Speech Characteristics of Servants in Italian Comedies of 16^th Century: on Parameters of Language Variability

Abstract

The linguistic tools used for the speech characteristics of the servants in Italian comedies of the 16th century are examined. The question is raised about the nature of stylistic marking of speech of the representatives of the lower class, in particular, about which of the parameters of language variability - diaphasia or diastratia - are more often involved by comedians when creating their speech portrait. The novelty of the study is primarily due to the fact that the stylistic features of the speech of the characters of Italian comedies have not previously been considered from the standpoint of the theory of linguistic variability, linguistic pragmatics and historical sociolinguistics. The article proposes a classification of regionally and functionally-stylistically marked linguistic phenomena typical to the servants’ speech in comedies. It is concluded that the main contribution to the creation of the speech portrait of servants is made by the phenomena marked in the diaphasia - linguistic means, the pragmatic function of which prevails over denotative and / or structural. The research continues the cycle of the author’s works devoted to the Italian language of the 16th century and the role of various parameters of language variability in the historical evolution of the Italian language norm.

Keywords

• history of the italian language
• comedy of the 16^th century
• language norm
• language variability
• diaphasia
• diastratia