The Fundamental Principles of the Italian Constitution: A Semantic Analysis

This paper presents a semantic analysis of the so-called "Fundamental Principles", the first twelve Articles of the Italian Constitution. The purpose of the paper is to analyse the Italian Constitution as a literary text, not as a legal text. Thus, the focus of the present analysis is strictly on the linguistic aspects of the Fundamental Principles, not on the juridical ones. The meaning of the keywords of these twelve Articles is analysed adopting the methodology of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (Goddard and Wierzbicka [2002; 2014]; Goddard [2008; 2011]; Peeters [2006]; Wierzbicka [1996]), whereas the language and the structure of the text are analysed following the principles of Text Linguistics (de Beaugrande and Dressler 1981). The reader will have the opportunity to approach the Fundamental Principles both in the original version and in a revised English translation.