Italian Language Research Articles

An Exploration of Space and Time Metaphorical Expressions in Chinese and Italian

The research constitutes an initial examination of metaphorical expressions associated with temporal and spatial concepts in both the Chinese and Italian languages. Recognizing the profound influence of metaphor on cognitive constructs and linguistic representation, the study adopts a comparative analytical approach to uncover the metaphorical dimensions inherent in expressions related to time and space within these distinct linguistic frameworks. Through the examination of lexical and syntactic elements in both languages, the research aims to elucidate the subtle nuances and cultural variations that characterize the metaphorical richness of temporal and spatial discourse. By comparing Chinese and Italian linguistic structures, the study seeks to reveal commonalities and divergences in the metaphorical strategies used to express concepts related to space and time in these two languages. This comparative exploration not only contributes to a deeper understanding of the metaphorical nature embedded in Chinese and Italian discourse but also sheds light on the cultural and cognitive dimensions that shape these linguistic expressions. The findings of the study serve as a foundational exploration, paving the way for future in-depth investigations into the intricate interplay between language, metaphor, and cognition within the realms of temporal and spatial concepts in both the Chinese and Italian linguistic contexts.

Cognitive and cultural linguistics features of the functioning of memory verbs in verbalization of the category of relations in the Italian and English languages

Cognitive and cultural linguistics features of the functioning of memory verbs in verbalization of the category of relations in the Italian and English languages

Parent-proxy pediatric CMT quality of life outcome measure: Validation of the Italian version.

The parent-proxy reports can offer complementary informations or be the only source of Quality of Life measurement in young children. The aim of this study was to provide and validate the Italian version of the recently published parent-proxy pCMT-QOL for patients aged 8-18 years old, making it available for possible trials in Italian speaking children. The English-language instrument was translated and adapted into the Italian language using standard procedures: translation, transcultural adaptation, and back-translation. Parent-proxy pCMT-QOL was administered to parents of patients with a genetic diagnosis of CMT, aged 8-18 years old. All parents were retested 2 weeks later to assess reliability. A total of 21 parents of CMT patients (18 CMT1A, 2 CMT2A, 1 CMT2K) were assessed during their children clinical appointments. The Italian-pCMT-QOL showed a high test-retest reliability; none of the parents had any difficulties with the completion of the questionnaire and no further revisions were necessary after completion. The Italian parent-proxy pCMT-QOL is a reliable, culturally adapted, and comparable version of the original English instrument. This questionnaire will improve the quality of the follow-up and will make it possible to monitor more accurately the severity of the disease in Italian-speaking families.

Patterns of progression of sound changes in a variety of Portuguese in contact with Italian immigration languages in Southern Brazil

The study deals with variable phonetic traits of Brazilian Portuguese (BP) in contact with Italian immigration languages. It focuses on the realization of an alveolar tap (weak-r) in onset position where one would expect an alveolar trill (strong-r) or its fricative variants (glottal/velar fricative): [ɾ]ápido instead of [r]ápido or [h]ápido ‘fast’, ca[ɾ]o instead of ca[r]o or ca[h]o ‘car’. The realization is relatively stigmatized and declining in younger generations (Azeredo, 2012; Frosi, Faggion & Dal Corno, 2017). The study uses methods from variationist sociolinguistics (Labov, 1972; Labov, 1994; Labov, 2001; Labov, 2010) to examine speech data of a southern Brazilian town, Flores da Cunha, founded by Italian immigrants in the late 19th century. The objective of the study is to identify the linguistic and social factors correlated to the realization of a weak-r and thus to elucidate the pattern of variation and change. Logistic regression performed with R (Venables, Smith & the R Core Team, 2022) in a real-time trend study with data from 1990 (VARSUL sample) and 2008–2009 (BDSer sample) shows that the process is relatively stable in the speech community and conforms to a pattern of generational change (Labov, 1994). Despite the tendency towards leveling of Flores da Cunha BP with supralocal patterns of Portuguese, the slow decline in the realization of weak-r suggests that the socioindexical value of the alveolar tap has changed in recent years, along with socioeconomic and cultural changes.

