IN-DEPTH SEMINARS OF DISCIPLINARY AREA (SL) - MOD. 1

The curriculum in Language Sciences is aimed at the acquisition of theoretical knowledge and the development of critical skills that allow doctoral students to understand linguistic phenomena in all their complexity, developing the ability to plan research aimed at the acquisition of new data and their analysis, as well as at proposing applicative interventions with social and cultural impact. The curriculum includes a wide range of linguistic research perspectives (formal, synchronic and diachronic, philological, sociolinguistic, computational, language teaching analysis, also applied to bilingual and bimodal contexts), also addressed with experimental methodologies that use sophisticated instruments (eye-tracker, fNIRS) and advanced statistical analysis models.
The main training goal of this module is to support the acquisition and consolidation of both theoretical and applied knowledge in linguistics, including theoretical linguistics, sociolinguistics, linguistics applied to language disorders and typical and atypical language acquisition, and computational linguistics.

Doctoral students will acquire theoretical and applied knowledge related to phenomena and issues within the following disciplinary areas: the phonology-syntax interface, computational linguistics, the psycholinguistics of sign languages, and the formal linguistic analysis of Czech and English. The proposed seminars will offer the opportunity to examine various linguistic phenomena and to engage in critical reflection in relation to their own research project.

Good knowledge of formal linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and Italian linguistics.
Excellent command of the languages of instruction (Italian and English).

The seminars, aimed at deepening specific disciplinary areas, are organized into four macro-areas, each coordinated by experts from different fields:

Prof. Lori Repetti (Stony Brook University - SUNY; Ca’ Foscari University of Venice), Visiting Researcher
This lecture series explores the importance of the phonology-syntax interface by examining cases where one discipline sheds light on phenomena of the other. Clitic pronouns, negative imperatives, and clitic clusters in Romance dialects are analyzed, showing how integrated approaches simplify linguistic analyses. The limitations of phonology-only explanations are also discussed. Finally, the course proposes collaborative activities with scholars from diverse disciplines and methodologies to enrich linguistic analysis from multiple perspectives.

Dr. Alan Ramponi (Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento)
This module introduces the main concepts and methodologies of computational linguistics, with a focus on recent developments linked to large language models. Through theoretical lessons and practical exercises, it also addresses challenges and ethical implications related to the study of non-standard varieties. Applications of computational sociolinguistics are presented, focusing on diatopic, diastratic, and diachronic variation in corpora. The main goals are to develop a critical understanding of the field and to gain familiarity with key computational methods.

Prof. Ludmila Veselovská (Palacký University Olomouc; Erasmus Teaching Staff at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)
The first lecture analyzes null subjects in Czech, showing that subject-predicate agreement is based on two distinct sets of grammatical features distributed across two syntactic levels (v and T). It proposes that pro is a complex entity composed of two components with different feature sets, and that agreement is also influenced by discourse factors such as topic.
The second lecture addresses the phenomenon of Superiority by comparing English and Slavic languages, particularly Czech. Based on Rudin’s (1988) taxonomy, it shows that Czech does not fall within the group of multiple Wh-fronting languages and is analyzed through the Split CP hypothesis. Corpus and acquisition data show a statistical preference in Czech for maintaining formal hierarchies, but not the animacy hierarchy.
The third lecture compares Wh-fronting in English and Czech, highlighting structural similarities and differences. It shows that movement in Czech is more constrained and follows stricter rules. Parallels are drawn between Wh-movement and contrastive focus movement, proposing a unified structural analysis based on the Split CP hypothesis.

Prof. Chiara Branchini and Prof. Lara Mantovan (Ca' Foscari University) in collaboration with Dr. Beatrice Giustolisi (University of Milano-Bicocca)
The description and analysis of sign language acquisition, both in typical and atypical children and adults, is still underdeveloped at both international and national levels. These lectures aim to review the literature on clinical and didactic tests developed for this purpose, and to analyze their strengths and limitations as observed in previous research.

