Il dinamismo linguistico dell'italiano tra norma e adattamento ai mezzi di comunicazione

Abstract

This article aims to describe how the pressure wielded by the means of communication, with their affordances and techincal restrictions, has been contributing to shape not only the language usage specific to each means, but the overall current common usage of the Italian language. The grammatical norm codified by the grammar books, the standard variety, is incomplete with respect to the real usage of the speakers, given that it describes a variety of the language, neglecting the many lexical, syntactic, and textual possibilities existing in the usage. Speakers, in fact, select linguistic forms and constructs on the basis of different, interdependent factors and the standard usage itself is influenced by innovative forms continually emerging from usage. Language change over time also intertwines with the synchronic axes of variability, including the one relating to the influence of the channel used for communication. When the message passes through a medium, it must undergo an adaptation to its system of rules. The passage always involves a coding, which influences the form of the message. Linguistic usage, then, is the result of an interweaving of interdependent factors, among which the grammatical norm and the means of communication are of pivotal importance. Both of these factors impose rules, i.e. restrictions, on usage, shaping and defining it; at the same time, however, usage, by its creative and innovative nature, constantly pushes the rules, shaping the norm and finding ways to adapt the means of communication to hybrid formats. In this dynamism the language changes, it abandons worn patterns and invents new ones, adapting itself to the world and adapting the world to itself.