КОДОВЫЕ ПЕРЕКЛЮЧЕНИЯ НА СИЦИЛИЙСКИЙ ДИАЛЕКТ В РОМАНЕ ДЖ. КУЛИККЬЯ «SICILIA, O CARA. UN VIAGGIO SENTIMENTALE»

Abstract

The aim of this article is to identify the pragmatic functions of code-switching to the Sicilian dialect of the Italian language in the autobiography of the contemporary Italian writer G. Culicchia. Code switches studied by contact linguistics are the embedded language units of different levels in the matrix language utterance. The author uses I. Y. Mishintseva and G. N. Chirsheva's classification of pragmatic functions for studying code switches in literary works. The foreign language units in G. Culicchia’s work perform two groups of functions: functions characteristic of fiction (creating the effect of communication in the Embedded Language in the literary work) and those characteristic of spoken language (topic-related, metalinguistic, citing and emotional functions). The topic-related function of codeswitches is used to convey Sicilian culture realities as well as the direct speech of the author’s Sicilian relatives. The metalinguistic function of the code-switches under analysis involves introducing the reader to pronunciation and lexical features of the Sicilian dialect. The citing function means the author’s citing of Sicilian proverbs and sayings. The emotional function consists in expressing the author’s emotions and feelings towards Sicily and Sicilian relatives. Thus, the pragmatic functions show that the code-switches under analysis are the source of subjective and objective information in the novel. The Sicilian code-switches have a graphic feature in the novel: all of them are printed in italics. The italic type as a graphic stylistic device is used to logically separate Sicilian words from Italian lexis, to convey emotions, to separate the author’s Italian speech from the other characters’ Sicilian dialect.