Auxiliary selection in Italian restructuring: An insight into the size of the clause

AbstractIn Standard Italian, restructuring clauses are characterized by apparently optional transparency effects in the choice of the clausal perfect auxiliary. In the perfect periphrasis, the auxiliary associated with the modal verb can be either HAVE or the one corresponding to the lexical verb (BE or HAVE). In this paper, I argue that there is no true optionality: different auxiliaries show up because the modal verb can select complements of different sizes. Assuming that auxiliary selection is a form of person Agree, different complement sizes determine different Agree domains. In particular, the “transparent” auxiliary results from a vP complement, while a TP complement leads to HAVE insertion.

The Role of the Debates on the Definition of the Italian Oral Language and on the Means of Its Propagation after the Italian State Declaration

The article examines the role of debates on the definition of a national oral language in Italy, where the divergence between the written, literary language and oral dialects has historically been very significant. The decisive contribution to the definition of the oral language, by choosing the Florentine language as the model of the oral Italian language was made by Alessandro Manzoni along with Graziadio Isaiah Ascoli, who suggested that the adoption of the Florentine language would lead to a formal cult of “popular purity” instead of the ideal of “classical purity”, and that the linguistic would be the result of a deeper action with the aim of spreading culture and bridging the gap, separating a small circle of intellectuals from the rest of the population. In conclusion, the author considers that the convergence of written and spoken Italian has led to the fact that, today, the proficiency in written language among Italians is lower than the average in European countries, and Italians still perceive the spoken language as an unnatural language.

The semantic content of concrete, abstract, specific, and generic concepts

Abstract Abstraction processes involve two variables that are often confused with one another: concreteness (banana versus belief) and specificity (chair versus furniture or Buddhism versus religion). Researchers are investigating the relationship between them, but many questions remain open, such as: What type of semantics characterizes words with varying degrees of concreteness and specificity? We tackle this topic through an in-depth semantic analysis of 1049 Italian words for which human-generated concreteness and specificity ratings are available. Our findings show that (as expected) the semantics of concrete and abstract concepts differs, but most interestingly when specificity is considered, the variance in concreteness ratings explained by semantic types increases substantially, suggesting the need to carefully control word specificity in future research. For instance, mathematical concepts (phase) are on average abstract and generic, while behavioral qualities (arrogant) are on average abstract but specific. Moreover, through cluster analyses based on concreteness and specificity ratings, we observe the bottom-up emergence of four subgroups of semantically coherent words. Overall, this study provides empirical evidence and theoretical insight into the interplay of concreteness and specificity in shaping semantic categorization.

The Epilepsy Surgery Satisfaction Questionnaire (ESSQ-19): Italian language translation and validation.

Epilepsy surgery can be proposed as a treatment option in people with focal epilepsy, however satisfaction with epilepsy surgery in Italy remains unknown. We aimed to validate in Italy an instrument to measure patient satisfaction with epilepsy surgery, the 19-item Epilepsy Surgery Satisfaction Questionnaire (ESSQ-19). Consecutive patients with epilepsy who received epilepsy surgery between the years 2018-2021 at Modena Academic Hospital were recruited and provided clinical and demographic data. The Italian version of the ESSQ-19 and other three questionnaires were completed to assess construct validity. To evaluate the validity and reliability of the tool Spearman's rank correlation, and internal consistency analysis were performed. 66 out of 79 eligible patients participated in the study (22 females; median age 37years). The mean values of satisfaction for each domain of the IT-ESSQ-19 were: seizure control 83.4; (SD 16.7), psychosocial functioning 79.3 (SD 17.1), surgical complications 90.8 (SD 14.9), and recovery from surgery 81.4 (SD 16.9). The mean summary score was 83.7 (SD 13.3). The questionnaire was shown to have high internal consistency in the four domains (Cronbach's alpha = 0.82-0.93), and no significant floor/ceiling effects of the summary score. The ESSQ-19 scores significantly correlated with other instruments to support construct validity. It also demonstrated good discriminant validity for being seizure free [AUC 0.72; 95% CI = 0.56-0.88], and to endorse depression [AUC 0.76, 95% CI = 0.56-0.96]. The Italian version of the ESSQ-19 is a reliable and valid self-reported questionnaire for assessing patient satisfaction with epilepsy surgery.

