Epiceno e promiscuo: indagine sul significato

According to Latin grammarians, a noun as hic/haec sacerdos, is commune, of common gender, whereas a noun as haec Aquila, that is referred to individuals of both sexes although it only has a grammatical gender, is called epicoenum but also, by some authors, promiscuum or subcommune. Whereas promiscuum seems of Latrin origin, epicoenum is borrowed from Greek epíkoinos and subcommune is the translation of the same word. Since epí- means ‘over’ and epíkoinos is translated into the Armenian version of Dionysius Thrax makawasar ‘over-common’, the Author investigates into the meaning of epí- and into the relationship, manifest in Greek but darkened in Latin, between koinós and epíkoinos. From the…

Gradazione e linguaggi specialistici

I verbi impersonali secondo i grammatici latini

The Author analyses what Latin grammarians wrote about impersonal verbs. The Latin language does not have impersonal verbs stricto sensu, with a morphology different from the one of personal verbs. According to Latin grammarians, a verb is impersonal if it occurs in the third person of the singular and it needs a pronoun in order to express the person; consequently, impersonal verbs are of the type amatur and curritur and of the type pudet, decet, contingit. According to Latin grammatical tradition, the impersonal is either a mood or a voice: the Author manages to explain why it is considered as a mood, although impersonal verbs have moods, and why it is considered as a voice in addition to…

Di che genere è il sesso

L'articolo analizza il problema del genere grammaticale in latino e in greco classico a partire da quanto dicono sul problema i grammatici antichi e trova spunti interessanti che derivano dall'analisi dei testi studiati.

Russian in Italian Textbooks of Linguistics

It is known that Russian linguists contributely greatly to lay the foundations of Linguistics of the twentieth century. But how much was and is the Russian language important for linguistic studies? The author of the article answers both this question and, in addition, the question about Italian people and students' knowledge about Russian, analyzing the textbooks written by outstending Italian linguists. M.L.Aliffi considers what the authors say about Russian and, thus, finds out which information about the Russian anguage passes to those who do not study it. This article allows the students to enrich their linguistic an d cultural level, giving the opportunity to reflect ipon certain feat…

Viaggio nel laboratorio dell'Autore. Analisi linguistica di racconti di Svevo e Calvino

Unità minime in Guido d'Arezzo e nei grammatici latini

Guido d’Arezzo in the Micrologus points out an ascending scale of the units that form the songs, drawing a parallel between this one and the ascending scale of the units that form the metres according to the Latin grammarians. The units of the metres are: litterae, syllabae, partes, pedes, versus; the units of the songs are: soni, syllabae, neumae/partes, distinctiones. There are problems as regards the interpretation of the song units that are in the middle, especially neumae/partes and syllabae. From the analysis of Guido’s text and from the comparison with the Latin grammarians’ works, it turns out that the neumae/partes, called in a clearer manner partes cantilenae, correspond to the pa…

Niveo candore tra metafora e metonimia

Il Francese tra le Signorine dei primi del Novecento in un collegio della Sicilia

In un collegio per signorinre "bene" di Catania, nei primi anni del Novecento le ragazze si scambiavano, anche a mano, cartoline in francese E' stato trovato un album in cui la nonna dell'Autrice aveva conservato circa cinquanta cartoline ricevute. Le cartoline, acquarellate, con scritte a stampa in francese e con commenti in italiano o francese, vengono pubblicare qui per la prima volta. Si tratta di una serire di cartoline, con titolo e numerazione, alcune complete altre no, che costruiscono racconti spesso edificanti. Il ritrovamento risulta particolarmente interessante perché dimostra da un laro lo studio della lingua francese in Sicilia e dall'altro perché le storie illustrate e i comm…

Armenian and Typology

L'uso dei "due punti" in Leonardo Sciascia

I composti nominali e aggettivali in The Ryme of the Ancient Mariner di S.T. Coleridge e nelle traduzioni italiane

The Author examines the compounds in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and in the Italian translations by M. Luzi and B. Fenoglio, paying attention to the 3rd part of the poem about the skeleton-ship and the characters Death and Life-in-Death. The morphological analysis of English compounds shows the problems that the translators met in translating compounds and in interpreting verses written in a language where grammar gender is not expressed. Through this type of analysis we can infer and explain what was in the minds of the Poet and of his translators during their writing-process.

Irregularity in Latin: gender and inflexional classes

The Author searches the Latin common nouns beginning with the letters from a- to i- in order to have a statistical datum of the frequency of grammatical genders and inflexional classes. Then, analysing the masculine nouns in –a and the feminine ones in –o, that appear exceptions to the normal trends of the gender assignment, she notices that the masculine in –a, which are complex words, constitute a productive class whereas the feminine in –o are weak and subject to change of gender and declensional class. Finally, she shows that compound or derivative words are more numerous than the simplex ones and concludes that the selection of gender is generally arbitrary but it often depends on the …

Il pronomen articulare al confine fra grammatica latina e grammatica greca

Etymology and conceptual metaphor; the case of 'in vain' in Greek and Latin

The two Greek adverbs for 'in vain' have sill no good etymology above all because it is difficult to determine tje exact meaning of the connected roots. Yje Author takes into consideration the etymology proposed on the ground of phonetic laws and explains the meaning of the connected roots postulating a conceptual metaphor which is clear also in Latin and in Late Latin. The metaphor, grounded on the concept of a movement that is denied de facto, stremgthens the etymological conjectures.

Il pronome relativo secondo i grammatici latini: il caso di is vs.hic

According to Latin grammarians as Diomedes, Donatus et al., hic is pronomen praepositivum vel demonstrativum, is pronomen subiunctivum vel relativum. The maim object of this paper is to investigate into the meaning of the couples of adjectives, that should be referred to the position and the anaphoricity; Greek grammatical tradition is considered important especially with regards to the article that fails in Latin but whose treatment by Greek grammarians exerts a great influence on Latin reflection. Among the four adjectives, only demonstrativum has been entirely successful and is still preserved, whereas with relativum we now refer to another pronoun and with subiunctivum to a mood of the …

A proposito del fonosimbolismo in Voyellesdi Rimbaud

Nel Micrologus Guido d’Arezzo postula una scala ascendente delle unità che formano i canti facendo un parallelo con la scala ascendente delle unità che formano i metri secondo i grammatici latini. Le unità dei metri sono: litterae, syllabae, partes, pedes, versus; quelle dei canti sono: soni, syllabae, neumae/partes, distinctiones. Presenta problemi l’interpretazione della unità intermedie dei canti, in particolare di neumae/partes e syllabae. Dall’analisi del testo di Guido e dal confronto con le opere dei grammatici latini, risulta che neumae/partes, dette più chiaramente partes cantilenae, corrispondono alle partes orationis, mentre la syllaba è, contrariamente a quanto affermato da altr…