Lifespan and linguistic awareness
-
Lorenzo Tomasin
Abstract
This work individuates in the Italian autobiography of the late 18th century the most relevant cases of literary elaboration of some topoi related to linguistic awareness and the lifespan. Describing life as a linguistic (and literary) transformation of an individual from the childish ignorance to the maturity is an evident narrative strategy in the well-known masterpiece of Vittorio Alfieri’s Vita, the most elaborate example of a literary autobiography in the Italian literature. Late-modern Italian autobiographers show a typical tendency towards the description of linguistic troubles and of the individual’s linguistic learning process.
Abstract
This work individuates in the Italian autobiography of the late 18th century the most relevant cases of literary elaboration of some topoi related to linguistic awareness and the lifespan. Describing life as a linguistic (and literary) transformation of an individual from the childish ignorance to the maturity is an evident narrative strategy in the well-known masterpiece of Vittorio Alfieri’s Vita, the most elaborate example of a literary autobiography in the Italian literature. Late-modern Italian autobiographers show a typical tendency towards the description of linguistic troubles and of the individual’s linguistic learning process.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of abbreviations vii
- Investigating the lifespan perspective 1
- Disassociating the effects of age from phonetic change 9
- Phonological variation in real time 39
- Language production in late life 59
- Vocabulary and dementia in six novelists 77
- A sociolinguistic perspective on vocabulary richness in a seven-year comparison of older adults 109
- Age-related variation and language change in Early Modern English 129
- Lifespan and linguistic awareness 147
- Tired mind or tired hand? 167
- Kriegsausbruch, Kriegs Ausbruch, KriegsAusbruch 189
- Index 231
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of abbreviations vii
- Investigating the lifespan perspective 1
- Disassociating the effects of age from phonetic change 9
- Phonological variation in real time 39
- Language production in late life 59
- Vocabulary and dementia in six novelists 77
- A sociolinguistic perspective on vocabulary richness in a seven-year comparison of older adults 109
- Age-related variation and language change in Early Modern English 129
- Lifespan and linguistic awareness 147
- Tired mind or tired hand? 167
- Kriegsausbruch, Kriegs Ausbruch, KriegsAusbruch 189
- Index 231
