Analysis of Italianisms in Martin Benetovi ć’s Renaissance play Hvarkinja

Abstract

The analysis of Italianisms in Martin Benetović’s Renaissance play Hvarkinja shows that the characters’ way of speaking reflects the structure of social relations of the period. Apart from creating the comic effect, language is used as indicator of the speakers’ social status. This tendency is most visible in the usage of Italianisms. Italianisms as signs of cultural prestige are used by the upper-class characters and they are not present in the lines spoken by the peasants.
The paper analyses the adaptation of Italianisms on the phonological, morphological and semantic levels and discusses the syntactic and phraseological calques and code switching.