I'm a doctoral candidate in Linguistics at the Scuola Normale Superiore, in Pisa. My mentors are Pier Marco Bertinetto and Valentina Bianchi. Previously I graduated in Linguistics at the University of Siena and my background is mainly in generative syntax.

During the doctoral program, I spent a semester as a visiting student at the UCLA, Department of Linguistics (advisor: Dominique Sportiche), and currently I'm visiting the University of Geneva, Department of Linguistics (advisor: Ur Shlonsky).

I have a broad interest in the interaction between syntactic representations and the semantic component. To date, the focus of my work has been on binding and specificity.

Currently, in my doctoral dissertation, I'm arguing that specificity plays a crucial role in a number of binding configurations, and I'm developing an analysis based on recent proposals on the syntax and semantics of pronominal features and the 'cartographic' approach to the left peripheries (advisors: Pier Marco Bertinetto, Valentina Bianchi, Luigi Rizzi).

Previously, in my MA thesis, I argued that Weak Crossover effects show up only with non-specific operators, and I proposed an analysis based on different LF chains for specific vs. non-specific operators (advisors: Valentina Bianchi, Luigi Rizzi, Adriana Belletti).

In the future, I wish to further pursue research comparing the rich functional structure assumed by the 'cartographic' approach and semantics and pragmatics theorizing.

Syntax, syntax/semantics interface, Romance syntax:

• Binding configurations: the role of specificity.
• Analysis of pronominal binding: chains at Logical Form (LF) and binding mechanisms.
• Semantics of pronominal features: uninterpretable features.

• 'The Licensing of Pronominal Features in WCO and OPC', Penn Linguistics Colloquium 33, UPenn, Philadelphia, U.S.A, March 2009 – refereed conference.
  
• 'The Licensing of Pronominal Features in WCO and OPC', EALing VI, Fall School 2008, Poster Session, Paris, France, September 2008 – refereed student poster.
  
• 'Indefiniti Specifici' ('Specific Indefinites'), Linguistics Seminars at Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy, Febraury 2008 – invited talk.
  
• 'Weak Crossover at the Syntax/Semantics Interface', Syntax and Semantics Seminars, University of California, Los Angeles, U.S.A., April 2007 – invited talk.
  
• 'Weak Crossover, LF Chains and the Licensing of Pronominal Features', 16th Colloquium on Generative Grammar, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain, April 2006 – refereed conference.
  
• 'Weak Crossover all'Interfaccia Sintassi/Semantica', ('Weak Crossover at the Syntax/Semantics Interface'), Linguistics Seminars at Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy, January 2006 – invited talk.
  
• 'Corpus based studies: “Why another program?”' (with Michal Starke), Evaluation of the research program Language and Communication: Acquisition, Processing and Pathology, University of Geneva, Switzerland, December 2002.

• 'The Licensing of Pronominal Features in WCO and OPC configurations' in Penn Working Papers in Linguistics (PWPL) 16.1, Proceedings of the 33rd Penn Linguistics Colloquium, Jon Stevens (ed.), to appear.
  [draft available in pdf, 135 Kb]
• 'Deterministic Mapping and Dependencies: an Interface Account of Weak(er) Crossover' with Denis Delfitto, paper first draft, September 2009.
  [draft available in pdf, 294 Kb]
• 'Pronouns and the Left Peripheries', Dissertation proposal, Scuola Normale Superiore, December 2008.
  [prospectus available in pdf, 136 Kb]
• 'Scavalcamento Debole all'Interfaccia Sintassi/Semantica', ('Weak Crossover at the Syntax/Semantics Interface') in Atti del XXXI Convegno della Società Italiana di Glottologia, Pier Marco Bertinetto (ed.), Il Calamo, Roma, 2008.
• 'Weak Crossover, Specificity and LF Chains', in Coreference, Modality and Focus, Luis Eguren and Olga Fernández Soriano (eds.), John Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, 2007.
  [paper available in pdf, 311 Kb]
• 'Weak Crossover e Catene a LF: Analisi degli Effetti di Specificità', ('Weak Crossover and LF Chains: Analysis of Specificity Effects'), MA thesis, University of Siena, Italy, September 2005.
  [thesis available in Italian in pdf, 416 Kb]
• 'La Struttura Informazionale negli Studi Cartografici', ('Information Structure in the Cartographic Approach'), MA thesis, University of Siena, Italy, Febraury 2004.

What is it?

• Wikipedia Entry for Linguistics

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistics

• LSA: About Linguistics

  http://www.lsadc.org/info/ling-fields.cfm

Papers Archives

• LingBuzz, Repository of Scholarly Papers

  http://ling.auf.net/lingBuzz/

• Semanticsarchive, Papers of Interest to Semanticists

  http://semanticsarchive.net/

• Snippets, Syntax and Semantics Squibs

  http://www.ledonline.it/snippets/

Utilities

• Lexicon of Linguistics

  http://www2.let.uu.nl/Uil-OTS/Lexicon/

• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

  http://plato.stanford.edu/

• Linguist List: the World's Largest Online Linguistic Resource

  http://www.linguistlist.org/

• Ethnologue: Languages of the World

  http://www.ethnologue.com/

Blogs

• Language Log: Collaborative Blog Maintained by Mark Liberman

  http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/

• Semantics Etc., Kai von Fintel's Blog

  http://semantics-online.org/

Humor

• Please Mr. Postal

  http://www.cas.sc.edu/ling/faculty/dubinsky/Ling721/links/Please-Mr-Postal.htm

• The CP that Rizzi Built

  http://www.let.uu.nl/~Ora.Matushansky/personal/rizzi.html

• Choose Your Own Career in Linguistics

  http://www.specgram.com/choose/

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