What about linguistics is of interest to people, and what would be, if they knew it. . This is a small contribution on how to spread linguistics among the uninitiated. People often ask linguists about linguistic issues, mainly in order to get confirmation of their opinions about someone else's "errors". Other linguistic topics seem to be of much lesser interest to them. This attitude, which sees linguistics as a merely prescriptive discipline, has historical roots: indeed, linguistics is often thought as identical with the teaching of grammar in schools. The paper stresses that, however, also the descriptive side of linguistics can arouse people's curiosity: a wide range of linguistic phenomena would be found very interesting by most people, if brought to their attention. Examples are given from all levels of linguistic structure, from phonetics to morphosyntax and pragmatics, including language change. Finally, a general attitude is proposed for the effective dissemination of the language sciences, based on systematically pointing out the relationship between the findings of linguistics and everyday life. Such an attitude is suggested as possibly very useful also with university students at the beginning of linguistics courses.

Lombardi Vallauri, E. (2020). Che cosa della linguistica interessa alla gente e che cosa le potrebbe interessare, se sapesse che c’è. RASSEGNA ITALIANA DI LINGUISTICA APPLICATA, 51(2-3), 261-281.

Che cosa della linguistica interessa alla gente e che cosa le potrebbe interessare, se sapesse che c’è

Lombardi Vallauri, Edoardo
2020-01-01

Abstract

What about linguistics is of interest to people, and what would be, if they knew it. . This is a small contribution on how to spread linguistics among the uninitiated. People often ask linguists about linguistic issues, mainly in order to get confirmation of their opinions about someone else's "errors". Other linguistic topics seem to be of much lesser interest to them. This attitude, which sees linguistics as a merely prescriptive discipline, has historical roots: indeed, linguistics is often thought as identical with the teaching of grammar in schools. The paper stresses that, however, also the descriptive side of linguistics can arouse people's curiosity: a wide range of linguistic phenomena would be found very interesting by most people, if brought to their attention. Examples are given from all levels of linguistic structure, from phonetics to morphosyntax and pragmatics, including language change. Finally, a general attitude is proposed for the effective dissemination of the language sciences, based on systematically pointing out the relationship between the findings of linguistics and everyday life. Such an attitude is suggested as possibly very useful also with university students at the beginning of linguistics courses.
2020
Lombardi Vallauri, E. (2020). Che cosa della linguistica interessa alla gente e che cosa le potrebbe interessare, se sapesse che c’è. RASSEGNA ITALIANA DI LINGUISTICA APPLICATA, 51(2-3), 261-281.
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11590/385961
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact