Features of the functioning of the article in comedies of Italian authors of the 16th century

Kuteko Dar'ya Andreevna ORCID: 0000-0002-0918-602X Postgraduate of Roman Languages Department, Philological Faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University 119991, Russia, Moscow, Leninskie Gory str., 1, building 51 kuteko_darja@rambler.ru Other publications by this author

The difficult sociolinguistic situation, characterized by the fragmentation of the territory of the future Italian state, has influenced the Italian language throughout the history of its development, making the process of normalizing the language collective the longest and most difficult stage of rationing the idiom ^{[1, p. 298]}. The convergence of norm and usage in modern Italian has led to the emergence of a new kind of idiom — a superdialect, multifunctional and socially prestigious language, which has greater variability compared to the codified norm, called italiano standard ^{[2, p. 501]}, and is used mainly in situations of informal communication (previously occurring in dialect) ^{[3, p. 46]}.  There is no uniformity of terminology for the designation of this phenomenon. Thus, Alberto Mioni calls him italiano tendenzionale ^{[4, p. 496]}, Francesco Sabatini — italiano dell'uso medio ^{[5, p. 172-173]}, Giuseppe Antonelli — italiano giornaliero ^{[6, p. 19]}. The most commonly used term proposed by Gaetano Berruto is italiano neostandard ^{[7, pp. 31-32]}.

It is important that many researchers attribute the presence of a number of innovations to the characteristics of this form of the Italian language. Thus, Luca Serianni states the following: "in the colloquial language, there was an assertion of innovative trends, which led to the appearance of a variety of italiano medio" ^{[8, p. 49]}. Gaetano Berruto admits the coexistence of both innovative and previously used characteristics in italiano neostandard, but generally agrees with Serianni: "it seems that neostandard is strengthening its position due to the fact that new trends are being added to established traditions" ^{[9, p. 63]}.

In particular, Francesco Sabatini highlights a number of innovative features of italiano dell'uso medio, among which the use of the partitive article in prepositional constructions attracts particular attention, for example, in sentences like Ho dipinto la mia stanza con dei colori sgargianti/I painted(a) your room in [some, some] bright colors or L'esame era su degli argomenti che non conoscevo/The exam was on [some, some] topics that I didn't know(a) ^{[5, p. 162]}. The paradox lies in the fact that examples of the use of this structure are already found in the texts of comedies by Italian authors of the XVI century. In this connection, the purpose of this study is to give a reasonable answer to the question whether the use of a partitive article with a preposition can be considered a truly innovative feature characterizing the modern stage of the Italian language, as well as to analyze the functioning of articles in the usage of the XVI century.

The appeal to this particular part of speech is not accidental. The article in the Italian language is a service word that stands in the preposition to a name (or a nominal group) and serves to express the category of certainty and uncertainty ^{[10, p. 45]}. The use of the article is often fraught with difficulties for students of the Italian language, especially if this part of speech is absent in their native idiom. Despite the fact that familiarity with the basic rules concerning articles occurs already at the initial stage of training, cases of using or omitting the article, and sometimes its correct forms, represent a problematic area in which mistakes are made even by those who speak the language at a sufficiently high level, but are not its native speaker. For a deeper understanding of the functioning of this part of speech, its comprehensive study is necessary, in particular, consideration of the historical aspect: the formation of the article, as well as the principles and contexts of its use in the early stages of development.

