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: linguistic annotation and corpus analysis in Italian Sign Language (LIS), dyslexia and language competence, semantic theory, and metaphor variation. 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, 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. Lara Mantovan (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia)
The first part of the seminar provides an introduction to the advanced use of ELAN (EUDICO Linguistic Annotator), a tool useful for annotating linguistic data in video and audio format. Participants will become familiar with the main features ELAN through practical demonstrations and guided simulations. The second part, which is workshop-based, is dedicated to developing practical skills in annotation using ELAN and in analyzing an LIS corpus, starting from authentic data.

Prof. Anna Cardinaletti, Prof. Francesca Volpato (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia)
The seminar discusses the difficulties that individuals with developmental dyslexia (DD) may encounter in tasks of oral comprehension and production, specifically with constructions derived from syntactic movement (clitic pronouns, interrogative sentences, and relative clauses). These constructions are also problematic for children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). The complex relationship between DLD and DD is discussed, along with the comorbidity hypothesis. Finally, some examples of explicit teaching of syntactic movement are presented, illustrating the generalisation effects observed in similar interventions with other clinical populations.

Dott. Alice Suozzi (Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia)
The seminar offers an introductory overview of the main semantic theories that have developed over time. The initial sessions are dedicated to lexical semantics, focusing on the meaning of single words through the analysis of different theories, including componential semantics, the theory of semantic primitives, prototype theory, and distributional semantics. Following this, the focus will shift to the verb class, analyzing the relationship between a verb's semantic-conceptual structure and its argument structure. Specifically, the nature of thematic roles is explored, with a particular focus on the Dowtyan perspective. The second part of the seminar moves on to clausal semantics, addressing the classic compositional approach. The limitations of this theory are highlighted, especially in cases where a sentence's meaning results from a "semantic shift" or "contextual enrichment" that compositionality struggles to explain. To overcome these difficulties, two alternative approaches are presented that try to account for these contextual effects: constructionism, which attributes meaning to the linguistic constructions themselves, and Pustejovsky's co-composition, which views meaning as a dynamic entity created by the interaction between words in a specific context.

Professor to be assigned
Metaphor variation involves both structural and functional aspects, as well as psychological and social processes, shaping how metaphors are distributed, adapted, and changed across time, space, and cultures. Building on a recent elaboration of Deliberate Metaphor Theory, a new theoretical framework called ALPS will be developed. ALPS stands for four distinct cognitive-psychological aspects of all metaphor use: Activity of comprehension, Level of language use, Process of analogizing, and Speed of fast cognition. Deliberate Metaphor Theory argues that the difference between deliberate and non-deliberate metaphor use yields new questions and insights for each of these centers of attention, but also for their opposites (i.e., production, text, lexical disambiguation, and slow cognition). This framework is also useful to conceptualize metaphor in specialist discourses by discussing its relation with genre.

The core bibliography will be integrated during the course sessions.

Linguistic annotation and corpus analysis in LIS
ELAN Manual- Linguistic Annotator, versione 6.9: https://www.mpi.nl/tools/elan/docs/ELAN_manual.pdf
Chesi, C., Geraci, C. (2009). Segni al computer. Manuale di documentazione della lingua italiana dei segni e alcune applicazioni computazionali. Siena: Cantagalli

Dyslexia and linguistic competence
Arosio, F., E. Pagliarini, M. Perugini, L. Barbieri, M.T. Guasti. (2016) Morphosyntax and Logical Abilities in Italian Poor Readers: The Problem of SLI Under-Identification.” First Language 36: 295–315.
Cardinaletti A., Cerutti S., Volpato F. (2024), On the production and omission of dative and accusative clitics in Italian children with learning difficulties, in V. Torrens (ed.), Language Acquisition in Romance Languages, Amsterdam, Benjamins.
Cardinaletti A., Piccoli E., Volpato F. (2022) Dyslexia and Syntactic Deficits: Overview and a Case Study of Language Training of Relative Clauses, in G. Cappelli, S. Noccetti (eds.), A Linguistic Approach to the Study of Dyslexia, Bristol, Multilingual Matters.
Guasti, M.T.; Branchini, C.; Vernice, M.; Barbieri, L.; Arosio, F. (2015) Language disorders in children with Developmental Dyslexia, In Stavrakaki (ed.), Advances on Research on Specific Language Impairment, Amsterdam, Benjamins
Pivi M., Del Puppo G., Cardinaletti A. (2016), The elicited oral production of Italian restrictive relative clauses and cleft sentences in typically developing children and children with developmental dyslexia. In Guijarro-Fuentes et al. (eds.), Acquisition of Romance Languages, De Gruyter.
Vender M., Delfitto D. (2010), Towards a Pragmatics of Negation: The Interpretation of Negative Sentences in Developmental Dyslexia, GG@G- Generative Grammar at Geneva 6.
Vender M., S. Hu, F. Mantione, D. Delfitto, C. Melloni (2018), The production of clitic pronouns: A study on bilingual and monolingual dyslexic children, Frontiers in Psychology 9,
Volpato F. (2022), On the production of restrictive pied-piping relative clauses in Italian: evidence from populations with typical and atypical language development, ISOGLOSS, 8.
Zachou A., Partesana E., Tenca E., Guasti M.T. (2013), Production and Comprehension of Direct Object Clitics and Definite Articles by Italian Children with Developmental Dyslexia, in S. Stavrakaki et al. (eds), Advances in Language Acquisition, Newcastle upon Tyne, CSP.

Semantic theory:
Dowty, D. R. (1979). Word Meaning and Montague Grammar: The Semantics of Verbs and Times in Generative Semantics and in Montague’s PTQ. Dordrecht /Boston/London: KAP
−−− (1991). Thematic proto-roles and argument selection. Language, 67
Goldberg, A (2003). Constructions: a new theoretical approach to language. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7.
Lenci, A., Sahlgren, M. (2023). Distributional Semantics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Pustejovksy, J. (1995a). Linguistic Constraints on Type Coercion. In Saint-Dizier, Viegas (eds.), Computational Lexical Semantics, 71–97. Cambridge, UK: CUP
−−− (1995b). The Generative Lexicon. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Rosch, E. (1978). Principles of categorization. In Eleanor Rosch & Barbara B. Lloyd (eds.), Cognition and categorization, 27–48. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. [Reprinted 1988]
Wierzbicka, A. (1996). Semantics: primes and universals. New York: OUP

Metaphor variation:
Littlemore, J. (2019), Metaphors in the Mind: Sources of Variation in Embodied Metaphor. CUP
Steen, G. (2023) Slowing Metaphor Down: Elaborating Deliberate Metaphor Theory, John Benjamins

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 "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development