Titolo programma / Ente finanziatore: PRIN 2022 -MUR
Titolo del progetto: Linguistic complexity: Structural perspectives to local complexities across West African languages
Responsabile del progetto: GIAN CLAUDIO BATIC
Settori ERC coinvolti:
1. SH4_10 Language typology; historical linguistics
2. SH4_11 Pragmatics, sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, discourse analysis
3. SH4_9 Theoretical linguistics; computational linguistics
Data inizio progetto: 01/10/2023
Data fine progetto: 06/10/2025
Codice progetto: PRIN 20224H5ZYF
CUP: C53D23003920001
Acronimo:
Website:
Abstract: Over the last 15 years, the notion of linguistic complexity, i.e. the study of the overall complexity of a natural language, has interested a significant number of scholars. The measurement of the structural or absolute complexity of a language is based on the number of variables in the system. However, while the overall complexity of a language is doomed to non-quantifiability, local complexities (i.e. the complexities of single areas of the grammar) can be studied in a coherent and systematic manner as long as cross-linguistically reproducible measurement tools are adopted. The aims at studying a set of local complexities in a variety of
languages spoken in West Africa. The project is articulated in four tasks targeting different kinds of complexity and complexity-related phenomena analysed under different structural perspectives: (Task 1) the semantic complexity of kinship terms;
(Task 2) the linguistic complexity of non-literal decoding in bilingual speakers; (Task 3) the phonological complexity across the macro-area; and (Task 4) the negotiation of local complexities in a language cluster (or Sprachbund) setting. The main target
languages of the project belong to the two most widespread phyla in West Africa, Niger-Congo and Afro-Asiatic, and are: Hausa, Pero, Kushi, Widala-Kholok (Afro-Asiatic, Chadic); Loo, Burak (Niger-Congo, Volta-Congo); Wolof, Pular (Niger-Congo, West Atlantic).
French, the most widely spoken Indo-European vehicular and official language in this quadrant of the continent, will be examined in the research relating to Task 2. The areas of intervention are north-eastern Nigeria (Gombe State), southern Niger (provinces of Zinder and Maradi), Senegal (Dakar), and the Republic of Guinea (Futa Jaloo). This study builds on and contributes to sharpening the research on linguistic complexity by tackling meaningful local complexities through the analysis of languages and contexts neglected by previous research. It also adds a new dimension to the study on metalinguistic awareness, targeting specific
encoding-decoding abilities in bilingual speakers. On the methodological level, the project aims at providing specific tools to carry out consistent cross-linguistic comparison and measurement of linguistic complexity. The team is divided into two units: U1 (UniOr, 4 members) will be engaged in Tasks 1, 3 and 4 and will analyse Afro-Asiatic and Niger-Congo languages; U2 (La Sapienza, 2 members) will work on Task 2, analysing some aspects of the use of Niger French in bilingual speakers.
Titolo programma / Ente finanziatore: PRIN 2022 -MUR
Titolo del progetto: The Angevin World, the Papacy and the East: 1250-1450
Responsabile del progetto: BERNARDINI MICHELE
Settori disciplinari / settori ERC coinvolti:
1. SH5_6 History of art and architecture, arts-based research
2. SH5_3 Philology; text and image studies
3. SH6_7 Medieval history
Data inizio progetto: 01/10/2023
Data fine progetto: 18/10/2025
Codice progetto: PRIN 202223C3X9
CUP: C53D23006600006
Acronimo:
Website:
Abstract: The Angevin-ruled territory (central and southern France, southern Italy, Hungary, Balkans, Morea), in close connection with the Papacy, represents a space of crucial importance of East-West diplomatic and cultural interactions in the 13th-15th century. The conquest of the Kingdom of Sicily by Charles of Anjou (1266) entailed deep political changes in the Mediterranean, redesigning power relations. The Angevins became kings of Jerusalem in 1277, securing their influence on the Holy Land even after the fall of Acre. Moreover, the Principality of Taranto ensured Angevin hegemony on the Balkans, indulging in the dream of ruling over
Constantinople. In addition, the Mongol expansion offered unprecedented opportunities for travel and cross-cultural exposure, nurturing projects of Christian-Mongol alliance. The project, which associates art historians, philologists and art historians from the Universities of Naples L'Orientale, Bologna, Chieti and Rome Sapienza, aims to produce a new comprehensive map of the cultural contacts between the Angevin space, the Papacy and the East in the late Middle Ages. By integrating a wide range of visual and textual sources in Eastern and Western languages and by indexing them in an online database addressed to scholars and to the general public, the group seeks to analyze the processes of transmission, borrowing, and cross-dissemination which characterized
