DIACRONIA DEL MUTAMENTO LINGUISTICO

The course aims to equip students with the skills, insights and appropriate theoretical approaches necessary to analyse and describe changes in the structure of English from the earliest written records to the Late Middle Ages/Early Modern period. Students will also be encouraged to explore historical linguistics within a framework of cultural analysis which will allow them to relate changes in the structure of English to the sociocultural contexts in which those changes occur.

Frontal lessons, seminars, laboratories

Angles, Saxons and Jutes in Britain. Germanic culture and classical-Christian culture. The Scandinavian influence. Old English and its written expressions. The Conquest and its consequences. From Old English to Middle English. Middle English and its written expressions. Late Middle English. Early Modern English.

1) Nicoletta Francovich Onesti, L’inglese dalle origini ad oggi. Le vicende di una lingua, Roma 1988 (and more recent editions and reprints), chapters 1-7.

2) Passages from significant Old English and Middle English texts (see 5)

3) Reference dictionaries: J. Bosworth, T. N. Toller, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, available at https://www.ling.upenn.edu/~kurisuto/germanic/oe_bosworthtoller_about.html, or other electronic version; H. Kurath et al., Middle English Dictionary, electronic version https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dictionary

4) Reference grammar books: Gemma Manganella, L’anglosassone e il sassone antico, Napoli, 1960; Joseph Wright and Mary Elizabeth Wright, An Elementary Middle English Grammar, London et al., 1921 (available at archive.org)

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.

5) Supplementary materials (downloadable from the Studium webpage dedicated to the course; registration required).

N.B. Grammar books and dictionaries are consultation works.