Studi e Saggi Linguistici

A morphosyntactic and morphosemantic analysis of English slang suffixoids

Elisa Mattiello — 2024-07-11

This study investigates English slang suffixoids (Sfxds) such as -ass (in fat-ass), -brain (in birdbrain), -face (in shitface), and -head (in airhead) from the morphosyntactic and morphosemantic viewpoints. Hitherto, the productivity of these morphological elements and their transitional character, borderline between compounding and derivation, have been amply demonstrated. In this study, the focus is on the two privileged morphosyntactic patterns creating denominal and deadjectival nouns – i.e. [[X]_N [Sfxd]_N]_N and [[X]_A [Sfxd]_N]_N – and on their literal or figurative interpretation. A qualitative analysis of a dataset drawn from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and Green’s Dictionary of Slang (2023) shows the general metonymic nature of suffixoids, referring to individuals, hence conveying the seme [human] by making reference to one of their body parts with a negative [pejorative] intent. By adopting a construction morphology approach, the analysis aims at finding out regular schemas for the scrutiny and understanding of English nouns displaying a slang suffixoid, as well as for the prediction of new words.

Sul tipo italiano qualche tre chili: impieghi del quantificatore indefinito in unione a numerale

Annamaria Chilà — 2024-07-11

Both in many varieties of regional italian and in italo-romance dialects widespread throughout Italy, the indefinite and indeclinable quantifier qualche “some” can be used as an adverb meaning “roughly, approximately”, when followed by cardinal numerals (e.g.: Ho comprato qualche tre chili di mele “I bought about three kilos of apples”). The main purpose of this contribution is to provide an answer to the following issues: 1) why the indefinite quantifier, which as such provides information on approximate quantities, can be found in association with cardinal numerals, i.e. with elements of the language codifying exact quantities; 2) why an intrinsic quantifier (that is, morphologically singular) can be associated with plurals; 3) if – and on what basis – a change of morphosyntactic category is conceivable for It. qualche. Comparison with similar uses attested in French and English will show how the pronoun qualc-uno (Fr. quelqu’un, Eng. some-one) may have triggered the creation of indefinite phrases like “some + N”.

Articolo espletivo e marcatura differenziale dell’oggetto nelle varietà reggine di Bianco e del suo immediato entroterra

Felicia Logozzo — 2024-07-11

The aim of this work is to describe the use of the expletive article before anthroponyms in an area of the Ionian coast of the province of Reggio Calabria, including the municipalities of Bianco and its immediate hinterland. The phenomenon, extremely rare in Southern Italian dialects, is considered an effect of the prolonged Greco-Romance linguistic contact that has affected the territories under investigation. The use of the definite article before personal names is linked to specific syntactic characteristics of the analyzed Romance varieties, but it also depends on semantic-pragmatic and sociolinguistic aspects that will be analyzed.

Note sulla geminatio consonantium nel corpus epigrafico peligno

Federico Iacozzilli — 2024-07-11

L'alfabeto peligno, come quello ereditato dai latini nel IV-III secolo a.C., in origine non distingueva graficamente tra consonanti deboli e intense. In latino tale distinzione si presenta graficamente a partire soltanto dal III sec. a.C. a seguito di una riforma ortografica. Un'attenta analisi dei dati del corpus epigrafico peligno rivela che gli effetti di questa riforma ortografica promanata da Roma si sono diffusi in tutta la comunità latinofona a partire dal II secolo a.C. arrivando perfino fra le popolazioni italiche come i Peligni. Gli stretti contatti nel tempo tra Latini e Peligni, nella regione abruzzese, hanno creato infatti una fitta rete di influenze che si riflette nel corpus epigrafico di entrambe le lingue. Le oscillazioni grafiche tra forme geminate e deboli riscontrate nel corpus dei Peligni sono da intendersi come il risultato di un'accettazione ancora 'imperfetta' o parziale della riforma ortografica della geminatio da Roma, mediata dagli ambienti 'dialettali' o regionali latini.

Antico nubiano –(i)l tra determinante e marca di soggetto

Andrea Di Manno — 2024-07-11

In this paper the function of the Old Nubian -(i)l will be analysed. Arguments will be given in favour of the interpretation of this element as a subject marker and it will be shown how the linguistic data do not support the hypothesis that it is a determiner or a definiteness marker. Moreover, an attempt will be made to clarify the distribution of -(i)l within the Old Nubian nominal system, with particular reference to the relationship between this element and the lateral that precedes some postpositions. It will be argued that they are etymologically connected, deriving from the reconstructed NES determinant *r(V), but later reinterpreted respectively as a subject marker and as an element belonging to the postpositions themselves.