The role of dialects in the emergence of Italian phrasal verbs

Romance Languages are a less homogenous group than depicted by current typological descriptions. Although Verb-Framing structures are predominantly used, Satellite-Framing constructions are present in all major Romance varieties and prevalent in some minor varieties. The study of the dialects of Italy shows that the presence of Phrasal Verbs (PhV) in the Italian language is due to an internal development (which finds antecedents in vulgar and late Latin) that gave rise to a construction that has been present in Tuscan dialects since their origins. The particular history of the relationship between dialects and the national language helps to explain the more frequent occurrence of PhVs in current standard Italian as compared to the other major Romance languages. The confutation of the hypothesis whereby the origin of Italian PhVs depends on a calque from the German language, although based on diachronic and diatopic data on the presence of PhVs in the dialects of Italy, has important methodological consequences. It shows that a typological model of the encoding of motion events must encompass the processes of internal variations (that may also depend on diamesic and diastratic factors) and not explain the causes of change only through external influence

Estratégias utilizadas por aprendizes de línguas afins: a troca de código Strategies employed by learners of related languages: code-switching

Neste artigo analisamos a troca de código, uma estratégia de compensação que consiste na utilização de uma palavra ou frase em L1, L3 ou L4, no interior do enunciado em L2, empregada por aprendizes de italiano LE cuja língua materna é o português brasileiro, durante a realização em dupla de uma tarefa escrita. A pesquisa, que se baseou nos instrumentos propostos pela etnografia, mostra que a troca de código constitui um potencial para o desenvolvimento da interlíngua e para a aquisição/aprendizagem de LE e que tal estratégia, além de compensar eventuais lacunas linguísticas originadas pela falta de recursos adequados para expressar-se em LE, é usada pelos falantes como procedimento típico da conversação bilíngue para facilitar a comunicação.<br>In this paper we examine code-switching, an achievement strategy consisting in the use of a word or phrase from L1, L3 or L4 within an utterance in L2, as employed by learners of Italian as a foreign language who have Brazilian Portuguese as their mother tongue, while performing a written task in pairs. The research, based on tools provided by an ethnographic approach, shows that code-switching constitutes a potential for developing interlanguage and for the acquisition/learning of a foreign language and that such strategy, in addition to compensating eventual linguistic gaps originated by a lack of proper resources for expression in L2, is used by speakers as a typical procedure in bilingual conversation, in order to facilitate the communication