the circulation of information and patterns of representation during a momentous phase of East-West relations. The Naples unit will provide a comprehensive analytical survey of the Persian, Arabic, Turkish, Georgian and Armenian sources, focusing on historiographical representations of the West. The Bologna group will analyse cultural and diplomatic relations between the papacy, the Angevins and the East, concentrating on the geo-ethnographic and historical information available in Avignon. The unit in Chieti will study historical and artistic relations between Southern Italy, the Balkans, and the Holy Land, demonstrating how the circulation
of artistic models contributed to characterize the Kingdom of Naples as a Mediterranean region. Finally, the Rome group will analyze illuminated manuscripts, cartographic evidence and travelers’ reports from Central and Southern France, Southern Italy, and Catalonia and will shed light together with the Bologna unit on the significant role of the of the Avignon court’s eastern connections from the points of view of history, romance philology and history of illumination. With an original focus on the Angevin world, the research will thus produce a new digital survey and in-depth analysis of Eastern and Western materials, connecting disciplines that normally work separately: Islamic and Caucasian studies, medieval history, art history, romance philology, manuscript studies and history of cartography. The results will be of interest to a broad scholarly audience and will be shared with the general public via targeted events.
Titolo programma / Ente finanziatore: PRIN 2022 -MUR
Titolo del progetto: The art of the stage in Bronze Age Anatolia. Reconstructing Hittite festivals using texts, images and comparative cultural
anthropological evidence
Responsabile del progetto: MICHELE CAMMAROSANO
Settori ERC coinvolti:
1. SH5_3 Philology; text and image studies
2. SH6_3 General archaeology, archaeometry, landscape archaeology
3. SH3_10 Religious studies, ritual; symbolic representation
Data inizio progetto: 01/10/2023
Data fine progetto: 18/10/2025
Codice progetto: PRIN 20228P3LYC
CUP: C53D23006720006
Acronimo:
Website:
Abstract: Hittite Anatolia (1700-1200 BC) produced the most extensive textual corpus of cult festivals of antiquity. Festivals are also reflected in several archaeological datasets. Both sources are highly relevant to the study of cult practices and religious experience. However, they have never been the object of a systematic comparative investigation. This project hinges on the analytical integration of texts and images within the framework of current anthropological perspectives on the sensory environment. We plan to explore the role of
Hittite festivals as ‘total social facts’ (M. Mauss), creating deeply affective atmospheres. In doing so, we pursue a multiproxy approach, ie, we use multiple lines of proxy evidence simultaneously in a coordinated theoretical framework. The focus is on two intersecting case studies, the festivals of the sacred city of Arinna attested in the Hittite textual record, and the material remains at the site of Alacahöyük (Turkey) which, considered in their broader context and comparative perspective, provide highly representative datasets.
The research program is multiscalar, with three main objectives built on each other: (1) a parallel analysis of the cuneiform texts on the cults of Arinna and the material remains connected with religious activity at Late Bronze Age Alacahöyük, (2) the development of a methodology for the combined study of Hittite written and material evidence and its digital management, with particular regard to
terminological interoperability and the analysis of spatial and temporal aspects, and (3) an interdisciplinary reconstruction of Hittite festivals in the city of Arinna and at the site of Alacahöyük. The planned outputs include critical editions of the festivals of Arinna, a detailed reappraisal of the Sphinx Gate of Alacahöyük, an open digital archive for the combined analysis of textual and visual evidence, and a comparative, anthropologically informed analysis of the religious festivals at Arinna and Alacahöyük. Outreach modules targeting education and research will produce a scale model of the Sphinx Gate at Alacahöyük and graphic information
panels, to be realized by middle and high schoolers within a dedicated pedagogical program pursued in collaboration with the Museo Orientale Umberto Scerrato and the NPO Maestri di Strada (Naples). The proponents’ multidisciplinary competence, track record, and cooperation agreements with key partners (particularly the project Corpus der Hethitischen Festrituale and the Venice Centre for Digital and Public Humanities) ensure the conditions for the feasibility of the research program.