La sentenza italiana : alcune considerazioni sui rapporti temporali

The aim of this article is to describe time relations in a typical written Italian judgment of penalty. The article is composed of two parts. The first one describes language frame, which comprises judgments of penalty by the Supreme Court of Cassation, and a regular scheme structure of a written document that is composed of three invariable parts (introductory part/comparison; judgment justification; and disposition). In the second part the author describes time relations in the text concentrating on language formulas introduced in each part of the text. The analysis of time relations in the text takes into account the category of physical and grammatical time as well as the influence which the discourse (oral judgment) has on the written form of the document.