of print advertising of luxury brands, focusing on the semantic dimensions of “textual silence”. In particular, the qualitative analysis carried out by this study exemplifies how the choice between “offer” and “demand” images and their disposition as visual vectors are meant to activate specific interpretations and reactions by receivers, without resorting to written language. Besides the application of the theoretical background of multimodality to the luxury fashion industry, this paper has practical implications as well, for it develops a framework for the analysis of the advertising discourse which encompasses semiotic, linguistic and motivational aspects.

This paper deals with Latin discontinuous nominal expressions (hyperbatons) both by a diachronic perspective internal to Latin (I-VI cent. A.D.) and compared to Romance languages. A nominal expression can be considered discontinuous when its word order is interrupted by one or more elements. In these cases a violation of the principle of the ‘domain integrity’ takes place. Discontinuity is typical of Latin and sets it apart from Romance languages, in which hyperbatons are not allowed. It is well attested in all phases of Latin so that it is considered one of the most distinctive feature of Latin word order. In this paper, we explore the hypothesis that not all linearly discontinuous orders are real hyperbatons. In fact, cases in which the order Modif.-N or N-Modif. is interrupted by the complement of one of the two categories are frequent; in this perspective the domain of hyperbatons results consistently restricted. As regards real hyperbatons, we will propose the following three syntactic configurations: Type 1 due to the extraction of an element within the phrase; Type 2 due to the insertion of a weak element in second position; Type 3 due to the insertion of a verb. A final observation will concern the fact that we find in Latin kinds of hyperbatons that can be considered a clear sign of those that will develop later in Romance because they involve clitics which are absent in Latin.

This paper investigates the syntax of non-topicalized preverbal subjects in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). In BP, both locative PPs and locative DPs can occur in preverbal position: Na escola do Pedro aceita cartão de crédito; A escola do Pedro aceita cartão de crédito. In the latter case, the verb agrees with the locative. In BP, it is also possible to find non-argument constituents triggering verbal agreement, as in Essa estante cabe muitos livros. These sentences have been analysed as innovative constructions restricted to BP. This paper shows that some of the above structures are also present in other languages, e.g. Italian; not all of them are therefore innovative constructions of BP, and subcases need to be differentiated. The hypothesis is that sentences with preverbal non-argumental subjects have the same syntax as sentences with argumental subjects. What seems to occur in some cases is a modification in the verb thematic grid. We interpret BP’s “flexible diathesis” patterns as revealing that in this grammar, a variety of verbs have undergone a modification of their thematic grid which their counterparts in European Portuguese and other Romance languages did not.

This paper investigates the syntax of non-topicalized preverbal subjects in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). In BP, both locative PPs and locative DPs can occur in preverbal position: Na escola do Pedro aceita cartão de crédito; A escola do Pedro aceita cartão de crédito. In the latter case, the verb agrees with the locative. In BP, it is also possible to find non-argument constituents triggering verbal agreement, as in Essa estante cabe muitos livros. These sentences have been analysed as innovative constructions restricted to BP. This paper shows that some of the above structures are also present in other languages, e.g. Italian; not all of them are therefore innovative constructions of BP, and subcases need to be differentiated. The hypothesis is that sentences with preverbal non-argumental subjects have the same syntax as sentences with argumental subjects. What seems to occur in some cases is a modification in the verb thematic grid. We interpret BP’s “flexible diathesis” patterns as revealing that in this grammar, a variety of verbs have undergone a modification of their thematic grid which their counterparts in European Portuguese and other Romance languages did not.

This paper deals with Latin discontinuous nominal expressions (hyperbatons) both by a diachronic perspective internal to Latin (I-VI cent. A.D.) and compared to Romance languages. A nominal expression can be considered discontinuous when its word order is interrupted by one or more elements. In these cases a violation of the principle of the ‘domain integrity’ takes place. Discontinuity is typical of Latin and sets it apart from Romance languages, in which hyperbatons are not allowed. It is well attested in all phases of Latin so that it is considered one of the most distinctive feature of Latin word order. In this paper, we explore the hypothesis that not all linearly discontinuous orders are real hyperbatons. In fact, cases in which the order Modif.-N or N-Modif. is interrupted by the complement of one of the two categories are frequent; in this perspective the domain of hyperbatons results consistently restricted. As regards real hyperbatons, we will propose the following three syntactic configurations: Type 1 due to the extraction of an element within the phrase; Type 2 due to the insertion of a weak element in second position; Type 3 due to the insertion of a verb. A final observation will concern the fact that we find in Latin kinds of hyperbatons that can be considered a clear sign of those that will develop later in Romance because they involve clitics which are absent in Latin.

