The aim of the present study is to examine the interactional functions of code-switching in plurilingual conversation, with a particular focus on those related to the elaboration of the social identities of the interlocutors, i. e. their identity work. The adopted analytical model was initiated by Auer, and further developed by Gafaranga, who combined it with the Membership Categorization Analysis elaborated by Sacks. The study is based on a corpus consisting of the audio recorded dinner talk of an Italian-Swedish family whose members use Swedish, Italian and a Ligurian dialect, and focuses on the sequential progression of the talk in interaction, thus based on an approach proper of conversation analysis. The participants create and display their different roles (identities), which are related to both group membership and individuality, a subsequent distinction made by Fant. Code-switching is used as a communicative strategy among the speakers and is used to make relevant identities, as well as a tool for the management of the interaction. The analysis is divided in two distinctive parts: one related to the code-switching connected to the organisational management of the conversation, the other connected to the identity work of the interlocutors. The linguistic codes used within the group are either inclusive (Swedish, Italian) or selective (Ligurian) and the analysis indicates a general inclusion rather than exclusion of interlocutors, as the speakers accommodating to the linguistic preferences and competences of the interlocutor. The speakers, when selecting a code, thus make use of recipient design, a concept worked out by Sacks, Schegloff & Jefferson. They choose code in order to include a particular interlocutor, adjusting to the language preferences of the other. There are some instances of asymmetrical plurilingual conversation, in which the interlocutors maintain different codes, but since the code choice appears to be anticipated by the addressee the interaction runs smoothly between them. As for the direction of the code switch, two different tendencies emerge: one in the switches connected to the identity work of the participants in which the direction of the switches seems to be highly significant. The other in the switches connected to the management of the conversation in which the direction proves to be reversible.

Parlare dell'influenza dei mezzi di trasporto moderni, e in particolare della motocicletta, nella letteratura italiana permette di aprire nuove prospettive di studio, perché oggi ci si confronta giornalmente con veicoli potenti e tecnologicamente sempre più avanzati. In ambito culturale gli intellettuali riconoscono al veicolo a due ruote un ruolo importante per descrivere la società. Attraverso la motocicletta l'individuo avverte in sé una nuova forza che lo porta a sperimentare l'ansia d'infinito. Egli si sente un nuovo centauro che ha assunto in sé le medesime caratteristiche di forza e velocità del suo mezzo meccanico. Nei secoli passati il veicolo più usato era il cavallo, nell'era di navi, treni e aerei il mezzo che più gli si avvicina è la moto, non solo per la postura del cavaliere, ma perché essa lascia il pilota a contatto con il paesaggio esterno, con i vari fenomeni atmosferici (pioggia, sole e vento) e con i profumi della natura. Se in passato il moto del cavallo poteva diventare il pretesto per esprimere determinati processi narrativi, nel Novecento tale compito è affidato alla motocicletta che cha finito per condizionare il modo di vivere e di pensare degli uomini del XX secolo. / Speaking about the influence of modern means of transport (in particular about the motorcycle) in literature, fixes a new way of studying culture, because today we have to cope with more and more powerful and technologically advanced vehicles. Intellectuals acknowledge motorcycles an important role to describing society. Thanks to the motorcycle man exploits a new strength that enables him to overcome his limits. He feels a sort of divinity embodying the same peculiarities as his vehicle. In the past the horse was the most widespread means of transport while today, in an age of airplanes, ships and trains, it has been replaced by the motorcycle, both for the rider's posture and for his contact with the environment and its expressions: rain, sun and wind as well as the perfumes of the Earth. Just like the horse's motion was in the past a way to express narrative processes, the motorcycle has inherited this task today, therefore conditioning the contemporary way of living and thinking.

