This Italian reference grammar provides students, teachers and others interested in the Italian language with a comprehensive, accessible and jargon-free guide to the forms and structure of Italian. Whatever their level of knowledge of the language, learners of Italian will find this book indispensable: it gives clear and detailed explanations of everything from the most elementary facts such as the relation between spelling and pronunciation, or the forms of the article, to more advanced points such as the various nuances of the subjunctive. Formal or archaic discourse is distinguished from informal, everyday usage, and regionalisms are also indicated where appropriate. The authors have taken care to make it an easy and illuminating reference tool: extensive cross-referencing enables readers to quickly find the information they require, and also stimulates them to discover new, related facts.

First published in 1991. The existence of morphonology had been the subject of intense debate in twentieth-century linguistic theory. Attempts to identify putatively morphonological phenomena had often foundered on the widespread assumption of a rigid dichotomy between synchronic morphological structures and the phonetic processes which historically shared them. With the difficulties of establishing any role for morphonology clearly identified, the author introduces a comparative and historical survey of the morphologization of metaphony in Italian dialects. On the basis of this the existence is argued of authentic synchronic 'morphonological' interaction between morphological structures and phonetic processes, such that inflectional paradigms serve to specify phonetic details of implementation of incipient sound changes. The circumstances under which such interaction may be expected to occur are discussed. This book is an important contribution to our understanding of both morphology and phonology, taking seriously the implications of abandoning a rigid distinction between synchronic morphology and diachronic phonology. It successfully integrates linguistic theory with the analysis of philological data, and indicates the direction for future research on morphonology. This detailed study of Italian dialects also constitutes a valuable addition to the study of Romance dialectology.

This book makes accessible the major structural features of the dialects of Italy and emphasises the importance of a detailed understanding of the dialects for issues in general linguistic theory. Selected contents include:
* Phonology
* Morphology
* Syntax
* Lexis
* The Dialect Areas * Sociolinguistics of Dialects
Contributors: Paola Benica; Gaetano Berruto; Guglielmo Cinque; Michela Cennamo; Patrizia Cordin; Thamas Cravens; Marie-Jose Dalbera Stefanaggi; Franco Fanciullo; Werner Forner; Luciano Giannelli; John Hajek; Hermann Haller; Robert Hastings; Michael Jones; Michele Loporcaro; Martin Maiden; Marco Mazzoleni; Zarko Miljacic; Mair Parry; Cecilia Poletto; Lorenzo Renzi; Lori Repetti; Giovanni Ruffino; Giampaolo Salvi; Glauco Sanga; Leonardo Savoia; Alberto Sobrero; Rosanna Sornicola; Tullio Telmon; John Trumper; Edward Tuttle; Alberto Valvaro; Laura Vanelli; Ugo Vignuzzi; Nigel Vincent; Irene Vogel.

First published in 1991. The existence of morphonology had been the subject of intense debate in twentieth-century linguistic theory. Attempts to identify putatively morphonological phenomena had often foundered on the widespread assumption of a rigid dichotomy between synchronic morphological structures and the phonetic processes which historically shared them. With the difficulties of establishing any role for morphonology clearly identified, the author introduces a comparative and historical survey of the morphologization of metaphony in Italian dialects. On the basis of this the existence is argued of authentic synchronic 'morphonological' interaction between morphological structures and phonetic processes, such that inflectional paradigms serve to specify phonetic details of implementation of incipient sound changes. The circumstances under which such interaction may be expected to occur are discussed. This book is an important contribution to our understanding of both morphology and phonology, taking seriously the implications of abandoning a rigid distinction between synchronic morphology and diachronic phonology. It successfully integrates linguistic theory with the analysis of philological data, and indicates the direction for future research on morphonology. This detailed study of Italian dialects also constitutes a valuable addition to the study of Romance dialectology.

This book makes accessible the major structural features of the dialects of Italy and emphasises the importance of a detailed understanding of the dialects for issues in general linguistic theory. Selected contents include:
* Phonology
* Morphology
* Syntax
* Lexis
* The Dialect Areas * Sociolinguistics of Dialects
Contributors: Paola Benica; Gaetano Berruto; Guglielmo Cinque; Michela Cennamo; Patrizia Cordin; Thamas Cravens; Marie-Jose Dalbera Stefanaggi; Franco Fanciullo; Werner Forner; Luciano Giannelli; John Hajek; Hermann Haller; Robert Hastings; Michael Jones; Michele Loporcaro; Martin Maiden; Marco Mazzoleni; Zarko Miljacic; Mair Parry; Cecilia Poletto; Lorenzo Renzi; Lori Repetti; Giovanni Ruffino; Giampaolo Salvi; Glauco Sanga; Leonardo Savoia; Alberto Sobrero; Rosanna Sornicola; Tullio Telmon; John Trumper; Edward Tuttle; Alberto Valvaro; Laura Vanelli; Ugo Vignuzzi; Nigel Vincent; Irene Vogel.