Abstract – Translation has always been viewed as a virtuous circle throughout history. The present paper examines one of the oldest translation strategies, namely borrowing which also come to be employed by language users to fulfill communicative transaction in daily use of the language. The paper also explores re-borrowing as a translation method used by translators to render borrowed words usually integrated in a Source Language (SL) text by SL author to relay his/her ideology via micro-/macro-signs. The data consists of selected examples from the translation of The Square Moon: Supernatural Tales (SMST) by Ghada Samman. The writer employs borrowing to steer the SL readership towards her ideology. The findings of the paper show that re-borrowing may bring about optimal translation in the target language (TL), but reveal discrepancies between the SL and the TL caused by failure to render the ideology. Keywords: translation, borrowing, re-borrowing, English, Arabic.

Indefinite nominals can typically be modified by pre- or postnominal adjectives in Romance languages. With the exception of a small group of adjectives concerning physical or moral characteristics whose meaning changes according to their pre- or postnominal use, the position of an attributive adjective does not alter its meaning. However, prenominal adjectives in a Spanish indefinite trigger its specific interpretation, thus preventing its variable reading; the same phenomenon obtains also in Catalan. The aim of this paper is to discuss specific cases in some Sicilian dialects – mainly in the dialect of Delia (province of Caltanissetta) – in order to provide further evidence of the fact that prenominal evaluative adjectives force the specific interpretation of indefinites in Romance. Since Sicilian dialects do not typically display prenominal adjectives, this paper will therefore draw on elatives to check whether Sicilian shows a parallel restriction in the postnominal position.

Indefinite nominals can typically be modified by pre- or postnominal adjectives in Romance languages. With the exception of a small group of adjectives concerning physical or moral characteristics whose meaning changes according to their pre- or postnominal use, the position of an attributive adjective does not alter its meaning. However, prenominal adjectives in a Spanish indefinite trigger its specific interpretation, thus preventing its variable reading; the same phenomenon obtains also in Catalan. The aim of this paper is to discuss specific cases in some Sicilian dialects – mainly in the dialect of Delia (province of Caltanissetta) – in order to provide further evidence of the fact that prenominal evaluative adjectives force the specific interpretation of indefinites in Romance. Since Sicilian dialects do not typically display prenominal adjectives, this paper will therefore draw on elatives to check whether Sicilian shows a parallel restriction in the postnominal position.

