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Copyright by Ettore Marchetti 2015 The Dissertation Committee for Ettore Marchetti Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: SILENZIO IN SALA: PARLA IL CINEMA ITALIANO! NEW LINGUISTIC TENDENCIES AND THE LANGUAGE OF CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN COMEDY Committee: CINZIA RUSSI Supervisor DANIELA BINI CARTER PAOLA BONIFAZIO HERVÉ PICHERIT FABIO ROSSI SILENZIO IN SALA: PARLA IL CINEMA ITALIANO! NEW LINGUISTIC TENDENCIES AND THE LANGUAGE OF CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN COMEDY by Ettore Marchetti, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2015 Dedication A Chiara, la mia Musa ispiratrice e la mia fonte inesauribile di energia…perchè nel suo sorriso ritrovo sempre il senso di leggerezza che ogni tanto mi capita di perdere. Acknowledgements Un grazie speciale va alla mia famiglia, per il supporto morale e materiale che non mi ha mai fatto mancare. Grazie a tutti quelli che con una parola, con una frase o con un semplice gesto mi hanno convinto a non arrendermi e a completare il dottorato, in quell’ormai lontano periodo in cui, stremato e demotivato, ero sul punto di gettare tutto all’aria. Grazie al mio eterno amico Juan Monge, che in quei giorni mi ha sopportato e soprattutto mi ha dato i consigli giusti. Grazie a Luca, che ha sempre creduto in me. v SILENZIO IN SALA: PARLA IL CINEMA ITALIANO! NEW LINGUISTIC TENDENCIES AND THE LANGUAGE OF CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN COMEDY Ettore Marchetti, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2015 Supervisor: Cinzia Russi This dissertation investigates the language used in contemporary Italian cinema, with particular focus on popular comedy through the analysis of ten films released in a 30-year span period, from 1980 to 2010. My work argues that comedy dialogues may serve linguistic descriptive purposes since they use the complete spectrum of contemporary trends. The project analyzes how cinema uses common language and how film dialogues record linguistic changes in Italian, proving to be a useful and powerful medium for describing contemporary language. A subsequent question that my work addresses is how comedy’s film dialogues represent a changing society. A detailed analysis of the four linguistic levels: phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon is conducted in the dialogues of the films selected. Through the observation of the occurrences of the new linguistic tendencies I establish which variables trigger their use, what are the differences among the characters’ speeches, and whether and how the language used differs from standard language. Also, the comparison with contemporary Italian reveals the degree of sociolinguistic reliability of the dialogue of popular comedy. A further type of comparison is the one between the written screenplays and the final vi version of the films, which reveals some of the linguistic dynamics behind the trajectory from a written to a spoken version of the text. The data I collected show an overall reliable reproduction by most films of the new linguistic trends, and a reliable representation of the sociolinguistic complexity of contemporary Italian. This attempt to imitate reality shows, in my opinion, the scarce inclination to linguistic experimentalism of Italian comedy. On the other hand, what film dialogues fail to reflect in a realistic way are the traits intrinsically related to oral discourse such as interruptions, reformulations, and drawbacks. What my work ultimately highlights is the value of the close analysis of film dialogues as an interdisciplinary method that can contribute to linguistic accounts as well as to explain specific choices in language related to the cinematic genre. vii Table of Contents List of Tables ....................................................................................................... xiv 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................1 1.1. OBJECT AND AIMS OF THE STUDY ..............................................................1 1.2. CONTRIBUTION ..........................................................................................5 1.3. METHODOLOGY .........................................................................................6 1.4. ORGANIZATION OF THE DISSERTATION ......................................................9 2. Previous research .............................................................................................11 2.1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................11 2.2. THE LANGUAGE OF ITALIAN CINEMA .......................................................11 2.3. THE DEBATE ON CONTEMPORARY ITALIAN ..............................................18 3. Phonological and phono-morphological features ..........................................27 3.1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................27 3.2. PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES ......................................................................28 3.2.1. Consonants system .....................................................................28 3.2.1.1. Consonant assimilation ..................................................28 3.2.1.2. Deaffrication ..................................................................28 3.2.1.3. Gemination of vibrant, and voiced dental stop ..............29 3.2.1.4. Gorgia. Aspiration of /k/ ................................................29 3.2.1.5. Voicing of intervocalic /s/ ..............................................29 3.2.1.6. Lenition ..........................................................................29 3.2.1.7. Palatalization of sibilant before /k/, /f/, /g/, /m/, /n/, /p/, /qw/, /v/........................................................................................29 3.2.1.8. Phono-syntactic gemination...........................................29 3.2.1.9. Porena law .....................................................................30 3.2.1.10. Rhotacism of preconsonantal /l/ ..................................30 3.2.1.11. Sonorization of occlusive in post-nasal and post-labial position ...............................................................................30 3.2.1.12. Weakening of the palatal lateral ..................................30 viii 3.2.2. Vocalism ....................................................................................30 3.2.2.1. Monophthongization of the diphthong –uo- ...................30 3.2.2.2. Schwa .............................................................................31 3.3. PHONO-MORPHOLOGY .............................................................................31 3.3.1 Consonant system .......................................................................31 3.3.1.1. Aphaeresis of demonstrative adjectives and indefinite articles................................................................................31 3.3.1.2. Apocope..........................................................................31 3.3.2. Vocalism ....................................................................................32 3.3.2.1. Vowel lowering ..............................................................32 3.4. ANALYSIS OF FILMS.................................................................................32 3.4.1. Bianco, rosso e Verdone (Directed by Carlo Verdone, 1981. Screenplay by: Leonardo Benvenuti, Piero De Bernardi, Carlo Verdone) .....................................................................................32 3.4.2. Viaggi di nozze (Directed by Carlo Verdone, 1995. Screenplay by: Leonardo Benvenuti, Piero De Bernardi, Carlo Verdone) ..........35 3.4.3. Grande, grosso e Verdone (Directed by Carlo Verdone, 2008. Screenplay by: Piero De Bernardi, Pasquale Plastino, Carlo Verdone) .....................................................................................38 3.4.4. Il piccolo diavolo (Directed Roberto Benigni, 1988. Screenplay by: Roberto Benigni, Vincenzo Cerami, Andrea Pazienza)..............41 3.4.5. Il mostro (Directed by Roberto Benigni, 1994. Screenplay by: Roberto Benigni, Michel Blanc, Vincenzo Cerami) ...................43 3.4.6. Vacanze di Natale ’95 (Directed by Neri Parenti, 1995. Screenplay by Neri Parenti) ...........................................................................44 3.4.7. Christmas in love (Directed by Neri Parenti, 2004. Screenplay by: Fausto Brizzi, Marco Martani, Neri Parenti) ..............................47 3.4.8. Tre uomini e una gamba (Directed by Aldo, Giovanni & Giacomo, 1997. Screenplay by: Aldo, Giovanni & Giacomo, Giorgio Gherarducci, Lucio Martignoni, Massimo Venier).....................49 3.4.9. Chiedimi se sono felice (Directed by Aldo, Giovanni & Giacomo, Massimo Venier, 2000. Screenplay by: Aldo, Giovanni & Giacomo, Paolo Cananzi, Graziano Ferrari, Walter Fontana, Massimo Venier) .....................................................................................................51 ix 3.4.10. Benvenuti al sud (Directed by Luca Miniero, 2010. Screenplay by: Dany Boon, Alexandre Charlot, Massimo Gaudioso, Franck Magnier) ......................................................................................52 3.5. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS ..........................................................................54 3.6. CONCLUSIONS ..........................................................................................58