When less is more: neoteny and language (original) (raw)

«Parole/effecti»: le langage de la médiation politique 2015

F. Senatore, «Parole/effecti»: le langage de la médiation politique dans les sources documentaires de la Renaissance italienne in Langues des pratiques militaires et langues de la guerre (XVe-XVIe siècles), in J.-L. Fournel et M.M. Fontaine (éd.), Les mots de la guerre dans l'Europe de la Renaissance, Genève, Droz, 2015, pp. 197-229 The diplomatic language of th Italian Renaissance shares a lexical and sintactic heritage with military language. It drawns from military language concerning information on the progress of war and different forms of aggressive action performed by soldiers. This article focuses on some particular points drawn from the archival sources of various archival chanceries (diplomatic correspondence, memos on various questions relating to negotiation, lists of requests, and reports by collegial bodies in cities). In the first part, the presentation deals with two apparently banal idioms (per forza: by force [of arms], and per accordo: by agreement) to highlight their unespected importance and to show that in conflicts during the Renaissance the option for peace and warlike violence coesisted and were continously interwoven. The second part aims to show how certain expressions in diplomatic language reflect ordinary public eloquence and hark back to the ars dictaminis of the thirteenth century, which can still be seen in sixteenth century texts. In the third part, we analyse the expression parole senza effecti (words without effects or consequence), that has a highly pejorative connotation in Renaissance Italy, suggesting the speaker's unreliability.