UN EPISODIO DEL PENSAMIENTO FRANCÉS DE LA AUTONOMÍA Benjamin Constant y las idées très ingénieuses Francisco Gelman Constantin Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad de Buenos Aires Abstract – This paper attempts a consideration of the significance of Benjamin Constant’s aesthetic thoughts within the context of the history of the concept of “aesthetic autonomy”. With that in mind it reevaluates his transformation of the German tradition, by way of its binding to the social theory corresponding to the cultural and historical analysis of early French Romanticism. Taking the coinage of the expression “art for art’s sake” as a starting point, this paper reconstructs the whole of Constant’s thought-system, as well as its exchanges with some of his contemporaries –namely Mme. de Staël and Henry Crabb Robinson– in the means of understanding the proper reach of the conceptual novelties brought in by him, as can be seen from the standing point of Begriffsgeschichte. The paper deals not only with his postulates referring specifically to a negative relationship towards the mercantile society, but also with the analogies he establishes between art, love, religion and morality, while it furthermore examines his theory of social autonomy. The reflexive setting together of this different elements, assembled from his political essays, his journals, the novel Adolphe and other writings, brings to the light a general form of a thought of the autonomous, which explains the manner in which Constant understands aesthetic autonomy in particular, by way of his collaboration and dissent with his European colleagues. Keywords: autonomy; Constant; art for art’s sake; Begriffsgeschichte; religion Resumen – Este trabajo se propone reconsiderar la importancia de las reflexiones estéticas de Benjamin Constant en el contexto de la historia del concepto de autonomía estética. Para ello reevalúa las transformaciones efectuadas sobre la tradición alemana en correlato con una teoría social marcada por el análisis cultural e histórico propio del primer Romanticismo francés. Partiendo de la acuñación de la expresión “arte por el arte”, reconstruye el conjunto del pensamiento de Constant, así como sus diálogos con algunos de sus contemporáneos –especialmente Mme. de Staël y Henry Crabb Robinson– en vistas a la comprensión de la alcance preciso de sus innovaciones conceptuales, desde el punto de vista de la Begriffsgeschichte. En este sentido, el trabajo no sólo considera los postulados referidos específicamente a la relación negativa del arte respecto de la sociedad mercantil, sino que también investiga las analogías establecidas en el interior del pensamiento de Constant entre arte, amor, religión y moralidad, así como examina su teoría de la autonomía de lo social. A partir de todos elementos, sobre la base del análisis de sus ensayos políticos, diarios, la novela Adolphe y otros de sus textos, se infiere una forma del pensamiento de lo autónomo que explica el modo en que Constant concibe en particular la autonomía estética, en conversación y disputa con sus interlocutores europeos. Palabras claves: autonomía; Constant; arte por el arte; Begriffsgeschichte; religión

This paper investigates the mechanism of argument movement in the derivation of grammatical Tiv construction. It examines Tiv as a syntactically ergative language and how ergative case is valued as well as the feature computation of T in ergative constructions. Raising constructions in Tiv is defined as hy­per-raising and this paper also provides insight on how features in such constructions are valued so as to avoid a situation which this paper also identifies as feature roaming. The paper also considers the effects of phase heads: whether strong phase heads block movement or not; it also seeks to account for the features re­sponsible for copy movement where it is operational in Tiv especially in subject to object movement. Using the framework of the Minimalist program, this work submits that DPs ergative constructions value their case in relationship with the verb before movement which makes the movement not for greed but to value the edge feature of T; therefore, T in ergative constructions is identified as mere Ts. In raising constructions, the mechanism of case delay has to be employed so as to avoid “feature roaming”. In this case copies left at the extraction sites, overt or covert are still useful in valuation of case in raising constructions in Tiv. In cases of copy movement, the paper accounts for such instances in terms of strong structural features such as Edge feature and complementation. The paper recommends that narrow syntax condition such as Earliness condi­tion is too strict for Tiv syntax and the syntax of other related languages and therefore should be relaxed.

This paper intends to analyse the relationship between lexicology and terminology in the use of language within the Spanish parliament. It moves forth from the methodological approach of the Cultural Theory on Terminology, without disregarding the Communicative or the Socio-cognitive Terminology. The fieldwork begins with the analysis of two linguistic corpora of the Spanish parliamentarian language, and a corpus of generic language. From the comparison of these two corpora the author has drawn the basic terminology for the definition of the participants, the areas of action and communication, and the organisation of communication and of political action within the Spanish parliament. The results of this terminological extraction have been studied following the principles of the International Organisation for Standardization, and this has brought to prominence the need for a cultural study of the terminology of parliamentarian language, due to the special characteristics of this particular language: the consequences of its action on the general public, the variety in denomination, and the fact that concepts and ideas are here a matter of negotiation as much as of linguistics. Three major monolingual dictionaries have then been researched to verify the presence and the lexicographic setting of the extracted terminology. These studies have revealed that dictionaries often incur into problems with polyrhematic units and with the labelling of the knowledge-units. The paper's conclusion focuses on the need for an onomasiological approach of lexicography, and on the use of specialized corpora, in addition to those already used as reference, in the elaboration of generic language dictionaries.