The European Union (EU) established on November 1, 1993, according to the Maastricht Treaty signed on February 7, 1992. This economic and political community consists of 27 member states, primarily located in Europe. She operates through a supranational and intergovernmental system, including the European Commission, the Council, the Parliament and the Central Bank, to transfer herself from the joint economic development regions to the single market of economic and political integration. Italy is one of the six founding countries of the EU, also one of the G8 members, the eight industrially advanced nations in the world, and playing a force to be reckoned with. It is our objective to build a language system that can help us to learn Italian more effectively, to promote our competency of intercultural understanding, and to widen our vision of travel and living. This thesis investigates the design and implementation strategies for an Italian speech recognition system. It utilizes the speech features of the 370 common Italian mono-syllables as the major training and recognition methodology. A training database of 10 utterances per mono-syllable is established by applying Italian pronunciation rules. These 10 utterances are collected through reading 5 rounds of the same mono-syllables twice with different tones. The first pronounced pattern has high pitch of tone 1, while the second one has falling pitch of tone 4. Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients, linear predicted cepstral coefficients, and hidden Markov model are used as the two syllable feature models and the recognition model respectively. Under the AMD 2.2 GHz Athlon XP 2800+ personal computer and Ubuntu 9.04 operating system environment, correct phrase recognition rates of 88.35% and 89.32% can be reached using phonotactical rules for a 4,000 vocabulary Italian phrase database and a 3,304 word database for Italian Language Proficiency Test. The average computation time for each system is less than 1.5 seconds, and the training time for the systems is about two hours.

This thesis aims to examine the representation of Turkey by the Italian newspapers in order to determine: a) if it is a stereotyped and ill-informed representation of Turkey, in parallel to the low level knowledge of the Italian public on Turkey / b) if there is a convergence among political agenda on Turkey and the media on Turkey / c) whether Islam is being inserted to the construction of Turkish perception by the Italian media. According to the Transatlantic Trends Surveys of the past years, it appears that the Italians have a confused image and limited knowledge of Turkey and its membership to the EU. On the political level, the government official position is supportive of Turkish membership into the EU. At the political party level, the opinions on this matter are diverse, principally depending on the political positions of the parties. This thesis argues that Turkey being Muslim-majority country, the perception of Islam plays an important role in shaping Turkish image in the Italians

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Romance Languages and Literatures, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 285-297). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1984. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [193]-208).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--New York University, 1977. / Cataloging based on CIP information. Includes bibliographical references (p).

Diplomarbeit - Universität, Innsbruck, 2002. / University publication. Includes bibliographical references (p. 136-141).

No description available.

This dissertation discusses Italy’s bestselling author Andrea Camilleri’s series of Montalbano crime novels. It poses the question of what makes Camilleri’s series so successful in the contemporary literary marketplace and if his success is a representation of Italian culture (and by extension, the postmodern or post-postmodern Italian literary scene). This dissertation deals with Camilleri and his success from a narrative literary point of view. It examines Camilleri’s work from several different perspectives, placing it within the vaster context of Italian literature while also taking a meticulous look at Camilleri as the author who has managed to free a literary genre from its previous confines and opened new boundaries for Italian literature. The dissertation demonstrates how Andrea Camilleri provides a "security blanket" for his readers: by including many elements of a common cultural memory, he keeps his readers safely anchored. These elements include a long list of recurring characters that function almost like the chorus in a Greek play. Certain thematic elements, such as Montalbano’s perpetual search for Justice, and his struggle to combine the written law with the law of men are a topoi of Western literature, as are the antonyms eros/thanatos as well as food and death, which Camilleri heavily employs. The Sicilian author manages to root his work deeply within a literary tradition through direct citations, and explicit and implicit references to the canon, but also breaks new ground and manages to move Italian literature a step forward. In front of this apparently nostalgic background, the Sicilian author plays with and invents many new components in his works, satisfying thus the Italian need for the "known" with the pleasure of a discovery of the "unknown" or the "new", which is a major reason for his success. Camilleri participates in a (post)modern shift of horizons, but does not radically challenge his reader’s "expectations". His series of Montalbano mysteries presents literature of a high level that almost by chance becomes part of an "immediate" literary canon, but does not set out with the ambition to become part of "the canon". / Romance Languages and Literatures