The novelty of the research lies in the material for analysis: the work contains contexts from the plays of the Sienese Bernardo Dovizi Bibbiena "Calandria" ("La Calandria", 1513), a native of Lucca Agostino Ricci "Three Tyrants" ("I tre tiranni", 1530), Sienese Alessandro Piccolomini "Constancy in Love" ("L'amor costante", 1536), the Venetian Lodovico Dolce "The Youth" ("Il Ragazzo", 1541), the Neapolitan Giambattista della Porta "The Maid" ("La Fantesca", 1592). For greater reliability and completeness of the analysis, the creations of authors from different regions of Italy were selected. Earlier comedies by Italian authors of the XVI century attracted the attention of literary critics and theater historians, but were not considered as a source valuable for obtaining new information about the language. However, it is important that the texts of the plays contain the phenomenon of parlato-recitato – imitation of colloquial speech in stage performance, and therefore serve as almost the only opportunity to analyze the Italian language of informal communication five centuries ago ^{[11, p. 979]}. In addition, the Cinquecento can be considered the starting point of the existence of the literary Italian language, since as a result of the Dispute about the language in the XVI century, the first grammars of the Italian language appeared and a codified norm was formed (this is due to the epoch chosen in the study) ^{[12, p. 174]}. The heyday of the Italian comic theater coincides with the promotion of the Florentine dialect as a national language and begins to occupy a much higher position compared to other dialects ^{[13, p. 18]}. How do articles function in everyday communication of that time?

As you know, the personal pronoun of the 3rd person and the definite article in all Romance languages have a common etymon - the Latin demonstrative pronoun ille (illi, illus). The common etymology is explained by the fact that initially they were united by the function of repeated nomination (anaphora) ^{[14, p. 301]}. The definite article in Italian agrees with the noun in gender and number, and its choice is phonetically determined. Thus, the masculine gender corresponds to the forms il, lo and l’ in the singular and i and gli in the plural. Before feminine nouns, the articles la and l’ are used in the singular, and le in the plural. The listed number of word forms and meanings has not undergone significant changes in the development of the Italian language. In addition, among the features of italiano neostandard, there are no characteristics concerning a specific article.

In the texts of comedies of the XVI century, one can only note a high degree of variability in the use of certain articles: for example, before nouns beginning with the letter "l", the article is often assimilated, or there is a doublet of the masculine singular article – the forms "il" and "el" compete with each other even within the monologue of one and the same the same hero before the same word:

Messer Ligdonio. <...> Se la mia sensitiva avesse unquanco de aggradevole eloquenzia, a mal grado de’ l imati denti, le mie soventissime parole transeriano siempre nelle vostre bianchissime orecchie... ^{[15, p. 66]} / Messer Ligdonio. <...> If my feelings were sweetly eloquent, then, having overcome the barrier of teeth, wonderful words would flow into your ears…

Messer Giannino. <…> Aim?! che grave passione questa! avere il male certo e non trovar modo d'essere creduto! ^{[15, p. 25]} / Messer Giannino. <..> Alas! what a heavy burden it is! to endure such torments, but not to find the means to be believed!

Messer Giannino. <…> Che via posso imaginare per farli credere el mal mio? ^{[15, p. 25]} / What way can I think of to make her believe in my suffering?

You should also pay attention to the use of a specific article in the construction "possessive pronoun + family member", which requires the omission of the article at the present stage:

Lucrezia. Perch'io dubitavo che quel mio zio non me l'avesse creduto senza ’l testimonio del mio marito... ^{[15, p. 111]} / Lucrezia. Because I doubted that my uncle would believe me if I didn't present my husband as a witness.

Fulvia. <…> Quando ar? io tempo andarlo a trovare, come al presente, che egli ? in casa e che il mio marito ? di fuora? ^{[16, p. 47]} / Fulvia. <...> When will I have time to visit him, as now, while he is at home and my husband is not?

            At the same time, the construction "possessive pronoun + naming of a family member with an evaluative suffix", which is now used with the article, is used in texts of the XVI century without it:

                        Nepita. <...> tra Cleria mia figliana e uno Essandro suo parente ^{[17, p. 7]} / Nepita. <...> between Cleria, my daughter, and her relative Essandro.

                        Guglielmo. <...> Sorte crudelissima, che, in un medesimo giorno, m'ha fatto ritrovar mia figliuola e ammazzarla! ^{[15, p. 112]} / Guglielmo. <...> Cruel fate that brought my daughter back to me overnight and killed her with my own hands!