ENThe current paper analyses the way India and its cultural universe are re-interpreted and represented in Brazilian telenovela Caminho das Índias (2009). An analysis of this audio-visual product shows that linguistic and cultural ‘translation’ processes are at work. In particular, the paper will discuss the following features: constant code-mixing (Brazilian Portuguese-Hindi); and forms and processes of hybridization which are highly interesting from a cultural point of view.Keyword: Brazilian telenovelas, code-mixing, translation, cultural stereotypes, Bollywood PTEste trabalho, com base na análise das formas de representação do universo cultural indiano presentes na novela brasileira Caminho das Índias (2009), pretende investigar as modalidades de releitura novelística da cultura indiana, evidenciando, nesse processo de tradução e transposição, desde um ponto de vista linguístico, frequentes fenômenos de code-mixing (português brasileiro-hindi) e desde um ponto de vista cultural, interessantes formas de hibridismo.Keyword: Novela brasileira, code-mixing, transposição, estereótipo cultural, Bollywood

ENThe fabrication of a popery charge, which in August 1578 Edward Rokewood was subjected to while hosting Queen Elizabeth in the East Anglia, has been dubiously dealt with in the field of gender studies (Dovey, 1996; Brownlow, 2003) or overrated by historians of Puritanism to corroborate how the queen’s Privy Council ruled the kingdom through a manipulation of her weak will and female simple-mindedness (MacCulloch, 1986; Collinson, 2007). My paper proposes to substantiate how the intrigue against Rokewood arose from a wider social group of officers than the Lord Chamberlain Sussex and the royal favourite Leicester’s clique. Some days after the papist had been jailed in the castle of Norwich, mayor and aldermen commissioned public speeches and a composite biblical pageantry which, though allusively, both staged Rokewood’s conspiracy in favour of the Spanish king’s invasion and urged Elizabeth to inflict a death penalty. But the queen did not only turn a deaf ear to these pressures, presiding over the trial proceedings to get a time of forced reform for Rokewood. Some letters from the judge of assizes Francis Wyndham will help me to suggest that she was nor manipulated neither prevented from seeing that the case had been invented by the municipal corporation to advoke their bishop’s means of control and persecution of dissent.ITL’invenzione di un’accusa di papismo, che ad agosto del 1578 Edward Rokewood subisce mentre ospita la regina Elisabetta nella regione orientale dell’Anglia, è discussa con grande scetticismo nel settore dei gender studies (Dovey, 1996, pp. 54-55; Brownlow, 2003, pp. 11-13), oppure sopravvalutata da storici della cultura puritana convinti che il Privy Council tenga le redini del regno manipolando volontà e credulità della regina (MacCulloch, 1986, pp. 218-219; Collinson, 2007, p. 131). Questo paper si propone di documentare come la macchinazione ai danni di Rokewood si estenda ben oltre la cerchia del ciambellano di corte Sussex o del favorito regio Leicester. Infatti, alcuni giorni dopo che il papista veniva imprigionato a Norwich, la fanatica municipalità commissiona orazioni pubbliche ed uno spettacolo di sacre rappresentazioni che, sia pure in maniera allusiva, drammatizzano come Rokewood cospiri a favore dello sbarco di Filippo II sull’isola e istigano Elisabetta a comminare una condanna a morte. La destinataria non solo resiste alle pressioni giustizialiste, ottenendo che il processo si concluda con un periodo di arresto ‘riabilitativo’. Alcune lettere del giudice di assise mi aiuteranno a segnalare come, a dispetto della corrente storiografia, Elisabetta non è né manipolata né ignora che il caso di eresia sia stato inventato per avocare il potere di sorveglianza e punizione del dissenso che il vescovo è titolato ad esercitare nella diocesi.

In this paper aspects of the sibilant system in the variety spoken in the Germanic language island Sauris/Zahre in north-eastern Italy are presented. I investigate whether an intermediate, postalveolar “shibilant” (from Protogermanic */s/) in preconsonantal position is preserved from Middle High German as observed in other German minority languages in northern Italy. In Sauris/Zahre, in preconsonantal position a postalveolar realization is sometimes mentioned in literature, while in Modern Standard German and most related varieties in this position historical, postalveolar */s/ is retracted to palatoalveolar /ʃ/.

