Multilinguismo e strategie pragmatiche nei dialoghi didattici di John Florio

The aim of this essay is to examine some early modern English dialogues within the linguistic framework proposed by Culpeper and Kytö (2010), which considers ‘speech-related’ written genres such as trial proceedings, plays, fiction and didactic works as text types that offer important clues as to the historical use of language as face-to-face interaction. While ‘traditional historical accounts of English’ have tended to focus on ‘scholarly and literary writings’, dialogue written to be taken as an example of actual interaction is well suited to be analyzed with the tools of historical pragmatics, and is in any case the closest equivalent to what dialogic interaction in everyday usage may have looked like in the period under examination. Specifically, John Florio’s bilingual dialogues Firste Fruites (1578) and Second Frutes (1591), will be investigated. John Florio is widely recognized as one of the most important representatives of the impact of Italian culture in Tudor England. Florio’s rich linguistic competence is displayed in bilingual dictionaries and translations. However, it is in his manuals, that Florio’s strategies for teaching Italian as a second language are displayed. The paper will address theoretical and methodological aspects of Florio’s language teaching/learning which put a premium on the performative and oral quality of language. His didactic dialogues tend to demonstrate in form and content what they purport to impart, first and foremost the pedagogical force of conversational form: Florio’s conversing gentlemen display and perform the Italian language and discourse, Italian phraseology and mentality, Italian vocabulary and civil conversazione.

Il saggio si propone di esaminare i dialoghi didattici del ‘500 inglese secondo l’approccio linguistico elaborato da Jonathan Culpeper e Merja Kyto (2010) per analizzare testi scritti ma “speech-related”, -come interrogatori processuali, dialoghi didattici e dialoghi teatrali – i quali offrono importanti tracce della lingua parlata di epoche passate. Considerando la tipologia dei testi in questione, l’indagine si avvarrà degli strumenti della pragmatica storica e dell’analisi conversazionale. Il saggio si concentrerà sull’analisi dei manuali bilingui, First Fruits (1578) e Second Frutes (1591) di John Florio (1553-1625): insegnante, lessicografo, traduttore, Florio ricopre un ruolo significativo all’interno della storia della lingua inglese, esercitando la sua ricca competenza linguistica attraverso dizionari bilingui e traduzioni generalmente dall’italiano all’inglese, ma innanzitutto grazie alla compilazione di manuali di conversazione per insegnare l’italiano a ricchi e colti gentiluomini della Londra elisabettiana. Si tenterà di illustrare le strategie didattiche utilizzate da Florio per insegnare l’italiano come seconda lingua e verranno segnalati gli aspetti linguistici e pragmatici attraverso i quali Florio si propone di insegnare innanzitutto il valore pedagogico dello scambio conversazionale.