An analysis of Dante's tenses in the Armenian translations of the Divina Commedia

This dissertation is a monographic study of the Tayan and Ghulyan Modern Eastern Armenian and Łazikean Western Armenian translations of Dante’s verbal system in the Divina Commedia. This thesis deals with the linguistic aspects related to this topic. A particular grammatical system, Dante’s Italian, is compared with a very different one, i.e. Armenian. Particular attention is paid to the problems concerning the interaction between syntax and morphology with respect to the temporal interpretation of the sentence. Chapters 1 and 2 concentrate on the peculiar morphological form of the Armenian tense system, which is formed mostly analytically, combining a variety of participles with auxiliaries. Their interpretive value is also considered. Chapter 3 follows, which systematically analyses the correspondences proposed by the translators of the Commedia. The reasons for their choices are then investigated and evaluated from a linguistic point of view.