Full Description
'a truly authoritative short Italian grammar ... possibly the best concise account now available in any language' - The Times Literary Supplement 'a stimulating and scholarly introduction to Italian for the serious student. It contains a great deal of original material and the authors' unequivocal attitudes to the linguistic reality of modern Italy...make it important that it should be read and discussed by Italianists everywhere' - The Times Higher Education Supplement 'a major new contribution to the literature in English...it will be an essential part of the linguistic formation of every Italianist' - The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies Recently revised to bring it completed up-to-date, this book remains a unique source on the Italian language as it is actually spoken and written in Italy. The combination of historical perspective and contemporary grammar make it particularly useful for Italian linguistics.
Contents
Preface to the Second Edition Preface Part 1: The Linguistic Situation in Italy Italian Today A Historical View Italian Dialects Varieties of Italian Part 2: The Grammar of Italian V An Outline Phonology Spelling The Article Prepositions with the Article Conjunctions Nouns and Adjectives Comparatives and Superlatives Adverbs Personal Pronouns Possessives Interrogatives and Relatives Negatives Demonstratives Indefinites Numerals Verbs VI Sixteen Points of Syntax Some Notes on Word Order The Use of the Article Evaluative Suffixes Compund and Juxtaposed Nouns Position of Adjectives Agreement of Adjectives Position of Adverbs Some Constructions with/without Prepostions Agreement of Past Participles Clitic Clusters Constructions with causative and perception predicates The use of si The use of indicative past tenses The use of the subjunctive Sequence of tenses The use of the conditional Short Bibliography; Table of main symbols used; Index
