Women and Grammar in the History of Linguistic Thought: The Case of Italy (16th-19th c.)

This project examines the relationship between women and grammar with particular reference to the Italian context - but also in a wider European perspective - between the 16th and 19th c. (grammar here is taken to mean the study of the discipline of grammar). In the context of Italy, the question of women and grammar is virtually unexplored and my work would be the first of its kind in the field of Italian studies. This is an interdisciplinary project which will contribute to the fields of the history of grammar, the history of the Italian language, the history of linguistic thought, the history of printing and gender studies. I analyze women's access to more traditional grammars, both as readers and dedicatees, starting from the first grammars of the vernacular in the 16th c. Some of the main 16th c. grammars indicate 'even' women amongst their intended readers while others are written specifically for 'a woman'. Throughout the 16th c. vernacular grammars ceased to be texts written by an elite for an elite (mostly males) and progressively reached also lower social classes and a less literate readership (and even women, the illitterati par excellence), keen to learn the rudiments of the literary language. The spread and recognition of the vernacular as a literary language, the ever-growing printing press, new trends in publishing and women's stronger presence on the literary scene, are some of the factors that explain this phenomenon. With particular reference to grammars written specifically for women, the 18th and 19th c. in Italy, and in the rest of Europe, saw the development of an original and varied production of works 'for the Ladies', 'pour les Dames', 'per le Dame', 'für Frauenzimmer'. They were meant to help learn the national tongue, but were also designed as a means to acquire a foreign language, the implications of this designation 'for the Ladies' being that languages could be studied without reference to Latin, from which women were generally excluded. The main features of these texts are examined and compared to traditional grammars and they are interpreted within the general trends in the history of publication, changes in the nature of female readership and education, and general discussions on language issues at the time. It is only in Post-Unification Italy, with the need to spread Italian as a spoken national tongue that women took on a more defined role as linguistic educators, both as mothers and school teachers. They also made their voices heard for the first time as correctors and informants of language, as well as authors of grammatical texts, and they finally contributed their views to the ongoing debates on the 'Questione della lingua' which have for centuries dominated the Italian linguistic tradition. My main sources range from more specifically linguistic ones, e.g. traditional grammars, 'Questione' writings, dictionaries, grammars 'per le dame', to texts on women's education, conduct literature texts, and women's magazines. These are integrated with references to literary works, such as novels, 'novelle' (short-stories), poetry, plays, satirical writings, children's literature, but also to letters, government documents, newspapers articles, etc. The publication of a work of this kind is long-awaited: it will fill a considerable gap in the field of women's studies in Italy and ultimately complement, integrate and, for several aspects, also re-write the history of Italian grammar and language. It will be of interest to: Italianists, historians, cultural historians, linguists, sociolinguists, historians of linguistics, specialists in women's history, historians of the book. The outcome of my work is a monograph, but also journal articles, conference and seminar papers, as well as UG and PG lecture material, so that results will be available not only to a specialist public but also to students, with the aim of encouraging further research into this field within other linguistic traditions.