From a definition of the terms "vowel,""consonant,""syllable," and "word," rules for the syllabification of Italian are formulated. Syllabification in musical composition is briefly mentioned. (AM)

Presents study of elocutionary forces behind indirect speech acts, such as rhetorical questions, in English and Italian, by using contrastive analysis of form, frequency distribution of questions, and uses and negativity of rhetorical questions. Concludes the rhetorical questions in English and Italian, and perhaps many more languages, may be…

Reviews three Italian-French dictionaries recently published in Italy comparing them with an older one. States that all three mark a definite progress compared to the latter, for the variety and abundance of examples and the coverage of phraseology, but finds them lacking in the areas of syntactic and semantic information. (MES)

Describes and analyzes the language of young people in Italy today. Particular focus is on the expressions using "para" (e.g., "in para totale" = to be very bored or worried) and the phrase "una cosa da panico" (something terrible or its opposite something wonderful). (CFM)

A reader on Italians in Rhode Island, which provides ethnic material for Italian language courses at level three of high school or at third semester of college, is presented. Contents are as follows: a history of the Italians in Rhode Island; a profile of the lives of some of the prominent members of the Italian community; and an anthology of…

This paper presents a case-study of the successful nine-month plan with which Tulane University guaranteed the growth and continuation of its Italian program. The paper provides a blueprint for the teacher of Italian on any campus who wishes to strengthen the position of his Italian program in this era when dwindling federal, state and university…

Three experiments investigated whether linguistic and/or attentional constraints might account for preschoolers' difficulties when learning color terms. Task structure and demands were equated across experiments, and both speed and degree of learning were compared. In Experiment 1, 3-year-olds who were matched on vocabulary score were taught new…

In a study on L2 proficiency in writing, conducted among 84 Dutch university students of Italian and 75 students of French, manipulation of task complexity led in the complex task to a significant decrease of errors, while at the same time a trend for a lexically more varied text was observed (Kuiken and Vedder 2005, 2007, in press). Based on this…

The Theatre of the Grotesque, a dramatic movement in Italy from 1916 until 1930, grew directly out of Pirandello's concept of "umorismo," the painful laugh accompanying the tragic sense of bewilderment at the incongruities and cruelties of life. Growing first of all from a reaction against positivism and its theatrical counterpart,…

Briefly discusses the concepts of "subject,""complement,""transitivity," and "intransitivity," contrasts the classes of complements in German and Italian based on identical criteria of classification, justifies such a classification for complements, and suggests didactic implications for the theory of…

Bonaventure's symbols of the circle, centre, cross, and journey are analyzed from the perspective of the mandala, as it has been explored in the research of C.G. Jung, Mircea Eliade, and Guiseppe Tucci." Three photographs are included. (Author/SP)

Discusses conceptual and methodological problems surrounding research on Italian women's roles. Presents case studies of women who do not fit into the stereotypes used to describe Italian women and to demonstrate research uses of source materials. (Author/MK)

The fourth in a series of articles on the relationships of European languages to their cultures looks at the role of the theater in Italian culture and the theatricality of the Italian language. (MSE)

Reflecting on the important works of Alma Sabatini in the area of sexism, her work and those of other Italians is compared with researchers in other countries, particularly the United States, France, and Germany. The Italian language is analyzed, pointing out instances of sexism. (CFM)