Causal and consecutive semantic relations in Southern Italian administrative texts between the Late Medieval and Early Modern Age

Abstract

The paper aims to shed light on the syntactic-textual features of a corpus of administrative texts produced in the Kingdom of Naples in the Modern Age (petitions, instructions, town registers). More specifically, due to their relevance in the overall organization of the texts, the semantic relations of causality and consecutiveness are highlighted. The analysis of the texts shows the ways in which writers of “median” cultural caliber use an array of syntactic-textual structures and solutions within socio-discursive genres typical of the administrative and chancery environments of Italy in the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age. In this way, the paper contributes to the reconstruction of a general and vast framework related to writing practices and skills of writers who, although not being literates, participated in the consolidation of those writing practices that were necessary for the management of the administrative life of Italian cities.