Phonological Theory and the Dialects of Italy by Lori Repetti (review)

Abstract

220 Reviews quantificationof foreignisms, youth language, and coprolalic and pornolalic elements, suggests that, while some generic beliefs about the fiction ofthe 1990s (such as a pervasiveness of spoken Italian forms) are true, others are not supported by a close investigation: the use of youth slang, for example, is not as widespread as many be? lieve it to be. Although important at the level of linguistic analysis, Berisso's essay fails short of drawing significant conclusions about his findings. The closing essay by Renello, 'The Mediatic Body ofthe Cannibale Literature', is an ideal development of La Porta's considerations on the artificiality of the violence narrated by the 'scrittori cannibali'. Renello argues that Italian pulp fiction reduces horror to a narrative game that has lost the power and the intention to terrify.His analysis of short stories by Ammaniti and Nove reveals how these writers operate multiple levels of linguistic mediation and media stratification, a strategy that denies any realistic access to their texts. Renello's essay introduces the English translations of three short stories, which ap? pear in the appendix of the book. These convincing versions (carried out by Francesca Mordini and edited by Lucamante) of Niccolo Ammaniti and Luisa Brancaccio's 'Evening Jaunt/Seratina', Aldo Nove's 'The World of Love/Il mondo dell'amore' (the two stories discussed by Renello), and Daniele Luttazzi's 'Little Red Ridinghood /Cappuccetto Splatter', will, one hopes, broaden the readership of the new Ita? lian narrative, encouraging the study of these and other 1990s authors in academic programmes of Italian, comparative, and contemporary literature all over the world. Victoria University of Wellington Claudia Bernardi Phonological Theory and the Dialects ofItaly. Ed. by Lori Repetti. (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 212) Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 2000. x + 301 pp. ?94. This volume is an important contribution to Italian phonology and to phonological theory. In the words ofthe editor (pp. 4-5), the book's goal is to show that 'Generative Phonology [. . .] can be particularly helpful in better understanding precisely those areas that the traditional method has focused on, including language change, language variation, and language typology' That is not obvious to me, but, be that as it may, it is not crucial for a volume that has much more to offerthan a mechanical adaptation of generative theories to Italian dialectology. As the authors' theoretical backgrounds are far from monolithic, their theoretical interests often go far beyond generativism. The book is carefully planned, with a well-balanced contribution in terms of both phenomena and dialectal areas. Misprints are few, though shaded boxes are always missing (e.g. on p. 240). There are still many intriguing facts in Italian dialectology, and, obviously, phono? logical theory may help in interpreting them. The most striking phenomena of Italian dialects (raddoppiamento, vowel weakening, syllable structure changes) recur as leitmotifs , giving us the chance to compare radically differentinterpretations of the same problems: stress patterns (Giovanna Marotta, 'Oxytone Infinitives in the Dialect of Pisa', Lori Repetti, 'Stress Stability under Cliticization and the Prosodic Status of Romance Clitics'); vowel weakening (Naomi Nagy, 'Stress and Schwa in Faetar', Francesco D'Introno and Rosemary Weston, 'Vowel Alternation, Vowel/Consonant Assimilation and OCP Effects in a Barese Dialect', Andrea Calabrese, 'The Feature [Advanced Tongue Root] and Vowel Fronting in Romance'), vowel epenthesis (JeanPierre Montreuil, 'Sonority and Derived Clusters in Rhaeto-Romance and GalloItalic ', Michele Loporcaro, 'Stress Stability under Cliticization and the Prosodic Effect of Romance Clitics'), consonant clusters (Jean-Pierre Montreuil and Lori MLRy 98.1, 2003 221 Repetti, both using sonority differential?but only Repetti (p. 276) gives credit to Vennemann for the idea: Theo Vennemann, Preference Laws for Syllable Structure (Berlin: Mouton), 1988), raddoppiamentosintattico (Naomi Nagy and Barbara E. Bullock , 'Consonant Gemination in Neapolitan'?basically a translation into optimality theory of earlier analyses), vowel quantity (Marco Baroni and Laura Vanelli, 'The Relationship between Vowel Length and Consonantal Voicing in Friulian', John Hajek , 'How Many Moras? Overlength and Maximal Moraicity in Italy', Pilar Prieto i Vives, 'Vowel Lengthening in Milanese'). Only two ofthe basic subjects are analysed by a single author. Calabrese deals with the 'peculiar' phenomenon of vowel fronting in Altamura (Bari): /u, o/> [y,0]. He seems to be unaware ofthe...