The Research Activity of the API

Research takes place in the field, recording local responses to 20.000 already acquired base formulas forming the “Questionnaire of the API” The method is fundamentally that followed in geolinguistic research with several added factors. The survey – which at present takes up an entire week – is recorded on magnetic tape. For confirmation and enrichment of variants the presence of two, maximum three, people, is useful. So that the voices are not super-imposed, it is preferable that they are of different sex.

It is especially important to avoid the risk of passive repetition even in the local dialect (answers in Italian are not valid)of the formula proposed by the researcher who thus must resort to several devices .All the answers must be recorded, also because the same source may know more than one variant.

At this point, the scientific transcription and the version in language of the gathered material takes place. The material is then attributed a code according to the appropriate category which is often complicated by the overlapping of formulas. Finally it is inserted into the electronic archive. The material is distributed in 12 large semantic areas with a further two levels of division with the final result that they are filed according to a four number code.

Other than the collecting of the maximum number of paroemiologic attestations throughout the national territory the centre also oversees the utilization of such material for various analyses of the paroemiologic and linguistic structures, and for studies on the areal distribution of sayings and their variants. These and other activities such as the cataloguing of many types of paremia are provided for young researchers.