Un esempio di mappatura dell’italiano antico: la carta «‑GN‑» del progetto MIRA

Abstract This paper intends to present the first results of the project Mappatura dell’Italo-Romanzo Antico (MIRA) funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for the period 2022–2026. The project’s main goal is the mapping of the linguistic situation of Italy before the year 1400. We illustrate one type of linguistic map, the one concerned with single linguistic features (such as the reflexes of Latin vowels, consonants, consonant clusters, etc.), using the outcomes of Latin ‑gn‑. We show how the geographic distribution of the various reflexes can be displayed graphically and how the data from our principal source, the Atlante Grammaticale della Lingua Italiana delle Origini (AGLIO) can be integrated with the scrutiny of other texts and with secondary bibliography. Furthermore, we discuss critical points regarding the balance of our corpus – in a diachronic, diatopic and diastratic/diaphasic perspective – and the expediency of different solutions for the visualization of our findings.

Issues of Using Phraseologisms in Italian Language Teaching: a Linguoculturological and Linguodidactic Study

Phraseological units are considered a product of folk art. As an important branch of linguistics, the main focus of phraseology is on the study of the nature of phraseologies and their categorical signs, as well as on determining the laws of the use of phraseologies in speech. The most important problem of phraseology is to differentiate and distinguish phraseologisms from word combinations that are formed in speech (that is, not ready in advance) and to determine the signs of phraseologies on this basis.

To the question of androcentrism of the grammatical category of gender in Italian language

The article analyses the processes of feminisation of some nouns occurring in the Italian language in connection with the struggle against the manifestations of masculine mentality. The asymmetry of feminine and masculine genders in the declension of nouns and adjectives is fixed in the Italian language at the grammatical level. However, in recent decades, due to the growth of feminist sentiments in the world and the increasing attention to social gender, this grammatical norm has caused more and more disputes in Italian society, the use of the masculine gender is undergoing a kind of gender censorship. The established gender hierarchy of language has been perceived by some politicians and cultural figures as incorrect, disadvantaging the representation of women in discourse, especially when it comes to the so-called "nomi di ruolo" - nouns denoting staff positions (mayor, councillor, chairman, prime minister, judge). Gender markers, which are natural for the language, receive additional connotative meaning, their semantic significance expands: along with the grammatical category, they begin to express the speaker's social position, his views on the political agenda in relation to feminist sentiments. The paper will examine gender in Italian as a grammatical category, then highlight the main grammatical tools that Italian linguists propose to use in order to equalise the asymmetry of femininity and masculinity in modern Italian. Different perspectives of native Italian speakers on such grammatical changes in the category of gender will be presented and possible options for levelling the asymmetry towards androcentrism will be analysed.

English Borrowings in Contemporary Italian: a Linguistic-Cognitive Aspect

In the article, the linguistic-cognitive aspect of English borrowings in contemporary Italian is considered. The globalization of the English language is one of the driving forces that raises questions about language contacts and interactions in modern linguistics. The presented scientific investigation aims to identify the linguistic-cognitive features of the usage of English borrowings in Italian-language news discourse. The linguistic-cognitive approach allows for analyzing the behavior of speakers and the organization of conceptual space in human consciousness. The article discusses the factors and phenomena to which users of the linguistic code are subordinate, as well as the impulses of internal and external systems that accelerate the penetration of English equivalents into the Italian language. English borrowings are revealed taking into account the universal characteristics of open systems. The article asserts that the analyzed linguistic-cognitive processes are universal-systemic, as they can be applied to the analysis of factors and phenomena of various natures, including linguistic and psychological.

Reliability and reproducibility of an Italian questionnaire on "Knowledge of high social impact Eye Diseases" (KED-IT).

