Authoritative discourse in Italian language - Phil.

Authoritative discourse in Italian language - Phil.

Sabine Schwarze (Augsburg): Authoritative discourse in Italian language columns: discursive
evolution caused by attitude changes of knowledge givers and consumers since the 1950s
This paper deals with the construction of authority in Italian newspaper language columns
(Cronache linguistiche, further CL), a journalistic genre of metalinguistic (epistemic)
discourse, which has been, in spite of its popularity, the focus of very few detailed studies
(Demel 2007). The regular publication of such CL in Italy coincided with the expansion of
Italian as a truly national language in the 1950s. At this time, the CL aimed to advise readers
on the ‘correct’ and ‘incorrect’ use of the Italian language and to justify or rationalize
particular language uses in order to promote the standardization of the written language by
creating a “prosa media unitaria” (De Mauro 1976). The judgements about language made in
the CL derive from particular discursive traditions (genres, topics, evaluation categories,
rhetoric strategies, references etc., Wilhelm 2014) and ideological positions on language use,
which characterize the metalinguistic discourse from the codification of the Italian language
in the 16th century until the present day. The columnists signing the articles (in the Italian
case mostly professional linguists, but also journalists and literary authors) are recognized by
society as “language professionals” who are authorised to deal with questions of language in
a normative, educational or informational context. The authoritative discourse in these
columns consequently displays a primarily epistemic character (Bocheński 1974).
This paper aims to identify and analyse the linguistic, rhetoric and intertextual features used
to construct language authority in the CL from the 1950s until the present day (for example,
external references, argumentative strategies, use of particular discourse styles, syntax and
semantics, metaphors and other rhetorical devises, etc.). Doing so will allow us to examine
the substantial changes that have occurred in the reorganisation of the communication
landscape, the presentation of knowledge, and the growing active involvement of the
nonprofessional reader (speaker) in resolving problems of language use. This analysis will be
based upon theories of linguistic discourse analysis (Spitzmüller/Warnke 2008) and cognitive
authority theory (Rieh 2005, Wilson 1983). Source texts will be taken from the first
systematically developed corpus of language columns from the Italian press (CILit) currently
under development at Augsburg University, which to date contains 21 CL with around 915
articles published between 1953 and 2014.
References
Bocheński, Joseph Maria 1974, Was ist Autorität? Einführung in die Logik der Autorität.
Freiburg, Herder.
De Mauro, Tullio 1976: Giornalismo e storia linguistica dell'Italia unita, in V. Castronovo,
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neocapitalismo, Roma/Bari, Laterza, 455-510.
Demel, Daniela 2007, Si dice o non si dice?: Sprachnormen und normativer Diskurs in der
italienischen Presse, Frankfurt etc., Peter Lang.
Rieh, Soo Young 2005, Cognitive authority, in K. E. Fisher, S. Erdelez, & E. F. McKechnie
(eds.), Theories of information behavior: A researchers’ guide, Medford, NJ, Information
Today, 83-87, http://newweb2.si.umich.edu/rieh/papers/rieh_IBTheory.pdf (12.02.2016).
Warnke, Ingo H. & Spitzmüller, Jürgen (eds.). 2008, Methoden der Diskurslinguistik.
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di Santa Maria egiziaca (XII-CIV secolo), in Il linguaggio formulare in italiano tra sintassi,
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Wilson, Patrick 1983, Second-hand Knowledge: An Inquiry into Cognitive Authority, Westport,
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Keywords: Authoritative discourse, Italian language columns, Linguistic discourse analysis,
Cognitive Authority, Language ideologies