Introduction. Sociolinguistic research in Italy: A general outline

• Giovanna Alfonzetti ^[1]
  1. [1] Università di Catania, Italy
• Localización: Sociolinguistic Studies, ISSN 1750-8649, Vol. 11, Nº. 2-4, 2017 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Sociolinguistic research in Italy), págs. 237-270
• Idioma: inglés
• Enlaces
  • Texto Completo Ejemplar
• Resumen

  • After a brief description of the two previous Special issues on Italian sociolinguistics (both appeared in the International Journal of the Sociology of Language in 1989 and 2011), a general overview of the main trends of today’s Italian sociolinguistic research is given. It is maintained that a relevant portion of linguistic research carried out in Italy during the last few decades falls almost entirely within the boundaries of sociolinguistics. Then an outline of the most relevant aspects of the Italian sociolinguistic situation is sketched, in order to highlight the main issues dealt with in Italian sociolinguistic studies. Much attention is paid to the Italian repertoire and to the studies focusing on the different dimensions of variation in the Italian language: i.e. the ongoing process of restandardization; the regional, social and functional varieties; spoken varieties of Italian; but also historical sociolinguistics, linguistic policy, language and gender and so on. The paper will then give a brief summary of the various papers of the present Special issue.