Le regole e le scelte. Introduzione alla grammatica italiana

A grammar is a complex object that does not answer to a single organising principle. A grammar is certainly a formal object: as such, it is independent of the structure of the expressed concepts and ready to shape them. But it is as certainly an instrument of human action: as such, it is shaped by its functional tasks, and in the first place by its function to code a system of shared conceptual structures that are accessible independently of the forms of expression. It certainly contains a system of rules that are imposed on the speaker, but this does not hide the plain fact that speakers enjoy of a large room for free and responsible choices. Finally, some functional tasks that qualify a human language, and in particular the shaping of interclausal links, are shared by grammatical connection and textual coherence and cohesion. This forms a bridge between two domains that are traditionally separated, that is, grammar and text. This Introduction to Italian grammar checks these methodological principles I developed within the frame of Philosophical Grammar in a complete description of Italian language spanning from sounds to figures of speech.