Health literacy plays an important role in public health. Although this has been demonstrated in the field of ophthalmology, there are very few specific instruments available to assess eye health literacy. This work aims to develop an Italian questionnaire on knowledge of eye diseases (Knowledge on Eye Disease, Italian version; KED-IT) and to evaluate its reliability and reproducibility. The KED-IT focuses on diseases with high social impact, specifically glaucoma, macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and keratoconus, which is the main cause of corneal transplant in Italy. A cross-sectional study was conducted. The KED-IT was self-administered by the study participants twice. The interval between each administration (T0 and T1) was 5 to 8 days. Reliability was assessed using the KR-20 coefficient. The test-retest Cohen's Kappa coefficient was estimated to measure the stability and reproducibility of the results obtained between T0 and T1. A total of 60 subjects participated in the study. The response rate at T1 was 92%. The KR-20 reliability coefficient of the 14-item KED-IT questionnaire was good with a value of 0.878. The Cohen's kappa value for all 14 items of the KED-IT questionnaire was k=0.747, indicating good agreement. The KED-IT is the first specific ophthalmic knowledge questionnaire validated in the Italian language and we hope that it may be a starting point for the study of eye health literacy in the Italian population.

Semantičko-pojmovna analiza frazema sa komponentom život u srpskom, francuskom i italijanskom jeziku

Idioms provide important material for cross-linguistic and cross-cultural studies, as they reflect both a universal way of thinking inherent in different linguistic cultures and the peculiarities of a given society and culture. The subject of this research are Serbian, French and Italian idioms containing the lexemes (Serb.) život / (Fr.) vie / (It.) vita. Idioms are excerpted from several general and phraseological dictionaries of the Serbian, French and Italian languages, daily and weekly newspapers, and electronic media. The examples are grouped into conceptual fields according to the background images that motivate their meanings. The aim is to identify the similarities and differences in the con- cepts to which the selected idioms refer in the observed languages, as well as to determine the extent to which the concept of life motivates positive phraseological meanings, and the extent to which it contributes to the negative semantics of idioms. Appropriate descrip- tors that represent similarities between idioms are attached to the excerpted examples us- ing the method of semantic decomposition. Corpus analysis confirms the anthropocentric character of phraseology, which is reflected in the fact that the majority of idioms are related to human behavior, characteristics, states and good and bad behaviours toward others. Furthermore, the findings of this research show certain specificities regarding the phraseological expression of speakers of the observed languages, while a large number of equivalent examples, i.e. idioms of the same semantic concept, indicate similarities in the perception of life in the Serbian, French, and Italian linguistic cultures, as one of the basic, fundamental concepts.

The main trends in the word-formative adaptation of the latest borrowings to denote actions and states in the Ukrainian literary language of the 21 st century

At the beginning of the 21 st century, especially in its second decade, foreign units were entering to the journalistic and scientific Ukrainian language so rapidly that linguists sometimes did not have time for objective reasons to evaluate their “quality” and the appropriateness of their use. The activation of borrowings caused a certain disorder: adaptation to the grammatical system of the Ukrainian language occurs unevenly, often with hesitation in word-formative adaptation. A significant number of new adapted borrowed lexemes are not yet in normative, general or industry dictionaries. The most verb lexemes appeared primarily in the field of information technology, quite a few verb lexemes appeared in the field of business, finance, psychology, cosmetology etc. Lexemes of the foreign languages (mostly from English, less often from German, French, Italian or other languages) such as verbs and nouns were adapted in Ukrainian using verb suffixes -ува-, -изува-/-ізува-. The dynamic entry of such words into modern Ukrainian has caused a multi- tude of ways of them adaptation. It is often difficult to determine whether a verb in the Ukrai- nian language has been formed from a foreign verb or noun. This indicates the ambiguous word-formation adaptation of the analyzed verbs. The verb suffix -и- also proved to be productive in adaptation of the new borrowings. The verbs formed with it have common root corre- lates among foreign verbs and nouns. We observe hesitation in the word-formative adaptation of some verbs. It is indicates by the availability of common root variants with suffixes -ува– and -и-. Derivatives that have replenished the stock of reflexive verbs have been formed from some of the analyzed lexemes either with the help of the postfix -ся, or this postfix and the suffix -и-. Among the prefixes which found in borrowed verb lexemes, the prefix ре- is regularly used and the prefix де- is somewhat less used. In enriching the lexicon of the Ukrainian language with borrowings, there are many cases of simultaneous adaptation to modern Ukrainian of related verb structures: with a prefix and without it. Sometimes it is difficult to establish the direction of derivation. Common root lexemes could have entered modern Ukrainian directly from English or another language with a prefix or have been formed with a prefix from verbs adapted in a suffixal way. The second stage of word-formative adaptation of borrowings shows that derivatives have been formed from many verb bases adapted in modern Ukrainian using proper Ukrainian productive word-forming prefixes зà-, з-(с-), нà-, роз-, по-, про-, пере-, which express the word-formative semantics usual for them. Unmotivated, groundless oversaturation of modern Ukrainian literary language with borrowed lexemes, word-formative formants, etc., uncontrolled using of such units lead to the leveling of national features of the Ukrainian language. This problem prompts a rethinking of ways to replenish the terminological systems of various branches of science with new borrowed language units and this problem prompts to a more critical usage of criteria for adaptation of foreign lexemes. Keywords: borrowings to denote actions and states, word-formative adaptation, proper Ukrainian word-forming verb suffixes, proper Ukrainian word-forming verb prefixes, foreign languages bases.

