<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 15 (filtered medium)">
<style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:"Cambria Math";
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0cm;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
span.StileMessaggioDiPostaElettronica17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
color:windowtext;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-fareast-language:EN-US;}
@page WordSection1
{size:612.0pt 792.0pt;
margin:70.85pt 2.0cm 2.0cm 2.0cm;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang="IT" link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72" style="word-wrap:break-word">
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:14.0pt">Dear friends and colleagues,
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:14.0pt">I am preparing a paper on that group of general-generic words that are used to designate entities whose name you do not know or do not remember, or whose name you do not want to remember or that,
simply, have no name in a language. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:14.0pt">I’m referring to “nouns” like French "truc" and "machin", Italian "coso", "arnese", "aggeggio", or, for people, Italian "tizio", "tipo", Spanish "tío", “fulano”, English "dude" etc. They form
apparently a special word class and implement a particular way of designating.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:14.0pt">The situation in the European languages I am familiar with seems very fragmented and discontinuous: some languages do have sets of dedicated or semidedicated words for that function, but most
don’t, as far as I see.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:14.0pt">Does any of you have examples from other languages and, if any, bibliographic references?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:14.0pt">Thanks,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:14.0pt">Raffaele<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:14.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New",serif;mso-fareast-language:IT">==============<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New",serif;mso-fareast-language:IT">Emeritus Professor, Università Roma Tre<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New",serif;mso-fareast-language:IT">Hon C Lund University<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New",serif;mso-fareast-language:IT">Membre de l'Académie Royale de Belgique<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New",serif;mso-fareast-language:IT">Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de France<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New",serif;mso-fareast-language:IT">Accademico (corrispondente) della Crusca<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New",serif;mso-fareast-language:IT">Prix de l'Institut de France-Fondation Bonnefous 2022<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New",serif;mso-fareast-language:IT">===============<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New",serif;mso-fareast-language:IT">Attività e pubblicazioni // Activity and publications
<a href="http://uniroma3.academia.edu/RaffaeleSimone"><span style="color:blue">http://uniroma3.academia.edu/RaffaeleSimone</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>