L’onomastica pirandelliana tra cultura dialettale e dialetto diatopicamente marcato

The paper focuses on three names which appear in Pirandello’s works: Zi’ Scarda, Rosario Chiàrchiaro and Zi’ Dima. These names are dialectal in their origins and their meanings can be explained mainly considering their etymon rather than their functions and uses in the literary texts. Nevertheless, beyond the etymological analysis, in order to understand the true value of the writer’s onomastic choices, it is also necessary to take into account the relationship with the social and cultural values dealing with the “dialectal world”, since Pirandello seems to choose his characters’ names by considering what they mean and represent within the cultural context they belong to.