ON INTERROGATIVITY AND INTERROGATIVE PHRASES IN TEACHING BULGARIAN TO ITALIAN STUDENTS

Abstract

The present study aims to explore issues related to the pragmatics of interrogative phrases and their resulting role in dialogic communication (both spoken and written) through the teaching of Bulgarian as a foreign language to Italian students. In this regard, the text describes and analyzes the results of a micro-study (case study). It presents a linguodidactic action plan designed to develop in Italian students the skills necessary for participating in dialogic communication in Bulgarian — both in formal and informal contexts — and, in particular, the ability to understand, interpret, and formulate questions. Taking into account certain formal differences in the formation of interrogative sentences in Bulgarian compared to Italian, the study outlines stages of instruction whose goal is not merely the structural recognition of interrogative sentences but also understanding their function depending on context — that is, the overall concept of interrogativity. Participation in conversation requires the activation of various types of competencies — social, communicative, grammatical, and lexical. Context is especially important for interpreting the semantics of questions; therefore, the proposed exercises consider the pragmatic and sociocommunicative contexts in which a conversation arises, develops, and concludes. The aim is to propose an approach to teaching Bulgarian interrogative sentences which, as the results of the study show, favors a less dogmatic, system-descriptive and more interpretative and intuitive attitude toward the category of interrogativity, relying on the similarities between the two languages in the formation and interpretation of interrogative structures.