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Studien zur syntaktischen und stilistischen Hervorhebung im modernen Italienisch by Carl Theodor Gossen Review by: C. E. Ellis The Modern Language Review, Vol. 51, No. 2 (Apr., 1956), pp. 283-285 Published by: Modern Humanities Research Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3718483 . Accessed: 28/06/2014 13:34 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Modern Humanities Research Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Modern Language Review. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 193.105.245.156 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 13:34:46 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Studien zur syntaktischen und stilistischen Hervorhebung im modernen Italienischby Carl Theodor Gossen

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Page 1: Studien zur syntaktischen und stilistischen Hervorhebung im modernen Italienischby Carl Theodor Gossen

Studien zur syntaktischen und stilistischen Hervorhebung im modernen Italienisch by CarlTheodor GossenReview by: C. E. EllisThe Modern Language Review, Vol. 51, No. 2 (Apr., 1956), pp. 283-285Published by: Modern Humanities Research AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3718483 .

Accessed: 28/06/2014 13:34

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Modern Humanities Research Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend accessto The Modern Language Review.

http://www.jstor.org

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Page 2: Studien zur syntaktischen und stilistischen Hervorhebung im modernen Italienischby Carl Theodor Gossen

Satin are the two greatest theatrical events which France has known for many years (p. 13), at least if the reference is to the quality of these plays as plays. His assessment of La Ville as 'an excellent piece of writing, but... certainly not drama' (p. 55) is a sound one and appears to have been borne out by Jean Villar's recent production of it.

The scene by scene synopsis preceding each critical study sometimes hides the main themes under detailed narrative. A thematic analysis would have been more useful. In one case, that of La Ville, Mr Chiari complains that there is no central theme, but would it not be possible to see in the nothingness of human activities divorced from God a central theme? In discussing the major plays, Mr Chiari gives a good deal of attention to what Dr Beaumont has called the 'Theme of Beatrice', that is to say the separation by God's will of two lovers who were predestined to be united. Like Dr Beaumont, he examines Claudel's theology and points out its inherent contradictions. How, for instance, can the love of Yse and Mesa be at one and the same time predestined by God and a sin against God (p. 135)? Mr Chiari also objects to Claudel's theological attitude on purely literary grounds: 'the applica- tion of some of its tenets to dramatic art', he writes, 'makes drama impossible' (p. 106). Mr Chiari's book is an interesting and provocative contribution to the study of poetry in the theatre. D. KNOLES ID. KNOWLES LIVERPOOL

Studien zur syntaktischen und stilistischen Hervorhebung im modernen Italienisch. By CARL THEODOR GOSSEN. (Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Veroffentlichungen des Instituts fur Romanische Sprachwissenschaft, Nr. 12.) Berlin: Akademie-Verlag. 1954. 152 pp. M. 13.30.

To the insufficient studies of Italian syntax Dr Gossen here makes a useful addition. He writes on 'Syntactical and stylistic emphasis', but gives much of what an 'Italian syntax' or 'Structure-patterns of Italian' would contain.

Dr Gossen's source-material (thirty prose plays written between 1871 and the 1940's; other prose by some fifteen writers from Manzoni to Enrico Pea (1946); and six older and longish texts-the Decameron; a volume of Savonarola's sermons; the Cellini and Alfieri 'Lives'; and two comedies of Goldoni) offers a great feast of language. Plenty of examples, rather than overmuch comment, is his method. His comment, when made, contains judgements almost always soundly based. He exa- mines 'a variety of syntactical and stylistic devices', but publishes ' only those which show new aspects'. 'Particles', for instance, he omits as adequately considered by his predecessors. To one of these in particular, Leo Spitzer (of the indispensable Italienische Umgangsprache), Dr Gossen would not wish to deny his debt.

His sixty-two headings or sub-headings are grouped into six chapters entitled 'Repetition', 'Word order', 'Presentative devices' (e.g. use of demonstratives, ecco, tocca a), 'Isolating devices', 'Ellipsis', and 'Exclamation'. (One wonders if 'Isolating devices', and perhaps 'Ellipsis' too, could not have been linked with 'Word Order'; and 'Exclamation' will often be an 'Isolating' or 'Presentative' device.)