The core bibliography will be integrated during the course sessions.

Phonology/Syntax Interface:
Cardinaletti, Anna and Lori Repetti. in progress. “Clitic Clusters in Northern Italian Dialects” (ms).
Moradi, Sedigheh, Andrija Petrovic, Mark Aronoff, and Lori Repetti. in progress. “Conditioned Epenthesis” (ms).
Ordóñez, Francisco and Lori Repetti. 2014. “On the morphological restriction of hosting clitics in Italian and Sardinian dialects.” L’Italia dialettale 75: 173–199.
Repetti, Lori. 2020. “The masculine singular definite article in Italian: The role of the syllable.” Italian Journal of Linguistics 32: 209–232.
Romanello, Emily and Lori Repetti. 2014. “Imperative Characteristics in Romance Varieties Spoken in Italy.” Italian Journal of Linguistics 26: 135–163.

Computational Linguistics:
Jezek, E.; Sprugnoli, R. (2023). Linguistica computazionale. Introduzione all'analisi automatica dei testi. Il Mulino.
Nguyen, D., Doğruöz, A. S., Rosé, C. P.; De Jong, F. (2016). “Computational sociolinguistics: A survey.” Computational Linguistics, 42(3), 537–593. MIT Press.
Ramponi, A., Casula, C. (2023). “DiatopIt: A corpus of social media posts for the study of diatopic language variation in Italy.” In Tenth Workshop on NLP for Similar Languages, Varieties and Dialects (VarDial 2023), pp. 187–199. ACL.
Ramponi, A. (2024). “Language varieties of Italy: Technology challenges and opportunities.” Transactions of the Association for Computational Linguistics, 12, 19–38. MIT Press.

Sign Languages:
Bellugi, U., and Klima, E.S. 1982. The acquisition of three morphological systems in American Sign Language. Stanford University Press.
Chamberlain, C., Morford, J.P., Mayberry, R.I. (eds.) 2000. Language Acquisition by Eye. Mahwah, London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Morgan, G., Wall, B. (eds.) 2000. Directions in Sign Language Acquisition. Amsterdam: Benjamins.
Newport, E.L., Meier, R.P. 1985. “The acquisition of American Sign Language.” In D.I. Slobin (ed.), The Cross-Linguistic Study of Language Acquisition. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Zorzi, G., Aristodemo, V., Giustolisi, B., Hauser, C., Donati, C., Cecchetto, C. 2023. “Assessing Lexical and Syntactic Comprehension in Deaf Signing Adults.” Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 28(4), 373–386.
https://thesignhub.eu/assessment

Czech/English Linguistics:
Veselovská, L. (2018). Noun Phrases in Czech: Their Structure and Agreements. Peter Lang.
Veselovská, L. (2020). “Czech Analytic Agreement and the Characteristics of Little pro.” Zeitschrift für Slawistik 65/2: 194–221.
Veselovská, L. (2022). “The features of null subjects: A case study of Czech.” In Dalmi, G., Tsedryk, E., Ceglowski, P. (eds.), Null Subjects in Slavic and Finno-Ugric. Licensing, Structure, and Typology, pp. 133–177. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Veselovská, L. (2020). Wh-Questions: A Case Study in Czech. Olomouc: Palacký University.
Veselovská, L. (2020). “Multiple WHs in Czech not that multiple.” Rivista di Grammatica Generativa 42: 1–43.
Veselovská, L. (2017). “Comparing the Wh Movement in English and Czech.” Czech and Slovak Linguistic Review 2017/1: 117–140.
Veselovská, L. (2018). Noun Phrases in Czech: Their Structure and Agreements. Peter Lang, Berlin.
Zubizarreta, Maria-Luisa. 1986. Prosody, Focus and Word Order. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

The assessment of the in-depth learning will be carried out through the regular semester evaluations (oral and written presentations and reports) scheduled for the enrolled PhD students.

not present

Non prevista

Interactive in-person seminars

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development