6 ECTS credits
150 h study time
Offer 2 with catalog number 1021006BNR for all students in the 2nd semester at a (B) Bachelor - advanced level.
The goal of the Bachelor class “Linguistica Italiana: capita selecta” is to provide the students with appropriate instruments and tools for the scientific study of the Italian language. Students will be led to reflect on the mechanisms at the base of the Italian language, and they will be introduced to an overview of relevant methodological approaches, that they will then apply in targeted hands-on activities. After assessing the entry level of the students, I will divide the course in four modules, each consisting of around six hours of frontal lessons (three classes):
Module 1 - Elements of History of the Italian language: This module will provide the students with notions of the fundaments of Italian historical grammar, and knowledge of the main turning points in the history and the evolution of the Italian language from the origins to the contemporary times. The students will then be encouraged to analyse texts from different historical periods, and to engage with specific cases study of the Italian tradition from a historical-linguistic point of view.
Module 2 - Italian grammar: lexicology and syntax: The module will provide an overview of various syntactical, lexicological and lexicographical concepts, and it will show the semantic, syntagmatic and paradigmatic relationships within the lexicon of Italian. The lessons will be based on the analysis of relevant cases study in Italian. The students will also be provided with notions about standard Italian, language variation, special registers and dialects.
Module 3 - Elements of Discourse analysis and Italian text linguistics: This module will be dedicated to the branch of linguistics that studies and analyzes texts as communication systems. It focuses initially on the definition of textuality, and will then proceed with the analysis of the seven constitutive principles of textual communication (cohesion, coherence, intentionality, acceptability, informativity, situationality, intertextuality). I will then engage with the topic of Discourse analysis, focusing on specific theoretical approaches and analytical perspectives such as stylistics, rhetoric, semiotics. The explanation of general concepts will always be supported by the analysis of specific cases study in Italian.
Module 4 - Digital approaches to the study of the language: The module will focus on theoretical concepts from Computational Linguistics, Quantitative linguistics, Stylometry, NLP, Digital textual and linguistic analysis. The students will be introduced to softwares like TXM, R, Voyant Tools, Tree Tagger, and they will familiarize themselves with concepts such as stemming, lemmatization, tokenization, TTR, keyness analysis, text annotation, through hands on exercises dedicated to digitally enhanced linguistic analyses.
Frontal lessons aimed at involving an active participation by the students. According to the number of students, I will consider the possibility of assigning them presentations to be delivered in class, and exercises for the weekly monitoring of the progresses. For the last module I will plan hands-on activities to improve the students’ familiarity with softwares and digital tools.
Students will learn notions about specific topics and theories within the frame of Italian Linguistics, and how this is intimately intertwined with everyday communication. They should also learn to apply the notions taught in class to carry out coherent and organized studies of critical literature or targeted, small-scale research tasks, demonstrating scientific independence. Ultimately, students should learn how to report about their readings or findings by means of accurate presentations, using an appropriate academic register and the scientific vocabulary acquired during the course. They will be evaluated according to their knowledge of the topics treated in the course, their awareness of the methodological approaches, their ability to autonomously develop a reflection on new cases study with the application of the notions provided by the classes.
The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Oral Exam determines 50% of the final mark.
Written Exam determines 50% of the final mark.
Within the Oral Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:
Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:
The exam will be ideally divided in two parts: a midterm written assignment (50% of the final mark), and a final oral exam that will cover the four modules of the class (50%). Formative evaluation is envisaged, with exercises to be provided regularly and corrected with the students in order to enhance their preparation for the exams.
This offer is part of the following study plans:
Bachelor of Linguistics and Literary Studies: French-Italian (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Linguistics and Literary Studies: Dutch-Italian (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Linguistics and Literary Studies: Spanish-Italian (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Linguistics and Literary Studies: Italian-German (only offered in Dutch)
Bachelor of Linguistics and Literary Studies: English-Italian (only offered in Dutch)
Bridging Programme Master of Arts in Linguistics and Literary Studies: Default track (only offered in Dutch)
Bridging Programme Master of Teaching in Languages: Standaard traject (only offered in Dutch)
Preparatory Programme Master of Arts in Linguistics and Literary Studies: one language - TTK (only offered in Dutch)
Preparatory Programme Master of Arts in Linguistics and Literary Studies: two languages (only offered in Dutch)
Preparatory Programme Master of Arts in Linguistics and Literary Studies: one language (only offered in Dutch)
Preparatory Programme Master of Arts in Linguistics and Literary Studies: one language - after third lng (only offered in Dutch)