The Beginnings of Sign Language Research in Italy: A Story of Unexpected Encounters

Abstract: We'll begin this contribution by describing our own individual entry points and motivations as we stepped into this nascent field of research. We'll then briefly summarize the initial stages of research on Italian Sign Language, which was carried out with many other collaborators.

Italian Linguistic Features for Toxic Language Detection in Social Media

This study addresses the urgent issue of toxic language, prevalent on social media platforms, focusing on the detection of toxic comments on popular Italian Facebook pages. We build upon the framework suggested by the LiLaH project: a standardized framework for analyzing hateful content in multiple languages, including Dutch, English, French, Slovene, and Croatian. We start by examining the linguistic features of Italian toxic language on social media. Our analysis reveals that toxic comments in Italian tend to be longer and have fewer unique emojis compared to non-toxic comments, while both exhibit similar lexical diversity. To evaluate the impact of linguistic features on state-of-the-art models’ performance, we fine-tune three pre-trained language models (PoliBERT, UmBERTo, and bert-base-italian-xxl-uncased). Despite their significant correlation with comments’ toxicity, the inclusion of linguistic features worsens the best model’s performance.

Mobility, Displacements and Identity in and around the Medieval Italian Countryside (6th to 10th centuries)

Mobility, Displacements and Identity in and around the Medieval Italian Countryside (6th to 10th centuries)

ІТАЛІЙСЬКІ НЕОЛОГІЗМИ У КОНТЕКСТІ СОЦІАЛЬНИХ МЕРЕЖ: СОЦІОКУЛЬТУРНИЙ АСПЕКТ

The systematic and continuous study of new lexical units is intrinsically linked to the dynamic evolution and constant changes in the lexical structure of the language, as well as the integration and adaptation of neologisms into the language. The article examines and gives examples of neologisms of modern social networks, analyzes the peculiarities of their formation, focusing on the tendency of using new words and expressions in online communication, especially among young people. The profound impact of social networking on life of modern generations is described, the vocabulary disparities across different age groups is juxtaposed. The distribution and significance of Italian neologisms are analyzed, and their impact on language and culture is determined. The results of the study underscore not only the evolutionary trajectory of the Italian language but also its pivotal role in articulating sociocultural trends within modern society through the pervasive adoption of neologisms.

An explorative study on consequences of abuse on psychological wellbeing and cognitive outcomes in victims of gender-based violence.

The issue of gender-based violence has been a public health problem for years. Considering its systemic nature, the possible consequences at the individual level on the psychological and cognitive wellbeing of victims have been examined. The present research aims to explore the differences in the various types and forms of violence. A non-probability and convenience sample was used; a total of 83 participants joined the research. Inclusion criteria were minimum age of 18 years, female gender, and knowledge of the Italian language. Two non-parametric One-Way ANOVAs (Kruskal-Wallis) were performed according to the type of violence experienced and the type of self-reported abuse (i.e., no victimization, single victimization, complex victimization). Results showed that victims of violence scored higher overall than non-victims on all subscales of the Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale. Analyses among the three groups-no violence, single violence, and complex violence-showed no differences in any of the dimensions between those who experienced single and complex violence, while differences emerged between the "no victimization" group and the other groups. The results were discussed in relation to the existing literature on the topic, highlighting the limitations and future applications of the collected data.