Archiviazione e annotazione del parlato nell'Atlante Linguistico della Sicilia

Il pluridecennale interesse dell\u2019Atlante Linguistico della Sicilia (ALS) nei riguardi dei dialetti dell\u2019Isola ha consentito la raccolta di ormai diverse migliaia di documenti orali in grado di testimoniare l\u2019esperienza linguistica e buona parte di ci\uf2 che rimane della cultura tradizionale nella Sicilia contemporanea. Il contributo illustra, in un primo momento, i criteri di archiviazione dei documenti sonori dell\u2019Archivio delle Parlate Siciliane (APS), suddivisi in diversi corpora in ragione degli specifici progetti o ambiti di ricerca per i quali sono state effettuate la registrazione. Ciascun corpus costituisce, in sostanza, un fondo documentario, omogeneo relativamente alla tipologia escussiva rispondente allo specifico obiettivo della ricerca. Sia pur costruito, sul piano informatico, in modo tale da funzionare autonomamente, questa Banca delle parlate costituisce soltanto il primo basilare modulo di un complesso sistema informativo. Questo contributo si concentra soltanto sulla fase del trattamento dei file sonori per l\u2019analisi delle informazioni desunte dal parlato, e precisamente sulla fase della trascrizione e del markup delle trascrizioni stesse. Sono introdotte, dunque, le condizioni teorico-metodologiche che sottostanno alle scelte procedurali: creare la possibilit\ue0 di consultare agevolmente non soltanto quelle porzioni del documento individuate come singole \u201crisposte\u201d a uno specifico quesito, ma anche di risalire ai rispettivi contesti linguistici e interlocutori; evitare la frammentazione del testo/documento, la decontestualizzazione del tratto linguistico di volta in volta sottoposto ad analisi e la destrutturazione delle dinamiche interattive che l\u2019hanno prodotto; evitare (grazie all\u2019allineamento delle trascrizione al segnale acustico) che le \uabinformazioni\ubb \u2013 una volta interpretate, incorniciate e divenute \uabdati\ubb \u2013 perdano ogni rapporto con il documento sonoro, che testimonia anche il contesto linguistico e pragmatico nel quale sono occorse e nel quale continuano, in certo qual modo, a rivivere. Viene illustrato infine, e come esempio, lo schema logico per l\u2019annotazione di testi di interesse etnodialettale

Mapping Mediterranean Geographies: Geographic and Cartographic Encounters between the Islamic World and Europe, c. 1100-1600

This dissertation is a study of the cultural encounter between Muslim and Christian inhabitants of the Mediterranean basin between the twelfth and sixteenth century. It approaches this subject from the vantage point of the circulation, transmission, and reception of geographical knowledge between Muslim and Christian geographical writers and cartographers who inhabited the shores of the central and western Mediterranean during a period of considerable political and religious change and hostility. At a basic level, it demonstrates the possibility of the transmission of knowledge in a world fragmented by violence and religious divisions. But it also argues that geographical writers and cartographers did not innocently receive and use this geographical knowledge. Rather they incorporated it piecemeal and adapted it, modified it, and even distorted it to fit their own preexisting conceptions of the world. The cross-cultural transfers of geographical knowledge examined in this study did not transform the mentalities and worldviews of recipients though they nevertheless modified them in important ways. The study is organized chronologically around four case studies, each an example of the transfer and reception of geographical knowledge across linguistic, religious, and political divisions. It begins in twelfth-century Sicily where the Muslim polymath al-Sharif al-Idrisi produced a geography on behalf of the Christian king Roger II in which he blended information from his own Arabic sources with new knowledge he had learned in Sicily. It then moves to the Maghrib and examines the way in which an anonymous Muslim cartographer took up a form of mapping that had developed in Europe and inscribed it with a view that betrayed his Islamic faith. Next it shifts to fifteenth-century Iberia where it explores a Castilian translation of the twelfth-century Arabic geography of al-Zuhri. Finally, it focuses on sixteenth-century Ifriqiya where ‘Ali al-Sharafi took up a European form of charting and modified it to present an Islamic sacred geography. These examples demonstrate that the analysis and assessment of the transfer and reception of geographical knowledge across cultures is a valuable technique for the study of mentalities and the milieus within which the recipients of knowledge lived.PHDHistoryUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/135791/1/jledger_1.pd

