Page 80 - Gabrijela Kišiček and Igor Ž. Žagar (eds.), What do we know about the world? Rhetorical and argumentative perspectives, Digital Library, Educational Research Institute, Ljubljana 2013
P. 80
What Do We Know about the World?
(V) Un milione e 850.000 elettori misero nell’urna la scheda con la falce ed
il martello: 156 deputati alla Camera. Pareva imminente la catastrofe. […] Io,
tutto orgoglioso dei miei quattromila voti, e chi mi ha visto in quei giorni sa
con quanta disinvoltura accettassi questo responso elettorale, dissi: la batta-
glia continua! (Mussolini, 1921: 241)
One million and 850,000 electors put the ballot paper with the sickle and the
hammer into the ballot box: 156 delegates to the Chamber. The catastrophe
seemed imminent. […] I myself, all proud of my 4,000 votes, and whoever saw
me in those days knows with how much composure I accepted that elector-
al verdict, and I said: the battle continues!
The verb continuare/continue can be used either as a causative verb as
in Peter continues the argument or as a recessive or anti-causative verb as
in The argument (between the two of them) continues. By resorting to the
anti-causative version it is again possible to keep the agent secret. So The
battle continues once more appears to be less aggressive and less danger-
ous than We continue to fight and thereby Mussolini is more likely to get
the people’s support than by showing his fanaticism and preference for
fighting. Peacefulness and responsibility for the country should charac-
terize the speaker’s ethos.
Another particularity of the Italian language but also of other Ro-
mance languages is the SI-diathesis which implies a different way of
looking at a given constellation of actants and circumstantials. When
we say in English you know or one knows or even we know in order to
depersonalize an action or a process, in Italian we would say si sa which
is impersonal, si just being some kind of clitic tag. The other SI-diathesis
is the passivizing one like in si fanno delle guerre/wars are waged, where
le guerre/wars becomes the subject. Number VI illustrates the pragmatic
consequence of the use the SI-diathesis:
(VI) […] gli ebrei di cittadinanza italiana, i quali abbiano indiscutibili meri-
ti militari o civili nei confronti dell’Italia e del regime, troveranno compren-
sione e giustizia; quanto agli altri, si seguirà nei loro confronti una politica di
separazione. Alla fine il mondo dovrà forse stupirsi più della nostra generosi-
tà che del nostro rigore […]; (Mussolini, 1938: 146)
[…] the Jews of Italian citizenship, who have undeniable military or civil
merits for Italy and the regime, will find comprehension and justice; as for
the others, a policy of separation will be pursued. At the end, the world will
perhaps be more surprised by our generosity than by our rigor […];
(V) Un milione e 850.000 elettori misero nell’urna la scheda con la falce ed
il martello: 156 deputati alla Camera. Pareva imminente la catastrofe. […] Io,
tutto orgoglioso dei miei quattromila voti, e chi mi ha visto in quei giorni sa
con quanta disinvoltura accettassi questo responso elettorale, dissi: la batta-
glia continua! (Mussolini, 1921: 241)
One million and 850,000 electors put the ballot paper with the sickle and the
hammer into the ballot box: 156 delegates to the Chamber. The catastrophe
seemed imminent. […] I myself, all proud of my 4,000 votes, and whoever saw
me in those days knows with how much composure I accepted that elector-
al verdict, and I said: the battle continues!
The verb continuare/continue can be used either as a causative verb as
in Peter continues the argument or as a recessive or anti-causative verb as
in The argument (between the two of them) continues. By resorting to the
anti-causative version it is again possible to keep the agent secret. So The
battle continues once more appears to be less aggressive and less danger-
ous than We continue to fight and thereby Mussolini is more likely to get
the people’s support than by showing his fanaticism and preference for
fighting. Peacefulness and responsibility for the country should charac-
terize the speaker’s ethos.
Another particularity of the Italian language but also of other Ro-
mance languages is the SI-diathesis which implies a different way of
looking at a given constellation of actants and circumstantials. When
we say in English you know or one knows or even we know in order to
depersonalize an action or a process, in Italian we would say si sa which
is impersonal, si just being some kind of clitic tag. The other SI-diathesis
is the passivizing one like in si fanno delle guerre/wars are waged, where
le guerre/wars becomes the subject. Number VI illustrates the pragmatic
consequence of the use the SI-diathesis:
(VI) […] gli ebrei di cittadinanza italiana, i quali abbiano indiscutibili meri-
ti militari o civili nei confronti dell’Italia e del regime, troveranno compren-
sione e giustizia; quanto agli altri, si seguirà nei loro confronti una politica di
separazione. Alla fine il mondo dovrà forse stupirsi più della nostra generosi-
tà che del nostro rigore […]; (Mussolini, 1938: 146)
[…] the Jews of Italian citizenship, who have undeniable military or civil
merits for Italy and the regime, will find comprehension and justice; as for
the others, a policy of separation will be pursued. At the end, the world will
perhaps be more surprised by our generosity than by our rigor […];
