Transparency in Italian: A diachronic study

Abstract

This diachronic study on Latin, Early Italian and Modern Italian is part of the ‘Transparency in Language’ research project conducted at the University of Amsterdam. It studies the ‘transparency’, as defined in Leufkens (2015), of these three stages of the Italian language, asking itself whether there has been a change in the measure of their transparency through time. Two hypotheses are tested: 1) whether heightened language contact in the Middle Ages shows through a relative transparency of Early Italian, or 2) whether Italian has become more opaque through time, like many other languages have. Modelling itself on Leufkens’ (2015) dissertation, written from a Functional Discourse Grammar perspective, it tests for 21 opaque features whether and in which measure they apply to Latin, Early Italian and Modern Italian. The findings show unexpected results with respect to my hypotheses as well as previous findings.