Final Report Summary - PROMID (Pronouns of Medieval Italian dialects)
The project intended to examine the pronominal systems of Medieval Italian dialects (MID) on the basis of a scrutiny of 13th and 14th century texts. Data collection was therefore planned as follows:
( 1) sifting of the linguistic sources;
(2) selection of sets of relevant textual excerpts;
(3) classification of the material;
(4) storing of the material into a relational database;
(5) comparison of morphological and syntactic variants.
The main objective was to find correlations between phonological and grammatical properties in the light of a micro-parametric approach to dialect variation, which aims to reduce these complexities to a limited set of (abstract) micro-parameters, responsible for clusters of grammatical phenomena across MID. As an additional goal, this project was expected to provide new data allowing a direct comparison of different chronological stages of the same MID.
In particular, the work plan of the proposed project envisaged the following phases (part of them overlap because some activities were expected to be carried out at the same time):
- Phase 1: Review of existing material (1st - 2nd month)
- Phase 2: Selection of relevant classificatory phenomena and corresponding tag set (3rd - 4th month)
- Phase 3: Creation of the database (5th - 8th month)
- Phase 4: Scrutiny of MID texts, selection of representative examples and tagging (5th - 21st month)
- Phase 5: dissemination (mainly 12th - 24th month)
- Phase 6: preparation of the grammar (18th - 24th month)
According to this work plan, the expected results were:
- Result A: the tag set (at the end of phase 2)
- Result B: a list of examples (at the end of phase 3)
- Result C: the PROMID database accessible by external users (at the end of the project)
- Result D: two refereed journal article (from the 12th month)
- Result E: a workshop (from the 18th month)
- Result F: a comparative grammar of MID pronouns (at the end of the project).
Due to the probable reduced time span of the project (8 months instead of 24) Dr Pescarini decided, after consultation with Prof. Parry, to revise the work plan in order to ensure valid final results by the end of the 8th month of the project (at least one paper submitted to a peer-reviewed journal and the organisation of a workshop).
Having completed Phase 1, he therefore decided to focus on some specific vernaculars (mainly northern ones, in particular Veneto and Ligurian dialects) for Phase 2, then skip Phase 3, and proceed to the comparison of the data without the support of the database.
He mainly focused on the correlation between phonological processes (i.e. apocope, prosthesis) and the morphology of 3rd person pronouns (clitic pronouns in particular) in order to examine the interaction of phonological and morpho-syntactic changes across different diachronic stages. On the one hand he argued that phonological phenomena are constrained by syntactic constituency (in particular, he claimed that apocope and prosthesis are sensitive to syntactic boundaries), on the other hand he showed that some phonological processes (such as palatalisation) end up triggering / enhancing morpho-syntactic changes leading to suppletive / syncretic patterns.
( 1) sifting of the linguistic sources;
(2) selection of sets of relevant textual excerpts;
(3) classification of the material;
(4) storing of the material into a relational database;
(5) comparison of morphological and syntactic variants.
The main objective was to find correlations between phonological and grammatical properties in the light of a micro-parametric approach to dialect variation, which aims to reduce these complexities to a limited set of (abstract) micro-parameters, responsible for clusters of grammatical phenomena across MID. As an additional goal, this project was expected to provide new data allowing a direct comparison of different chronological stages of the same MID.
In particular, the work plan of the proposed project envisaged the following phases (part of them overlap because some activities were expected to be carried out at the same time):
- Phase 1: Review of existing material (1st - 2nd month)
- Phase 2: Selection of relevant classificatory phenomena and corresponding tag set (3rd - 4th month)
- Phase 3: Creation of the database (5th - 8th month)
- Phase 4: Scrutiny of MID texts, selection of representative examples and tagging (5th - 21st month)
- Phase 5: dissemination (mainly 12th - 24th month)
- Phase 6: preparation of the grammar (18th - 24th month)
According to this work plan, the expected results were:
- Result A: the tag set (at the end of phase 2)
- Result B: a list of examples (at the end of phase 3)
- Result C: the PROMID database accessible by external users (at the end of the project)
- Result D: two refereed journal article (from the 12th month)
- Result E: a workshop (from the 18th month)
- Result F: a comparative grammar of MID pronouns (at the end of the project).
Due to the probable reduced time span of the project (8 months instead of 24) Dr Pescarini decided, after consultation with Prof. Parry, to revise the work plan in order to ensure valid final results by the end of the 8th month of the project (at least one paper submitted to a peer-reviewed journal and the organisation of a workshop).
Having completed Phase 1, he therefore decided to focus on some specific vernaculars (mainly northern ones, in particular Veneto and Ligurian dialects) for Phase 2, then skip Phase 3, and proceed to the comparison of the data without the support of the database.
He mainly focused on the correlation between phonological processes (i.e. apocope, prosthesis) and the morphology of 3rd person pronouns (clitic pronouns in particular) in order to examine the interaction of phonological and morpho-syntactic changes across different diachronic stages. On the one hand he argued that phonological phenomena are constrained by syntactic constituency (in particular, he claimed that apocope and prosthesis are sensitive to syntactic boundaries), on the other hand he showed that some phonological processes (such as palatalisation) end up triggering / enhancing morpho-syntactic changes leading to suppletive / syncretic patterns.