In this paper aspects of the sibilant system in the variety spoken in the Germanic language island Sauris/Zahre in north-eastern Italy are presented. I investigate whether an intermediate, postalveolar “shibilant” (from Protogermanic */s/) in preconsonantal position is preserved from Middle High German as observed in other German minority languages in northern Italy. In Sauris/Zahre, in preconsonantal position a postalveolar realization is sometimes mentioned in literature, while in Modern Standard German and most related varieties in this position historical, postalveolar */s/ is retracted to palatoalveolar /ʃ/.

The influence of loubok (Russian popular print) on Dostoevsky’s works is a topic deserving more attention than has been given up to now. It makes us understand how Dostoevsky got inspiration from popular iconography. The present article could be a further contribution to this research topic; its aim being to investigate the recurrence in Dostoevsky’s poetics of a particular typology of popular print, showing how a wife beats her husband after he came back home drunk. This loubok spread widely through Russia (the peasant family version) and Germany (the cobbler version). In particular the German version, which had a wide readership thanks to the German printer G. Renner and was named “Der Blaue Montag” was undoubtedly known to Dostoevsky, since it was widespread in the very period he travelled through Germany. In this paper I will try to show how the Russian novelist caught not only the general setting but also some details from this version to describe Marmeladov’s home in the scene (I, 2) when he comes back home and faces a violent welcome from his wife Katerina Ivanovna.

The influence of loubok (Russian popular print) on Dostoevsky’s works is a topic deserving more attention than has been given up to now. It makes us understand how Dostoevsky got inspiration from popular iconography. The present article could be a further contribution to this research topic; its aim being to investigate the recurrence in Dostoevsky’s poetics of a particular typology of popular print, showing how a wife beats her husband after he came back home drunk. This loubok spread widely through Russia (the peasant family version) and Germany (the cobbler version). In particular the German version, which had a wide readership thanks to the German printer G. Renner and was named “Der Blaue Montag” was undoubtedly known to Dostoevsky, since it was widespread in the very period he travelled through Germany. In this paper I will try to show how the Russian novelist caught not only the general setting but also some details from this version to describe Marmeladov’s home in the scene (I, 2) when he comes back home and faces a violent welcome from his wife Katerina Ivanovna.

The call for a “New Mythology” represents one of most controversial traits of German Romanticism. In the early works of F. Schlegel and F.W.J. Schelling, as in the so called Älteste Systemprogramm des deutschen Idealismus, mythology stands for the Utopia of a universal reorganization of knowledge, capable of founding, after the Legitimationskrise of the modern era, a new horizon of shared ideas and values. Starting from an investigation of the mythological form as legitimation instrument and utopian catalyzer, this paper aims to shed light on the historical genesis of the “new Mythology” and its outcomes.

This paper examines Heidegger’s Beiträge zur Philosophie with the aim of shedding light on its messianic-eschatological approach. Firstly, I take into account the formal structure of history through a reference to Aristotle’s grasp of κίνησις and its principles. I then try to connect this structure to the complex epochal movement of Universal History, as it emerges from Heidegger’s works in the ‘30s. Lastly, I deal with the concept of the last-God’s realm in order to stress the messianic dimension of Heidegger’s projects for the new humankind known as the Futurians.

In the interwar period, the Soviet Union experienced an unprecedented attention towards children’s literature. The October revolution was a driving force for all the arts and particularly for the editorial production aimed at forging the ‘new man’, embodied in the present moment by the younger generation. The CPSU increased its investment in all forms of publications – books, magazines, posters – and proposed them for mass production with the scope of educational engineering. Through an analysis of the literary and visual contents of the 1920’s issues of the magazine Murzilka, this paper aims at defining the characteristics of the new man as they appeared on the pages of one of the most popular magazines for children in Soviet Russia.

During the 1970s, the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) initiated a redefinition process of its political culture, deeply inspired by libertarian and anti-statist themes having its fulcrum in the idea of “self-management”. The paper aims not only to examine the ways in which the ideal of self-management is translated concretely into two fundamental areas of the political debate of the time, but also to understand the role played by the idea of self-management in the PSI’s evolution in a neoliberal sense.

The call for a “New Mythology” represents one of most controversial traits of German Romanticism. In the early works of F. Schlegel and F.W.J. Schelling, as in the so called Älteste Systemprogramm des deutschen Idealismus, mythology stands for the Utopia of a universal reorganization of knowledge, capable of founding, after the Legitimationskrise of the modern era, a new horizon of shared ideas and values. Starting from an investigation of the mythological form as legitimation instrument and utopian catalyzer, this paper aims to shed light on the historical genesis of the “new Mythology” and its outcomes.