The indefinite article in the Romance languages goes back to the desemanticized Latin numeral unus/una (one/one), which already in Latin began to be used in this function — for presentation or isolation from the class of similar subjects ^{[14, p. 316]}.

In the course of the evolution of the Italian language, neither the forms nor the meaning of the indefinite article, like the definite one, have undergone significant changes. At the present stage, the indefinite article most often introduces a noun denoting a concept new to the reader or listener, and depending on the initial letter of the noun has the forms un and uno for masculine nouns and un’ and una for feminine singular nouns. A similar series to convey the same meanings is present in the texts of Italian authors of the XVI century:

Panzana. <...> State a udire: ch'io credo che noi aremo un bel piacere. ^{[15, p. 91]} / Pantsana. <...> Listen, I think we're going to have fun.

Samia. Ha uno spirito favellario. ^{[16, p. 21]} / Samia. He has a talking spirit.

Valerio. Pensi tu che io sia una bestia? ^{[18, p. 224]} / Valerio. Do you think I'm a beast?

Samia. Tu non sai gi? un'altra cosa. ^{[16, p. 21]} / Samia. There's something else you don't know.

The forms of the indefinite plural article are obtained by merging the preposition di with the forms of the definite article i, gli, le, resulting in the forms dei, degli or delle.  However, there is another point of view, according to which the indefinite article has no opposition in number, and the forms listed above in this paragraph rather correspond to the partitive, or partial, article, the main function of which is to express the idea of some indefinite and explicable quantity. Terminology in this matter is a problem area, but in practice the points of view considered do not contradict each other.

There are frequent examples in which the partitive article is used in prepositional constructions:

Agnoletta. <...> E io ancora ho avuto pratica con degli altri, e so quanto pesano a ponto a ponto. ^{[15, p. 28]} / Agnoletta. <...> And I've been around all sorts of people and I know how they sit in their livers.

Artemona. <...> Voglio tre o quattro de le tuoi camicie pi? belle per lavarle; e con degli altri panni le stender? ne la sua altana. ^{[19, p. 212]} / Artemon. <...> I want three or four of your most beautiful shirts to wash them; and with some other underwear I will hang them on the roof terrace.

In the texts of the XVI century, it is also not uncommon to use the partitive article with a preposition in conjunction with a pronoun (due to the fact that the language of that era is characterized by the word forms meco and teco, replacing the prepositional constructions con me and on te). Moreover, this phenomenon is again observed only in the comedies of Tuscany:

Pilastrino. <…> So dir che sei persona d’aver teco de’ topi e de le mosche in compagnia. ^{[19, p. 182]} / Pilastrino. <...> I can say that you are a person in the company of mice and flies.

Ferrante. <...> Ora il tempo e venuto e Dio mi sia testimonio come non per altro ero uscito adesso fuori se non per trovarti e conferirti la cosa e consigliarmi teco del tutto. ^{[15, p. 43]} / Ferrante. <...> Now the time has come, and, God knows, I left the house, just to see you, tell you something and consult with you about everything. 

Thus, the examples given give reason to believe that there have been no significant changes in the system of definite and indefinite articles, and the use of the partitive article with a preposition cannot be considered an innovation at the modern stage of the development of the Italian language, since this construction (although not yet everywhere, as in the XXI century, but only in the texts of authors from Tuscany) it can be found already in the replicas of the heroes of learned comedies of the XVI century.

It is noteworthy that it is used in speech mainly by servants, parasites, nurses, i.e. illiterate or completely illiterate characters. This suggests that at the present time the Italian language does not develop innovative structures, but rather undergoes a process of restandartization, in which the phenomena characteristic of reduced usage are codified and gradually become normative: the prescriptive norm finally becomes descriptive ^{[20, p. 76]}.

It can be concluded that the study of the structural and functional specifics of the Italian language of the XVI century contributes to a deeper understanding of the current trends characterizing the development of the morphology and syntax of the modern Italian language, and the Italian comedies of the XVI century are a source of information about the language norm and colloquial usage of that period, which is reflected in the imitation of colloquial speech in stage performance.         

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