Trends in contemporary Italian narrative 1980-2007

The ‘new Italian narrative’ that began to be spoken about in the 1980s was not associated with a single writer or movement but with an eclectic and varied production. The eight essays that make up this volume set out to give a flavour of the breadth and range of recent trends and developments. The collection opens with two essays on crime fiction. In the first, Luca Somigli examines novels dealing with topical issues or recent history and which reveal a strong indigenous and regional tradition, while in the second, Nicoletta McGowan discusses the particular case of a noir by Claudia Salvatori. They are followed by essays on two of Italy’s best-known contemporary writers: Marina Spunta’s essay explores the representation of space, place and landscape in the work of Gianni Celati and photographer Luigi Ghirri, while Darrell O’Connell analyses the fiction of Vincenzo Consolo, and his struggle to find a means of representing an ethical stance within fiction

The Recent Evolution and Impact of Tourism in the Mediterranean: The Case of Island Regions, 1990-2002

This paper aims to analyse one of the world’s top tourist destinations, the Mediterranean, and, more specifically, the evolution and impact of mass tourism on its western islands (Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta and the Balearic Islands) throughout the final decade of the 20th century. Firstly a general overview of world tourism is given, followed by an analysis of tourism in the Mediterranean. In continuation, an in-depth study is made of the evolution and impact of tourism on the aforementioned islands. Finally, the economic impact of tourism specialisation is examined in these island regions.Mediterranean, Balearic Islands, Malta, Sardinia, Sicily, Corsica, Destination Lifecycle, Mass Tourism, IMEDOC

A theoretical and methodological framework for the analysis and measurement of environmental heritage at local level

The study aims to assess the lived experience and the environmental heritage perceived level by residents of an high complexity rural area, and which is, in this context, the role played by production of renewable energies. The paper introduces the concept of rural capital as an effective tool for environmental heritage analysis and measurement. The proposed theoretical and methodological approach allows, in fact, its analysis in order to understand what dimensions related to territoriality are connected to the perceived level of environmental heritage at local level. Translated into operational terms, the methodology has resulted in an empirical analysis of a rural and inner area of Sicily, performed both through the examination of identified benchmark indicators, and through the observation of various phenomena, directly experienced by rural residents, detected by sample surveys that, by using a complex sampling design, allow more accurate estimates, modelled on the contexts. All these results are integrated by a multi-case study carried out by a qualitative survey detected both through desk analysis and in field observation, and through in-depth interviews with stakeholders and focus groups with local actors, all asked to assess in a participative way. The research proves that it is necessary to activate the processes of participation and social learning in order to energy planning of the territorial system, allowing at the same time to protect, preserve and enhance the environmental and natural heritage

Europe (in theory)

Europe (in Theory) is an innovative analysis of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century ideas about Europe that continue to inform thinking about culture, politics, and identity today. Drawing on insights from subaltern and postcolonial studies, Roberto M. Dainotto deconstructs imperialism not from the so-called periphery but from within Europe itself. He proposes a genealogy of Eurocentrism that accounts for the way modern theories of Europe have marginalized the continent’s own southern region, portraying countries including Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal as irrational, corrupt, and clan-based in comparison to the rational, civic-minded nations of northern Europe. Dainotto argues that beginning with Montesquieu’s The Spirit of Laws (1748), Europe not only defined itself against an “Oriental” other but also against elements within its own borders: its South

Family names as indicators of Britain’s changing regional geography

In recent years the geography of surnames has become increasingly researched in genetics, epidemiology, linguistics and geography. Surnames provide a useful data source for the analysis of population structure, migrations, genetic relationships and levels of cultural diffusion and interaction between communities. The Worldnames database (www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames) of 300 million people from 26 countries georeferenced in many cases to the equivalent of UK Postcode level provides a rich source of surname data. This work has focused on the UK component of this dataset, that is the 2001 Enhanced Electoral Role, georeferenced to Output Area level. Exploratory analysis of the distribution of surnames across the UK shows that clear regions exist, such as Cornwall, Central Wales and Scotland, in agreement with anecdotal evidence. This study is concerned with applying a wide range of methods to the UK dataset to test their sensitivity and consistency to surname regions. Methods used thus far are hierarchical and non-hierarchical clustering, barrier algorithms, such as the Monmonier Algorithm, and Multidimensional Scaling. These, to varying degrees, have highlighted the regionality of UK surnames and provide strong foundations to future work and refinement in the UK context. Establishing a firm methodology has enabled comparisons to be made with data from the Great British 1881 census, developing insights into population movements from within and outside Great Britain