SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF ITALIAN

a) To acquire the basic notions of sociolinguistics.

b) To develop students’ ability to reflect upon the variability of the Italian language in correlation with: communicative situation, geographical area, speaker’s gender, age and level of education; written or spoken channel.
To acquire the main tecniques of sociolinguistic research by carrying out some fieldwork.

c) To develop students’ awareness of the communicative potentiality of using Italian, dialect and other languages in conversation and in the internet (code switching and polylanguaging).

The course is divided into three parts:

1) introduction to sociolinguistics; main topics and concepts;

2) Description od the sociolinguistic situation in Italy

3) Code switchon between Italian and dialect in conversation

During lectures students are invited to take active part in order to ask questions, make remarks, etc.

slides containing the outline of each lecture are projected and the elaborated and widened orally

practice exercises will be carried out in the classroom before the ongoing exams, after the completion of each part, on a date that will be planned in advance.

1. Definition of Sociolinguistics: scope, postulates and methods.;
2. main concepts: sociolinguistic repertoire, linguistic community; social class and group; social network; communicative situationa and communicative competence; language and dialect,; diglossia and dilalia; sociolinguistic research methods:
3. The sociolinguistic repertoire of contemporary Italian: standard and neo-standard; written and spoken; formal and informal; Italian in mass media; geographical and social varieties of Italian.
4. Communicative strategies: code switching and polylanguaging. Definition and functions.

A. Introduction to Sociolinguistics (3 CFU): Texts:

- Berruto Gaetano, Prima lezione sociolinguistica, Bari, Laterza, 2006 (189 pp.)

B. Italian sociolinguistic repertoire (3 CFU). Text:

Berruto Gaetano, Sociolinguistica dell’italiano contemporaneo, Roma, Carocci, 2012 updated reprint (280 pp.)

1. Communicative strategies (3 CFU). Text:

Alfonzetti, Giovanna, Parlare italiano e dialetto in Sicilia, Palermo, Centro di Studi Filologici e Linguistici siciliani 2017 (100 pp.)

The scheme of all lectures will be found on STUDIUM.

Please remember that in compliance with art 171 L22.04.1941, n. 633 and its amendments, it is illegal to copy entire books or journals, only 15% of their content can be copied.

For further information on sanctions and regulations concerning photocopying please refer to the regulations on copyright (Linee Guida sulla Gestione dei Diritti d’Autore) provided by AIDRO - Associazione Italiana per i Diritti di Riproduzione delle opere dell’ingegno (the Italian Association on Copyright).

All the books listed in the programs can be consulted in the Library.