A Linguistic History of Italian offers a clear and concise explanation of why modern Italian grammar has become the way it is. It focuses on the effects of historical changes on the modern structure of Italian, revealing patterns and structures which are not always apparent to those who are only familiar with modern Italian. Although the book concentrates on the internal history of the language, the emergence of Italian is considered against the wider background of the history of italian dialects, and other external factors such as cultural and social influences are also examined.

A Linguistic History of Italian offers a clear and concise explanation of why modern Italian grammar has become the way it is. It focuses on the effects of historical changes on the modern structure of Italian, revealing patterns and structures which are not always apparent to those who are only familiar with modern Italian. Although the book concentrates on the internal history of the language, the emergence of Italian is considered against the wider background of the history of italian dialects, and other external factors such as cultural and social influences are also examined.

This Italian reference grammar provides students, teachers and others interested in the Italian language with a comprehensive, accessible and jargon-free guide to the forms and structure of Italian. Whatever their level of knowledge of the language, learners of Italian will find this book indispensable: it gives clear and detailed explanations of everything from the most elementary facts such as the relation between spelling and pronunciation, or the forms of the article, to more advanced points such as the various nuances of the subjunctive. Formal or archaic discourse is distinguished from informal, everyday usage, and regionalisms are also indicated where appropriate. The authors have taken care to make it an easy and illuminating reference tool: extensive cross-referencing enables readers to quickly find the information they require, and also stimulates them to discover new, related facts.

This Cambridge History is the most comprehensive survey of the history of the Romance languages ever published in English. It engages with new and original topics that reflect wider-ranging comparative concerns, such as the relation between diachrony and synchrony, morphosyntactic typology, pragmatic change, the structure of written Romance, and lexical stability. Volume I is organized around the two key recurrent themes of persistence (structural inheritance and continuity from Latin) and innovation (structural change and loss in Romance). An important and novel aspect of the volume is that it accords persistence in Romance a focus in its own right rather than treating it simply as the background to the study of change. In addition, it explores the patterns of innovation (including loss) at all linguistic levels. The result is a rich structural history which marries together data and theory to produce new perspectives on the structural evolution of the Romance languages.

The Romance languages and dialects constitute a treasure trove of linguistic data of profound interest and significance. Data from the Romance languages have contributed extensively to our current empirical and theoretical understanding of phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and historical linguistics. Written by a team of world-renowned scholars, this Handbook explores what we can learn about linguistics from the study of Romance languages, and how the body of comparative and historical data taken from them can be applied to linguistic study. It also offers insights into the diatopic and diachronic variation exhibited by the Romance family of languages, of a kind unparalleled for any other Western languages. By asking what Romance languages can do for linguistics, this Handbook is essential reading for all linguists interested in the insights that a knowledge of the Romance evidence can provide for general issues in linguistic theory.

This book offers the first comprehensive account of the development of the Romanian morphological system. Romanian is one of the most morphologically complex Romance languages, but has remained relatively understudied compared with better-known languages such as French and Spanish. Following an introduction that provides an outline of the history of Romanian, its writing system and major typological characteristics, and the major patterns of allomorphy, chapters in this volume explore a range of fascinatingly complex aspects of Romanian grammar whose structure and history have to date been largely inaccessible to the English-speaking world. Among the most distinctive morphological characteristics of Romanian discussed by the authors are its inflexional case system; the highly unpredictable formation of the plural; the existence of a non-finite verb form that appears to be the continuation of the Latin supine; the near-absence of distinctive subjunctive morphology; and the complex patterns of allomorphy brought about by successive sound change. The frequently controversial origins of many of these developments have important implications for broader historical Romance linguistics and indeed for morphological theory more generally.

This book is about the nature of morphology and its place in the structure of grammar. Drawing on a wide range of aspects of Romance inflectional morphology, leading scholars present detailed arguments for the autonomy of morphology, ie morphology has phenomena and mechanisms of its own that are not reducible to syntax or phonology. But which principles and rules govern this independent component and which phenomena can be described or explicated by the mechanisms of the morphemic level? In shedding light on these questions, this volume constitutes a major contribution to Romance historical morphology in particular, and to our understanding of the nature and importance of morphomic structure in language change in general.