In the interwar period, the Soviet Union experienced an unprecedented attention towards children’s literature. The October revolution was a driving force for all the arts and particularly for the editorial production aimed at forging the ‘new man’, embodied in the present moment by the younger generation. The CPSU increased its investment in all forms of publications – books, magazines, posters – and proposed them for mass production with the scope of educational engineering. Through an analysis of the literary and visual contents of the 1920’s issues of the magazine Murzilka, this paper aims at defining the characteristics of the new man as they appeared on the pages of one of the most popular magazines for children in Soviet Russia.

During the 1970s, the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) initiated a redefinition process of its political culture, deeply inspired by libertarian and anti-statist themes having its fulcrum in the idea of “self-management”. The paper aims not only to examine the ways in which the ideal of self-management is translated concretely into two fundamental areas of the political debate of the time, but also to understand the role played by the idea of self-management in the PSI’s evolution in a neoliberal sense.

This paper examines Heidegger’s Beiträge zur Philosophie with the aim of shedding light on its messianic-eschatological approach. Firstly, I take into account the formal structure of history through a reference to Aristotle’s grasp of κίνησις and its principles. I then try to connect this structure to the complex epochal movement of Universal History, as it emerges from Heidegger’s works in the ‘30s. Lastly, I deal with the concept of the last-God’s realm in order to stress the messianic dimension of Heidegger’s projects for the new humankind known as the Futurians.

In the contemporary literary universe, where the ‘commercial pole’ of literary field prevails over the ‘autonomous’ one, according to the dichotomy introduced by Pierre Bourdieu and furtherly developed by Pascale Casanova, the phenomena of so-called ‘world fiction’, has been becoming increasingly widespread. Considering that many readers read the works of fiction in order to experience the Other and the Alterity, the writers originating from or somehow related to peripheral cultures are expected to represent their cultures. The value of authenticity is attributed to their representations, even if the author’s autonomy is significantly limited by the rules of the chosen genre (‘world fiction’), and of the literary field they are trying to penetrate. Starting from these premises and focusing on the extraordinary success of two American writers of Balkan origin, Tea Obreht and Sara Nović, in this paper I will try to provide some answers to the following questions: what is the expected image of the Balkan in the USA literary field? Is the discourse of balcanism still present? And why do these images, although fictional, have an importance for the real world?

As a paratextual element, headlines occupy a prominent place in the layout of texts, thus performing a wide range of pragmatic functions. In journalistic articles, titles tend to serve as a bait to seduce readers who are offered multiple and varied proposals on account of the journalist macro-genre. This paper examines the type of headings that the writer J.F. Mira – anthropologist, Hellenist, novelist, and translator – has used in his journalistic essays over four decades of publications in multiple distinguished newspapers throughout the Catalan-speaking world. This broad period allows for an analysis that indicates a gradual transformation of the titles he chooses, characteristic that shows how titles mode brings together text and any specific sociocultural context. In addition, from this perspective, the Valencian writer invites readers – while selecting them – to discuss matters that shun both emergencies and frivolities of today’s social media.

In the contemporary literary universe, where the ‘commercial pole’ of literary field prevails over the ‘autonomous’ one, according to the dichotomy introduced by Pierre Bourdieu and furtherly developed by Pascale Casanova, the phenomena of so-called ‘world fiction’, has been becoming increasingly widespread. Considering that many readers read the works of fiction in order to experience the Other and the Alterity, the writers originating from or somehow related to peripheral cultures are expected to represent their cultures. The value of authenticity is attributed to their representations, even if the author’s autonomy is significantly limited by the rules of the chosen genre (‘world fiction’), and of the literary field they are trying to penetrate. Starting from these premises and focusing on the extraordinary success of two American writers of Balkan origin, Tea Obreht and Sara Nović, in this paper I will try to provide some answers to the following questions: what is the expected image of the Balkan in the USA literary field? Is the discourse of balcanism still present? And why do these images, although fictional, have an importance for the real world?