Revue Romane. Langue et littérature. International Journal of Romance Languages and Literatures - Online First

This article contributes to the study of the relationship between Latin and Tuscan vernacular in the 16th century. We examine a set of almost neglected grammatical works (the Concetti, Supplimento, and Il grammatico) published between 1557 and 1567, and related to the Italian humanist Aonio Paleario. We adopt both a linguistic and literary approach to shed light particularly on the humanistic perspectives on language education and proficiency. After presenting a brief outline of the content of the three works and their problematic authorship, we focus on the dialogue Il grammatico. We conclude that, within the discussion on method for teaching Latin, the dialogue defines the humanist as the guardian of the best language for both Latin and vernacular.

According to normative descriptions of Italian future-framed adverbial clauses, the future tense is the only option (Quando verrai [F], ti presterò il libro ‘When you come, I’ll lend you the book’). However, the present tense may also be used (Quando vieni [P], ti presto il libro). I demonstrate that choice and acceptance of the present in future-framed adverbials are conditioned by the speaker’s presumption of settledness; that is, in every future world compatible with the speaker’s beliefs the eventuality necessarily occurs. The data come from an online questionnaire consisting of a forced-choice and an acceptability judgment task completed by 429 native speakers of Italian, and were analyzed using mixed-effects regression. Results show that the present is chosen most and rated highest when the future eventuality is presumed settled ([+certain, +immediate, +temporally specific]). These findings demonstrate that speakers use the present to express confidence in the realization of future eventualities.

The future tense in the Ibero-Romance languages swings between temporal and modal readings. Despite the fact that all the varieties of the Iberian Peninsula possess various strategies that compete with the morphological future, there is no consensus on pinpointing which alternative refers to each of the possible readings. The only thing all authors agree on is the current decline of the morphological future tense with temporal value. In this article, current dialect data of the Romance languages of the Iberian Peninsula have been collected with the aim of analysing the contemporary and oral usage of this verbal tense in order to verify whether it still maintains its temporal or modal uses, or whether, as the latest research points out, it has become an evidentiality strategy.

A long-lasting debate within creole studies concerns the scarcity of Spanish-based creoles and the theoretical implications this may have. However, there is no agreement as to how many genuinely Spanish-based creoles there are in the world, and identifying the size of that group can generate controversies. Papiamentu, for instance, is canonically classified as a Spanish-based creole, even though most scholars at present seem to agree its origins are Creole Portuguese. A Portuguese lineage has on various occasions and by various authors also been claimed for Chabacano (Philippine Creole Spanish) and Palenquero (spoken in Colombia). These creoles, too, were supposedly once Portuguese-based, only to subsequently be ‘relexified’ towards Spanish. This paper argues that there is little linguistic basis for that claim. Although both creoles do indeed seem to have received some Portuguese (Creole) input, we maintain that this input was limited and substratal in nature, and thus has no bearing on the classification (whether diachronic or synchronic) of the two creoles as truly Spanish-based.

This paper aims at describing the specific contribution of Franco Belgian bande dessinée (BD) to the modern redefinition of the heroic imaginary by reshaping adventure and its subject, the hero. It focuses on the articulation of two major features of the new paradigm Hergé has created: the unprecedented disjonction between adventure and ordinary life (time, family) and the organization of the hero into two characters (the main character and the sidekick). We examine the variations of the tintinesque paradigm in the historical Spirou as well as in the contemporary Spirou, in order to grasp how the autonomy of the adventure and of the main character has been shaken by the intrusion of time and domestic life brought about by the elucidation of the indetermined regions of Spirou’s fictionnal world.

In this paper we return to the question of the use of te, the Italian personal pronoun, as subject instead of complement. According to scientific literature, the diffusion of te in substitution of tu as the subject of the clause is attributed to the spoken variety of language.

We aim at verifying this hypothesis and to further document the use of te as subject using existing corpora of both written and spoken language.

The research considers old and new issues (for example the diffusion of the coordinative phrase io e te instead of io e tu, on which see Blasco Ferrer, 1992 ) and intends to represent the phenomenon in quantitative and qualitative terms.

In the conclusions it is stated that the phenomenon, even better represented in the spoken versus the written, seems diachronically stable, and sensitive to diatopic factors. The most significant results of the current research consist in having evaluated the presence of the phenomenon separately in the different constructs in which it occurs, and in having identified other contexts of attestation.

The purpose of this article is to study the intertextual play in four novels grouped under the label « MARIE MADELEINE MARGUERITE DE MONTALTE » by the Belgian author Jean-Philippe Toussaint. The theoretical tool to study this phenomenon is the theory of intertextuality and the intertextual typology in particular, extracted from Gérard Genette’s Palimpsestes: la littérature au second degré (1982) and Tiphaine Samoyault’s Intertexte, Mémoire de la littérature ( 2001 ). The main question the study raises is what function the intertexts occupy in the tetralogy. The article distinguishes between a diegetic and a metaliterary function. The study shows that the intertexts, mostly allusions, only play a minor role in the diegesis. However, several allusions occupy a metaliterary function. Through these, the author debates literary questions. The author’s attitude is playful: He gently mocks the authors behind the intertexts and enters into a dialogue with them at the same time.

This article studies the discourse in the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century French periodical press on the topic of translations of travel writing. It reveals that travel reviews were arenas for discussing the political and ideological value of translating travelogues into French, notably from English. In the context of the Franco-British conflicts at the turn of the century, the French press perceived translations of British travel writing as potential patriotic tools that allowed different ways of countering or subverting British global influence. Paratextual elements of translations, the translator’s prefaces and notes, appeared to be particularly important in this respect. By analysing the periodical discourse on travel book translations, the article shows how travel writing was constructed as a politically invested genre.

La poesía satírico burlesca de Juan del Valle y Caviedes (Porcuna, Jaén, 1645-Lima, 1698), fiel a la configuración lírica de finales del siglo XVII, está muy ligada a la plaza pública y a las circunstancias y acontecimientos producidos en ella. Por ello, el presente trabajo analiza en algunos textos de Caviedes la representación poética de los mulatos que habitaron la ciudad de Lima en dicho periodo. Después de revisar las lecturas de Hill (2007)  – que estudia estos textos como “poemas de casta” – se presta particular atención a los modos de representación – y valoración – de este grupo de sujetos marginales desde la perspectiva de un contemporáneo.