Abstract

This paper aims to trace the links between Leopardi’s linguistic reflection and his theory of assuefazione, a theory that focuses on the functions of perception and the imaginative faculty within cognitive mechanisms. This theory also explains the functioning of the modalities with which human knowledge is articulated, starting from the experiential data, and therefore linguistic knowledge, in terms of a metaphorical apperception of the world. Specific attention will also be given to the notion of semantic vagueness, closely linked to the general concept of indefinite: a concept that Leopardi develops in his reflections on the theory of pleasure and which is fundamental to define the peculiarities of the imaginative faculty. Furthermore, through the Garronian study of metaoperativity a more in-depth reading of the leopardian theory of assuefazione and of the link between perception and imagination too, as well as the role these two last faculties play in language will be provided. Precisely the metaoperativity allows us to explain and define with greater clarity the disposizione a poter essere, that is a precondition in order to conceive the Leopardian notion of indefinite. This conceptual clarification will also be important to highlight how the thought of Leopardi – in spite of the asystematicity that characterizes Zibaldone – is structured and deeply coherent, in line with that unitary and global approach to human knowledge of its time: an approach in which linguistic reflection and the theory of knowledge mutually imply each other, tightened by a relationship of mutual relevance.