No abstract

Moving from Labbé's proposal envisaging the use of intertextual distance to measure the similarity (and dissimilarity) of texts, this paper proposes a new calculation procedure based on repeated observations of intertextual distance between pairs of equal-sized text chunks. The implementation of this procedure on a large corpus including 160 Italian novels provides information on the values produced by measuring intertextual distance in (both lemmatized and non-lemmatized) literary texts written in Italian. In order to show the improvement achieved through this iterative procedure compared to the original version, distance values are assessed in terms of their ability to recognize the author as the factor responsible for text pairing.

No abstract

No abstract

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 support@jstor.org.. American Association of Teachers ofItalian is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Italica. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.235.251.160 on Wed, 7 Jan 2015 23:41:23 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions REVIEWS 551 REVIEWS 551limited communicative function in specific social contexts, while English is the language of choice for interaction with Italians of different regional origin. Although Italian is not considered a core value for Italian Americans living in San Francisco, and despite a shift that seems irreversible, a strong sociolinguistic consciousness is noted among speakers, typified in the absence of a mixed code and negative attitudes toward heavy mixture. Many results coincide with those found among Italian Americans of Southern origin living in the New York area. As the author correctly notes, language shift is conditioned by the limited functions of the immigrant language and the restricted domains in which it is used, even among Tuscan immigrant groups, with the closeness between dialect and standard varieties. It is also conditioned by language attitudes, and it would be interesting to ponder the role in attrition of attitudes toward other Italian immigrant groups that moved to California, such as the Sicilians. It is also difficult to assess the role of the Italian language in Italian American identity, since self-evaluations obtained from questionnaires may contain prestige answers, and since the heritage language (including the heavily mixed variety) is restricted more to the private domain. Heavy mixtures and Italian American words, for example, that seem to be absent in the speech of Lucchesi, were found to be still used or known among first-and second-generation Italian Americans on the East Coast, despite their low status.Scaglione's book is well written and very readable, suggesting a host of reflections. The transcriptions of some of the interviews (99-107) also lead to many considerations about the Italian American experience on the West Coast. The complex and challenging question of language vs. identity is one that invites further studies among speakers of Italian abroad. Scaglione is to be commended for her very refined and solid sociolinguistic analysis that provides valuable new results and an incentive for similar studies among other Italian American populations.