Programme

The course focuses on the relationship between language and narrative from a cognitive and evolutionary point of view. In contrast to the theories considering the sentence as the essence of language, the course suggests an interpretative hypothesis based on the priority of discourse over sentence; specifically, it is suggested that the ability to tell stories is the distinctive trait both of language and human nature.
The course includes experimental activities aimed at supporting the theoretical model proposed.

Core Documentation

-Bilandzic, H., & Busselle, R. (2013). Narrative persuasion. In “The Sage handbook of persuasion: Developments in theory and practice”, 2, pp. 200-219.
- Ferretti, F. (2025). Stories come first. The origins of human communication from a naturalised perspective of language. Rivista internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia, 16(1), 1-16.
- Ferretti, F. (2024) Agonistic conversation: A cognitive-interactive perspective on the origin of grammar. In: Introducing Evolutionary Pragmatics (pp. 124-149). Routledge.

Attendance

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Type of evaluation

L'esame (uguale per tutti, sia frequentanti che non frequentanti) consiste in una tesina. I dettagli e gli argomenti tra cui scegliere saranno comunicati a lezione a corso iniziato e saranno indicati sulla pagina Moodle del corso, a cui gli studenti sono invitati ad iscriversi.