THE COMPARATIVE GRAMMAR BY G. M. ALESSANDRI AS A PIECE OF EVIDENCE REGARDING LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL CONTACTS BETWEEN ITALY AND SPAIN IN THE XVI CENTURY
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2018-8-62-68
The present paper is devoted to a little-known XVI-century piece of linguistic writing – the comparative grammar of Italian and Spanish (“Il paragone della lingua toscana et castigliana”, “The comparison of Tuscan and Castilian languages”, 1560) by Giovanni Mario Alessandri, a Naples-born courtier. The grammar was meant both for the Spanish nobles eager to learn Italian and for the Italians who pursued a career at the Spanish court. In many ways “Il paragone” stands apart from the bulk of the Italian grammatical treatises of that epoch. Alessandri does not cite classic authors like Boccaccio or Petrarch to support theoretical points although it is on such XIV-century literary basis that the Italian language norm is based. The grammar contains a number of interesting comments of sociolinguistic nature, like those regarding social hierarchy and its impact on language use (the use of “Vostra Signoria”, for instance). It also gives an idea of how the ideology of Counter-Reformation could influence grammaticography in the Romance world (hence the frequent appeals to the authority of Catholic church – quite a queer feature for a grammatical treatise). G. M. Alessandri’s views on language have much in common with those of B. Castiglione, G. Trissino and other XVI-century Italian theorists of “courtly” language.
Keywords: history of Italian, history of Romance linguistics, grammaticography, XVI-century Italian language, questione della lingua, language norm
References:
1. Galli S. B. Il peso della memoria storica e l’identità culturale italiana. Atti del Convegno “Identità italiana tra Europa e società multiculturale”. Siena: Biblioteca della Fondazione Intercultura, 2009. Pр. 47–59.
2. Shevlyakova D. A. Dominanty natsional’noy identichnosti ital’yantsev. Avtoref. dis. dokt. kulturologii [Dominants of the Italians’ national identity. Abstract of thesis. dr. of culturology]. Moscow, 2011. 46 p. (in Russian).
3. Zholudeva L. I. Problema natsional’noy identichnosti v ital’yanskikh istoricheskikh i lingvisticheskikh sochineniyakh XVI veka [The problem of national identity in the XVI-century Italian historical and linguistic treatises]. Vestnik Moskovskogo universiteta. Seriya 9: Filologiya – Moscow State University Bulletin. Series 9. Philology, 2016, no. 1, pp. 111–119 (in Russian).
4. Vitale M. La questione della lingua. Palermo: Palumbo, 1978. 381 p.
5. Zholudeva L. I. Spor o nazvanii yazyka v lingvisticheskih trudah Chinkvechento kak otrazhenie problem formirovaniya ital’yanskoj identichnosti [The controversy on language name in the XVI-century linguistic treatises as a reflection of Italian identity development problems]. Drevnyaya i Novaya Romaniya, 2013, vol 12 (2), pp. 36–48 (in Russian).
6. Bozzola S. Tra Cinque e Seicento. Tradizione e anticlassicismo nella sintassi della prosa letteraria. Firenze: Olschki, 2004. 167 p.
7. Buono B. Le Regole grammaticali di Giovan Francesco Fortunio e le grammatiche bilingui italiano-spagnolo nel Cinquecento. Cuadernos de Filología Italiana, 2017, vol. 24, pp. 59–73.
8. Krefeld T., Oesterreicher W., Schwägerl-Melchior V. (eds.) Reperti di plurilinguismo nell’Italia spagnola (sec. XVI–XVII). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2013. 337 p.
9. Maiden M. Storia linguistica dell’italiano. Bologna: Mulino, 1995. 307 p.
10. Commedie del Cinquecento. A cura di N. Borsellino. Vol. I. Milano: Feltrinelli, 1962. 588 p.
11. Wilhelm R. Lo spagnolo in Lombardia. Spunti critici per una storia del plurilinguismo. Krefeld T., Oesterreicher W., Schwägerl-Melchior V. (eds.) Reperti di plurilinguismo nell’Italia spagnola (sec. XVI–XVII). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2013. Pр. 127–151.
12. Sardo R. Scritture e ‘interscritture’ pratiche e burocratiche nella Sicilia spagnola. Krefeld T., Oesterreicher W., Schwägerl-Melchior V. (eds.) Reperti di plurilinguismo nell’Italia spagnola (sec. XVI–XVII). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2013. Pр. 51–83.
13. Soares da Silva D. La coalescenza dei volgari nelle documentazioni giuridiche del Regno di Sicilia (sec. XVI) – riapertura di questioni archiviate. Krefeld T., Oesterreicher W., Schwägerl-Melchior V. (eds.) Reperti di plurilinguismo nell’Italia spagnola (sec. XVI–XVII). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2013. Pр. 85–105.
14. Schwägerl-Melchior V. ‘Plurilinguismo ricettivo: una chiave di lettura per l’Italia spagnola? Krefeld T., Oesterreicher W., Schwägerl-Melchior V. (eds.) Reperti di plurilinguismo nell’Italia spagnola (sec. XVI–XVII). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2013. P. 261–279.
15. Trabalza C. Storia della grammatica italiana. Milan, Hoepli, 1908. 562 p.
16. Alisova T. B. Osobennosti stanovleniya norm ital’yanskogo pis’menno-literaturnogo yazyka v XVI v. [Peculiarities of the Italian literary language normalization in the XVI c.]. Voprosy formirovaniya i razvitiya natsional’nykh yazykov. Trudy Instituta yazykoznaniya [Issues of formation and development of national languages. Proceedings of the Institute of Linguistics]. 1960. Vol. X. Pp. 177–203 (in Russian).
17. Kosarik M. A. Opisaniye yazykovoy sistemy v rannikh lingvisticheskikh pamyatnikakh Portugalii. Tom I. Fonetika. Morfemika. Morfologiya imennykh chastey rechi [Description of language system in early Portuguese linguistic treatises. Vol. I. Phonetics. Morphemics. Morphology of nominal parts of speech]. Moscow, MAKS Press Publ., 2013. 228 p. (in Russian).
18. Chelysheva I. I. Teoriya i praktika protsessa yazykovogo normirovaniya v Italii XVI v. [Theory and practice of language normalization in the XVIcentury Italy] Yazykovaya norma. Tipologiya normalizatsionnykh protsessov [Language norm. Typology of normalization processes]. Moscow, Institute of linguistics RAS Publ., 1996. Pp. 128–153 (in Russian).
19. Zholudeva L. I. K voprosu o portugalo-ital’yanskikh kul’turnykh svyazyakh v epokhu Vozrozhdeniya: Migel da Silva, kardinal Vizeu, i ego ital’yanskiye sobesedniki [On the Portuguese-Italian cultural contacts in the Renaissance: Miguel da Silva, cardinal of Viseu, and his Italian interlocutors]. Voprosy ibero-romanistiki, 2016, issue 15, pp. 69–77 (in Russian).
( 740 kB ) 
( 415.54 kB )
Issue: 8, 2018
Series of issue: Issue 3
Rubric: THEORETICAL LINGUISTICS
Pages: 62 — 68
Downloads: 741