Il catalogo è questo: Listmania and the basic linguitsics of list authoring

The lexical list is a short text par excellence, requiring a minimum of two lexical items, which can be proper names, possibly in abbreviated form, or simple nouns, regularly shorn of determiners. The list is also possibly the most ancient text-­‐‑type, one that has not only persisted in various social contexts since Sumerian times, but is presently flourishing in numerous writing spaces created by new media, to the extent that the Amazon website has named the phenomenon ‘Listmania’ and recognises the existence of ‘list author’s, for whom it provides guidelines and house rules. Lists, however, have attracted very little attention from scholars of contemporary linguistics and the literature on them is mainly found in the disciplines of Bible studies or research into early Mesopotamian languages. After briefly considering, the main varieties of this text-­‐‑type, its principal functions, and some possible cultural reasons for its durability, the present paper analyses syntactical and word combinations used in online lexical lists on the Listmania webpage. In the context of Listmania, lists can also be accompanied by short (maximum 200 characters) comments. The analysis also considers how their text producers adapt to these limitations and provides a qualitative analysis of a sample of such ‘commented lists’ that reveal preferred syntax and word combinations and also evidence the ability of their text producers to imitate other genres in which brevity is a requirement.