Of these groupings we can sample a small part of only one, 'Word order'. Dr Gossen begins his section on the bringing forward of the entire predicate by

making a distinction between the 'popular' variety (E' buono il tuo amico... .E tu, invece, sei molto cattivo) and the 'literary' (Dopo la separazione dolorosa che abbiam rac- contata, camminava Renzo da Monza verso Milano). He does well to mention the difficulty of finding where 'the borderline between literary and so-called popular expression lies'. It is true that 'The educated Italian speaks a relatively quite bookish speech. The uneducated 'man-in-the-street' is capable of rising to a rhetoric

Satin are the two greatest theatrical events which France has known for many years (p. 13), at least if the reference is to the quality of these plays as plays. His assessment of La Ville as 'an excellent piece of writing, but... certainly not drama' (p. 55) is a sound one and appears to have been borne out by Jean Villar's recent production of it.

The scene by scene synopsis preceding each critical study sometimes hides the main themes under detailed narrative. A thematic analysis would have been more useful. In one case, that of La Ville, Mr Chiari complains that there is no central theme, but would it not be possible to see in the nothingness of human activities divorced from God a central theme? In discussing the major plays, Mr Chiari gives a good deal of attention to what Dr Beaumont has called the 'Theme of Beatrice', that is to say the separation by God's will of two lovers who were predestined to be united. Like Dr Beaumont, he examines Claudel's theology and points out its inherent contradictions. How, for instance, can the love of Yse and Mesa be at one and the same time predestined by God and a sin against God (p. 135)? Mr Chiari also objects to Claudel's theological attitude on purely literary grounds: 'the applica- tion of some of its tenets to dramatic art', he writes, 'makes drama impossible' (p. 106). Mr Chiari's book is an interesting and provocative contribution to the study of poetry in the theatre. D. KNOLES ID. KNOWLES LIVERPOOL

Studien zur syntaktischen und stilistischen Hervorhebung im modernen Italienisch. By CARL THEODOR GOSSEN. (Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Veroffentlichungen des Instituts fur Romanische Sprachwissenschaft, Nr. 12.) Berlin: Akademie-Verlag. 1954. 152 pp. M. 13.30.

To the insufficient studies of Italian syntax Dr Gossen here makes a useful addition. He writes on 'Syntactical and stylistic emphasis', but gives much of what an 'Italian syntax' or 'Structure-patterns of Italian' would contain.

Dr Gossen's source-material (thirty prose plays written between 1871 and the 1940's; other prose by some fifteen writers from Manzoni to Enrico Pea (1946); and six older and longish texts-the Decameron; a volume of Savonarola's sermons; the Cellini and Alfieri 'Lives'; and two comedies of Goldoni) offers a great feast of language. Plenty of examples, rather than overmuch comment, is his method. His comment, when made, contains judgements almost always soundly based. He exa- mines 'a variety of syntactical and stylistic devices', but publishes ' only those which show new aspects'. 'Particles', for instance, he omits as adequately considered by his predecessors. To one of these in particular, Leo Spitzer (of the indispensable Italienische Umgangsprache), Dr Gossen would not wish to deny his debt.

His sixty-two headings or sub-headings are grouped into six chapters entitled 'Repetition', 'Word order', 'Presentative devices' (e.g. use of demonstratives, ecco, tocca a), 'Isolating devices', 'Ellipsis', and 'Exclamation'. (One wonders if 'Isolating devices', and perhaps 'Ellipsis' too, could not have been linked with 'Word Order'; and 'Exclamation' will often be an 'Isolating' or 'Presentative' device.)

Of these groupings we can sample a small part of only one, 'Word order'. Dr Gossen begins his section on the bringing forward of the entire predicate by

making a distinction between the 'popular' variety (E' buono il tuo amico... .E tu, invece, sei molto cattivo) and the 'literary' (Dopo la separazione dolorosa che abbiam rac- contata, camminava Renzo da Monza verso Milano). He does well to mention the difficulty of finding where 'the borderline between literary and so-called popular expression lies'. It is true that 'The educated Italian speaks a relatively quite bookish speech. The uneducated 'man-in-the-street' is capable of rising to a rhetoric

Reviews Reviews 283 283

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Page 3: Studien zur syntaktischen und stilistischen Hervorhebung im modernen Italienischby Carl Theodor Gossen

which is quite astounding'. It is interesting to read his quotations from Goethe, and from his grammarian authorities, and to hear his views on which of Correva l'anno 1301; Manca ancora la soluzione; Resta da superare il peggio; Sopraggiunse un terzo is a literary, and which a popular form. But to end here with 'It seems to me that here we have.. .to some extent a social question, that is, that the use of this type of sentence will depend on the level of culture of the person speaking' is of no help at all.

