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In:Intermediate Language Varieties: Koinai and regional standards in Europe
Edited by Massimo Cerruti and Stavroula Tsiplakou
[Studies in Language Variation 24] 2020
► pp. 125–148

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Chapter 6
From dialect to standard: Facilitating and constraining factors

On some uses of the Italian negative particle mica

 | University of Turin
Published online: 22 June 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.24.06cer
Abstract
This paper deals with the selection of morphosyntactic features in Italo-Romance. Firstly, a brief overview will be provided of the language space between traditional dialects and the standard variety of Italian, with particular emphasis on how this space is shaped differently across Italo-Romance. Next, the main dynamics underlying the inclusion of dialect features within the standard will be considered through the analysis of a representative case, i.e. the behaviour of the Italian negative particle mica (< Latin MICAM ‘crumb’) in declarative clauses. Drawing on both previous literature and corpus-based data, the focus will fall on the reasons why some uses of mica are selected as standard and others are not. Special attention will be paid to the role of salience as both a facilitating and a constraining factor.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Dialect and standard in Italo-Romance: Some general issues
  • 3.The selection of features in Italo-Romance: A case study
    • 3.1Standard and sub-standard uses of the Italian negative particle mica
    • 3.2Contact with Italo-Romance dialects
    • 3.3Salience
  • 4.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
References (75)
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Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Guerini, Federica
2023. Negative structures in neo-standard Italian: non è che (‘it is not that’) + S and mica (‘a crumb’) in comparison. Sociolinguistica 37:1 ► pp. 115 ff. DOI logo

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