Free relative clauses: a new teaching approach for Italian learners of Latin and German

Abstract

In this work we would like to present a new teaching proposal for free relative clauses, with a comparative perspective. The proposal is addressed to Italian learners of Latin and German with an advanced knowledge of the morpho-syntax of the three languages and tries to combine the theories proposed within the Generative Grammar framework with the needs which emerge from school teaching experiences. In the path we will develop, the students will be led to get familiar with this construction, first in the native language and then in German and Latin. Students will be stimulated to analyze the syntactic constraints, which are different in the three languages, so as to develop a new grammatical awareness and be in a position to correctly handle complex syntactic structures such as free relative clauses. This will be helpful to adequately cope with this specific construction, but it will also improve the overall skills.

Keywords

• Free relative clauses
• Italian
• Latin
• German
• Syntax
• Teaching.