Can we find reasons for recourse being made, in the 'two different styles', to the same device? Perhaps we can. In the 'popular' style, emphasis (or what may be so called) is the decisive factor. In the 'literary' style, there are, in addition to con- siderations of emphasis, those of rhythm, and the stylistic convictions of the indivi- dual; further, and closely bound up with these considerations of emphasis and rhythm, there is what may be called the 'periodic/loose' dilemmla. The choice be- tween what has been called the 'periodic' construction (Dopo la separazione dolorosa che abbiam raccontata, camminava Renzo da Monza verso Milano) and the 'loose' (Renzo camminava da Monza verso Milano dopo la separazione dolorosa che abbiam raccontata) may sometimes be an unconscious, and sometimes a conscious one. The latter possibility does not, in the popular style, conceivably apply. (The way the thoughts and verbal symbols presented themselves, in the case of E' buono il tuo amico...E tu, invece, sei molto cattivo, may have been something like this: The amico is present in the minds of both parties to the dialogue; what is important is the awareness of his 'goodness'-E' buono; then, in confirmation, to avoid any possible misunderstanding-il tuo amico; then, a setting up, apart, of the other human figure under discussion, E tu, with the heightening device of the added 'particle' invece; and lastly, completing the antithesis, sei molto cattivo. The significant words are buono, tu, cattivo; they would have the heaviest accent and the emphatic positions at the beginning or end of their breath-groups; where the posi- tion of emphasis corresponds with the 'regular' position (tu), the emphasis is made unequivocal by adding invece parenthetized by short pauses.) In the literary ex- ample, the periodic rather than the loose construction is chosen because in the one the attention of the reader is held, while in the other the writer, with the words Renzo camminava da Monza verso Milano, has shot his bolt, and the rest of the sentence becomes an 'anti-climax'. Any attempt to draw a line between 'popular' and 'literary' becomes the more futile when it is remembered that no-one is entirely without contact with the literary language; in Italy to-day the radio, even if not the newspaper, reaches all classes; and one can hear pure legal formulae from the lips of Sicilian peasants known to be illiterate. Returning to sentences like Correva l'anno 1301, Dr Gossen observes, 'Whether there is always a real mise en relief of the verb, seems to me, however, questionable'; 'questionable' indeed we can echo after him, though one may think the examples of this paragraph (the first on p. 78) a rather mixed bag-some where a literary effect of emphasis is aimed at, others where euphony was the main consideration, and others again (like Correva l'anno 1301) which are sheer formulae, often highly 'popular', even though in origin a legal tag or a Dantesque or Petrarchan echo.

It seems unfair to criticize Dr Gossen's work when he has had so slight a chance to speak, or show the advantages of his method. Yet a word on his choice of material and prise de position is called for.

The bibliography (presumably of works Dr Gossen has himself consulted) will be useful, particularly for its French titles. Not a single work in English-no Blochs, no Tragers, no Nidas, and even the structural sketch of Italian by Robert H. Hall, Jr, is omitted!

Dr Gossen is fond of quoting Bally, and would perhaps see his own work as deriv- ing from the Traite de stylistique. But against the Bally dictum, La stylistique ne

284 Reviews

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Page 4: Studien zur syntaktischen und stilistischen Hervorhebung im modernen Italienischby Carl Theodor Gossen

Reviews Reviews 285 285 .saurait etre historique, Dr Gossen confesses to 'a certain deflexion (Abweichen) from a strictly synchronic way of looking at things', and this he would justify on the grounds of the 'relatively stable character of the modern Italian literary language'. Dr Gossen first hoped-somewhat optimistically-to find the spoken language closely mirrored in modern plays. Then, disappointed in the variety of emphasis- devices he found, and suspecting that the playwright's reliance on the actor's gesture was cheating him of a full harvest, he added non-dramatic prose from Manzoni, Pellico and d'Azeglio. Finally, and 'purely for purposes of comparison and in order to obtain a diachronic viewpoint, some further works, from Boccaccio to Goldoni, were analysed'. That one is left in some doubt just where, in this chronic 'synchronic/diachronic' matter, Dr Gossen stands-having fallen between two schools-and just what sort of Italian he proposed to examine (after hankering after the 'spoken language' in the beginning he assures us at the end of the intro- duction that he offers only a picture of emphasis-devices in the written), will be evident enough.

Certainly, 'A language capable of such strong emotive accentuation as Italian offers the research worker abundant material'. How then does he find his way through it ? By an analytical procedure. But is Dr Gossen's painstaking categoriza- tion needlessly analytical? His classes 'syndetic', 'asyndetic', 'doubling', and 'emotive repetition' should certainly be somewhere included, explained and exemplified; but his use of them, and his, sometimes, separate treatment of parts of speech, have meant much repetition and, we suspect, deprived us of some interesting conclusions.

