L’infinito verbale dal latino alle lingue romanze

This article is a study of diachronic typology in which we analyse first forms and functions of verbal infinitive in Latin and then the various ways in which the main Romance languages have developed verbal infinitive itself. We claim that Romance languages show different degrees of development of verbal infinitive, especially if we consider the possibilities of having infinitive constructions with specified subjects. The lowest degree of development of verbal infinitive is represented by Rumanian, due to the fact that this language has been influenced by other languages of the so called “Balkan league”. Other languages, such as Italian and French, in the course of their history have reduced the functions of verbal infinitive because they have drastically restricted infinitive constructions with specified subjects; so, infinitive is used mainly as a form which is non finite stricto sensu, i. e., among other things, without its own subject, different from the one of the main verb. In Spanish and even more in Portuguese, instead, infinitive constructions with specified subjects are much more used, especially if we consider adverbial subordinate clauses. In Portuguese, moreover, there is a conjugated infinitive, which agrees with its own subject, so that constructions which are half way between implicit and explicit subordinates are possible. Therefore, we conclude that, as regards the development of verbal infinitive, the main Romance languages occupy different places along a continuum, with Rumanian and Portuguese at the two extremes of it

Il rumeno tra conservazione e innovazione

In questo scritto proponiamo alcune riflessioni metodologiche sulla tipologia romanza, con particolare riferimento alla lingua rumena e ai suoi rapporti con il latino e con le altre principali lingue della famiglia romanza. Nell’ambito degli studi linguistici romanzi, ci si interroga periodicamente, a proposito di ciascuna lingua neolatina, su quali siano gli aspetti di conservazione e di innovazione che essa presenta rispetto alla lingua madre e alle altre lingue sorelle. Riferendoci specificamente al rumeno, ci chiederemo se esso conservi o innovi in un ambito circoscritto della grammatica (nella fattispecie: gli infiniti rumeni, ossia l'infinito lungo e l'infinito corto) e cercheremo di mostrare come e perché anche la risposta ad un interrogativo così limitato non possa essere semplice e univoca, ma inevitabilmente articolata. Più precisamente, vedremo come la variazione diacronica e diatopica del rumeno giochi un ruolo imprescindibile ai fini della nostra analisi e come anche la distinzione tra forma e funzione non possa essere ignorata per individuare correttamente gli aspetti di conservazione e di innovazione

Nouns of Action in Rumanian: Long Infinitive and Derivatives with the Suffix –ţie

We analyse two of the most important types of nouns of action in present-day Rumanian, i. e., long infinitives and derivatives with the suffix –ţie, in order to explain some important differences between them in the light of R. Simone’s theory of lexical cycles (Simone, 2000). According to Simone, nouns of action in classical Latin expressed fundamentally events, without the addiction of any other meaning, while in late Latin and even more in Romance languages, thanks to a semantic development which takes place by the algorithm of a lexical cycle, nouns of action can pass to signify the arguments of the matrix verb too. In this article we try to show that in Rumanian, long infinitive, which derives directly from Latin infinitive and has had the possibility of going through all the phases of the lexical cycle in the history of Rumanian, always expresses events and in addiction can signify arguments too, while derivatives in –ţie, which are much more recent and are words of French origin, always express arguments and only exceptionally express events, that is, they show the meanings acquired at the end of their lexical cycle in French (meanings which are more referential, more specific, sometimes technical) and tend to occupy the places still left free by long infinitive in the system of Rumanian nouns of action

Numerical analysis of performances of stress grading cable accessories made of different anisotropic composite materials

Stress control tubes made out of composite materials characterized by nonlinear and anisotropic electric properties, are widely adopted for the realization of cable accessories, in order to achieve an efficient stress control. In this paper a numerical model, able to take into account both anisotropy and nonlinearity of stress grading composites, will be used to investigate on the effect of the different properties on the field distribution inside cable terminations

Numerical analysis of performances of stress grading cable accessories made of different anisotropic composite materials

Stress control tubes made out of composite materials characterized by nonlinear and anisotropic electric properties, are widely adopted for the realization of cable accessories, in order to achieve an efficient stress control. In this paper a numerical model, able to take into account both anisotropy and nonlinearity of stress grading composites, will be used to investigate on the effect of the different properties on the field distribution inside cable terminations