Syntactic Protocols to Enhance Inclusive Cultural Identity. A Case Study on Istro-Romanian Clausal Structure

Abstract

This paper has a general and a specific goal. The general goal is quite ambitious and consists in proposing a new linguistic approach, named Protocol Linguistics, that should encompass points of division among linguists of different theoretical persuasion and permit a common effort to put the most recent advances in linguistics at the service of general interests, such as language policies, language education, language rehabilitation, endangered language documentation, and many more third mission type of environments. The second specific goal is to provide an example of a possible protocol for the documentation of a severely endangered language, Istro-Romanian, a variety of eastern Romance spoken in the Istrian peninsula in Croatia, also named Vlaški or Žejanski. The general aim is to suggest that language awareness based on knowledge of syntax, which highlights similarities as well as differences and conceives the differences as variation among a small range of choices, can ground the construction of inclusive cultural identity, which will enhance social cohesion as well as the preservation of minority languages.