Dr Gossen very fairly makes no exaggerated claims for his statistical findings, and we give only his closing table, showing the proportion of all emphasis devices used in his two classes of material:

Narrative Drama prose

(%) (%) Repetition 30 15 Construction 36 54* Strengthening particles 34 31

* 'Word order' alone accounts for 36% of this figure.

This, and his other tentative statistics, suggest lines of research which Dr Gossen might justly claim to have indicated, even though he himself may not have seen quite where they might lead.. E. ELL C. E. ELLIS LIVERPOOL

The Divine Comedy, ii: Purgatory. By DANTE. Translated by DOROTHY L. SAYERS. (The Penguin Classics.) 1955. 390pp. 3s. 6d.

Miss Sayers's Inferno came out in 1949. The six years' delay and her Introductory Papers on Dante (Methuen, 1954) are a measure of the work that she has put into both translation and commentary. At one point she mentions the 'infinite trouble and expense' of 'so arranging the verse that in nearly every case either pronuncia- tion of Beatrice (as four or three syllables) will yield a passable scansion'. To what she said on the principles of her translation in the Introduction to the Inferno, she adds that she has 'allowed herself fewer metrical roughnesses and eccentri- cities' here, 'in the endeavour to match [her] style to the greater smoothness and ease of the original , and indeed she shows a 'more assured mastery' of the difficult terza rima. It is interesting to compare her translation with Professor Geoffrey

.saurait etre historique, Dr Gossen confesses to 'a certain deflexion (Abweichen) from a strictly synchronic way of looking at things', and this he would justify on the grounds of the 'relatively stable character of the modern Italian literary language'. Dr Gossen first hoped-somewhat optimistically-to find the spoken language closely mirrored in modern plays. Then, disappointed in the variety of emphasis- devices he found, and suspecting that the playwright's reliance on the actor's gesture was cheating him of a full harvest, he added non-dramatic prose from Manzoni, Pellico and d'Azeglio. Finally, and 'purely for purposes of comparison and in order to obtain a diachronic viewpoint, some further works, from Boccaccio to Goldoni, were analysed'. That one is left in some doubt just where, in this chronic 'synchronic/diachronic' matter, Dr Gossen stands-having fallen between two schools-and just what sort of Italian he proposed to examine (after hankering after the 'spoken language' in the beginning he assures us at the end of the intro- duction that he offers only a picture of emphasis-devices in the written), will be evident enough.

Certainly, 'A language capable of such strong emotive accentuation as Italian offers the research worker abundant material'. How then does he find his way through it ? By an analytical procedure. But is Dr Gossen's painstaking categoriza- tion needlessly analytical? His classes 'syndetic', 'asyndetic', 'doubling', and 'emotive repetition' should certainly be somewhere included, explained and exemplified; but his use of them, and his, sometimes, separate treatment of parts of speech, have meant much repetition and, we suspect, deprived us of some interesting conclusions.

Dr Gossen very fairly makes no exaggerated claims for his statistical findings, and we give only his closing table, showing the proportion of all emphasis devices used in his two classes of material:

Narrative Drama prose

(%) (%) Repetition 30 15 Construction 36 54* Strengthening particles 34 31

* 'Word order' alone accounts for 36% of this figure.

This, and his other tentative statistics, suggest lines of research which Dr Gossen might justly claim to have indicated, even though he himself may not have seen quite where they might lead.. E. ELL C. E. ELLIS LIVERPOOL

The Divine Comedy, ii: Purgatory. By DANTE. Translated by DOROTHY L. SAYERS. (The Penguin Classics.) 1955. 390pp. 3s. 6d.

Miss Sayers's Inferno came out in 1949. The six years' delay and her Introductory Papers on Dante (Methuen, 1954) are a measure of the work that she has put into both translation and commentary. At one point she mentions the 'infinite trouble and expense' of 'so arranging the verse that in nearly every case either pronuncia- tion of Beatrice (as four or three syllables) will yield a passable scansion'. To what she said on the principles of her translation in the Introduction to the Inferno, she adds that she has 'allowed herself fewer metrical roughnesses and eccentri- cities' here, 'in the endeavour to match [her] style to the greater smoothness and ease of the original , and indeed she shows a 'more assured mastery' of the difficult terza rima. It is interesting to compare her translation with Professor Geoffrey

This content downloaded from 193.105.245.156 on Sat, 28 Jun 2014 13:34:46 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions