Anna MORBIATO

Research experience
2020, October-ongoing

Researcher (VIU) within the 4-year Horizon 2020 Project “MUHAI - Meaning and Understanding in Human-centric AI”, funded by the European Commission. (WP1 and WP3):

Case studies in Cognitive Semantics. Goal - work out computational models for extracting meaning from text for a number of semantic domains.

2019, February-ongoing

Research Affiliate, School of Languages and Cultures, the University of Sydney

2018, June-ongoing

Fixed-term Assistant Professor (ricercatore R.T.D./A), Dept. of Asian and North African studies, Ca’Foscari University of Venice

2017, August-December

Research Assistant, School of Languages and Cultures, the University of Sydney: Research towards the development of the BA of Advanced Studies in Multilingual Translation, with Prof. R. Suter.

2017, July-December

Research Assistant, Sydney Democracy Network, the University of Sydney: Cross-linguistic research on the concept of post-truth (focusing on China and Italy), in collaboration with Prof. J. Keane.

2016, March-July

Research Assistant, Department of Linguistics, the University of Sydney and PAT Inc.

Researcher towards the development of innovative NLU (Natural Language Understanding) technology.

2011, February-2014, February

Research Fellow (assegnista di ricerca), Ca'Foscari University of Venice (Grant obtained after a competitive call for bid)

Teaching, supervising, and tutoring activities
 

2020, November-ongoing: Ca’Foscari University of Venice, Department of Asian and North African Studies

Tenure-track Assistant Professor (ricercatore R.T.D./B). Courses: Chinese language and linguistics, translation. Supervisor of BA and MA theses.

2019-ongoing:: responsible for Chinese teaching curricula (responsabile della formazione linguistica per il cinese).

2018, June-2020, October: Ca’Foscari University of Venice, Department of Asian and North African Studies and School of Economics, Languages and Entrepreneurship

Fixed-term Assistant Professor (ricercatore R.T.D./A). Courses: Chinese language and linguistics, translation, and business Chinese. Supervisor of BA and MA theses.

2017-2018: Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures

         Adjunct Professor. Courses: Mandarin Chinese language and linguistics. Supervisor of BA theses.

2016-2018: University of Verona, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures

         Adjunct Professor. Courses: Mandarin Chinese language, Chinese contemporary society.

2009-10 and 2014-2016: Ca’Foscari University of Venice, Department of East Asian studies

         Teaching fellow and tutor - MA and BA courses: interpreting and translation, Chinese language; Supervisor of BA and MA theses on Chinese language, society; translation studies; teaching innovation.

Education and qualifications
 

2018: Cotutelle (double degree) Ph.D. in Linguistics, University of Sydney, supervisor: Dr. W. Foley

         and in Asian and African studies, Ca’Foscari University of Venice, supervisor: Dr. M. Abbiati

         Thesis title: “Word order and sentence structure in Mandarin Chinese: new perspectives”

         (Awarded with First Class Honours).

2011: TESOL (Teaching English to Students of Other Languages) Certificate

         Trinity College London (Final mark: merit).

2010: MA in Technical and Scientific Translation (Chinese-English-Italian) Ca’Foscari University of Venice. Thesis title: “Tema, commento e la frase cinese: un approccio pragmatico-funzionale” [Topic, Comment and the Chinese sentence: a pragmatic-functional approach] (awarded with First Class Honours).

2007: BA in Translation and Interpretation (Chinese-English-Italian)

Ca’Foscari University of Venice. Thesis (in Chinese): “外交与文化外交” [Diplomacy and Cultural Diplomacy] (awarded with First Class Honours).

Other education

2016: Porquerolles, France: European Summer School in Linguistic Typology 2016       

         Funded by the FASS Travel Grant Scheme 2016, the University of Sydney.

2014: Palacky University, Olomouc: Summer School in Chinese Linguistics

         Funded by the FASS Travel Grant Scheme 2016, the University of Sydney.

2009: Ludwig Maximilian Universität, München ERASMUS Semester. Research towards MA dissertation.

Funded by the European Union (Erasmus exchange scholarship).

2008: Beijing Language and Culture University (北京语言大学) Courses: Chinese language, culture, history and modernity. Scholarship by the Chinese Ministry of Education (Chinese Bridge Scholarship).

2008: Shaanxi Normal University (陕西师范大学), Xian, China Intensive semester. Courses: - Chinese language, culture, politics and geography. Scholarship by the Cassamarca Foundation.

2006: Beijing Capital Normal University (北京首都师范大学)

Intensive semester. HSK (Chinese Language Proficiency Test) Course and Certificate level 7.

Publications
 

Forthcoming: 意大利语着汉语词序错误分析：以表达有定和已知信息的结构为例 (Challenges for Italian L1 learners of Chinese: a contrastive analysis of word order errors connected to definiteness and givenness). Multicultural Perspectives in Chinese Language and Literature (provisional title). Beijing, Peking University Press.

2020. With Basciano B. and Gatti F. (eds) Corpus-Based Research on Chinese Language and Linguistics. Sinica Venetiana. Venice: ECF.

2020. With Basciano, Bianca, Gatti, Franco (2020). Introduction. In Basciano, Bianca, Gatti, Franco, Morbiato, Anna (eds), Corpus-Based Research on Chinese Language and Linguistics, Venezia, Edizioni Ca' Foscari (ISBN 978-88-6969-406-6; 978-88-6969-407-3) (ISSN 2610-9042)

2020. Chinese sentence-initial indefinites: what corpora reveal. In Basciano B. Morbiato A. and Gatti F. (eds), Corpus-Based Research on Chinese Language and Linguistics. Sinica Venetiana. Venice: ECF.

2020. Il tema in cinese tra frase e testo: Struttura sintattica, informativa e del discorso (Topic in Chinese between the sentence and the text: Syntactic, Information and Discourse Structure). Venice: Cafoscarina.

2020. Acquisition of Double-Nominative Constructions by Italian L1 Learners of Chinese A Cross-Sectional Corpus Study. In Annali di Ca' Foscari. Serie Orientale, vol. 56, pp. 1-32 (ISSN 1125-3789)  Link DOI 

2020. Topic and subject in Chinese and in the languages of Europe: comparative remarks and implications for Chinese as a Second/Foreign Language teaching. Chinese as a Second Language Research, De Gruyter Mouton. (With G. F. Arcodia and B. Basciano) Link DOI

2020. Cognitive-functional principles shaping linear order in Chinese: an integrated perspective. Special issue of the Journal of Cognitive Linguistic Studies, John Benjamins. Link DOI

2020. Parole intraducibili? Uno sguardo al cinese moderno, Mantua Humanistic Studies, Universitas Studiorum, vol. XI, pp. 117-129 (ISBN 978-88-3369-088-9)

2019. Conceptual Word Order Principles and Mandarin Chinese Grammar. In Shei C. (eds), The Routledge Handbook of Chinese Discourse Analysis, Routledge.

2018. How Subjective Is the Subject? A Fresh Look at Grammatical Relations in Mandarin Chinese. Annali Di Ca’ Foscari, 54, 205–224.

DOI: http://doi.org/10.30687/AnnOr/2385-3042/2018/01/014

2018. “Word order and sentence structure in Mandarin Chinese: new perspectives”. Ph.D. dissertation: Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, The University of Sydney.

2017. Information Encoding, Mandarin Chinese Word Order and CSLA: A Cognitive- Functional Account. In I. Kecskes (eds), Explorations into Chinese as a Second Language, Educational Linguistics (Vol. 31, pp. 83–107). Springer International Publishing. [Peer-reviewed]

         ISBN: 978-3-319-54027-6, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54027-6_4

2015. What Chinese do not say: zero anaphora and non-specification of arguments in Mandarin (in Italian). In M. Abbiati & F. Greselin (eds), Lingua cinese: variazioni sul tema (Sinica venetiana 2) (pp. 79–102). ECF.

         ISBN (eBook): 978-88-6969-040-2, DOI: http://doi.org/10.14277/--/SV-2-70

2014. Cognitive Principles and Preverbal Position in Chinese. Annali Di Ca’ Foscari, 50, 205–224.

         ISSN: 2385-3042, DOI: http://doi.org/10.14277/2385-3042/11p

Conference presentations
 

2021

- (18-20 novembre) Università di Torino

AISC Conference: “Cina, cinesi, sinologia: lo stato dell’arte”

Panel: La linguistica cinese in Italia: stato dell’arte e prospettive di sviluppo (3)

Presentation: A corpus­-based approach to Chinese sentence­-initial indefinites

- Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, Forlì

AILC: Study Days on Chinese Linguistics (VI)

Presentations:

1. Acquisition of double-nominative constructions by Italian L1 learners of Chinese: a crossectional corpus study.

2. (With Greta Marchetti): I fattori che condizionano la motivazione ad apprendere il cinese da parte di studenti italofoni: un approccio sociodinamico

- The George Washington University, Washington DC

         汉语作为第六语言研究国际研讨会 6th Int. Conference on Chinese as a Second Language Research (CASLAR-6)

Presentation: Double-nominatives: thematic structure and acquisitional issues

- Centre de Recherches Linguistiques sur l’Asie Orientale, Paris

34th Paris Meeting on East Asian Linguistics (JLAO 34)

Presentation: A corpus approach to Chinese sentence-initial indefinites

2020 – Olomouc, Czech Republic

11th International Conference of the European Association of Chinese Linguistics (EACL-11)

Panel convenor (with B. Basciano): Corpus-based approaches to Chinese linguistics: towards increased empiricism (postponed due to the COVID emergency)

- University Putra Malaysia Bintulu Campus

Cala Conference on Asian Linguistic Anthropology

Presentation: Spatio-temporal frames and Chinese word order--a cognitive-functional analysis based on the containment schema

2019 - Ca’Foscari University of Venice

         AISC Italian Association for Chinese Studies

Presentation: Sentence-initial indefinite nominals: a quantitative corpus study on the PKU and BCC-BLCU corpora

- DSAAM Research Days—Focus on Endangered Languages and Linguistics in Asia

         Presentation: What Corpora can tell: New Perspectives on Mandarin Syntax

2018 - The University of Sydney

18th Int. Symposium of Processability Approaches to Language Acquisition (PALA)

Presentation: Mandarin Chinese word order and interlanguage development: a comparative study on Italian and English L1 learners

- Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore

AILC: Study Days on Chinese Linguistics (V)

Presentation: On sentence-initial new and indefinite NPs: redefining cognitive restrictions to topic position in Mandarin

- The University of Hong Kong

         汉语作为第五语言研究国际研讨会 5th Int. Conference on Chinese as a Second Language Research (CASLAR-5)

         Presentation: Topic and subject in Mandarin and in the languages of Europe: comparative remarks and implications for CSL/CFL teaching. (with G. F. Arcodia and B. Basciano)

2017 - University l’Orientale, Naples

         Study Days on Chinese Linguistics (IV)

         Presentation: Information Structure in Mandarin Chinese: linguistic functions and restrictions

2016 - University of Roma Tre

Study Days on Chinese Linguistics (III)

Presentation: Remarks on subject-object asymmetries and grammatical relations in Chinese

- Porquerolles, France 

         European Summer School in Linguistic Typology, Student Presentation 

Presentation: Subjecthood tests and subject-object asymmetries in Mandarin

- The University of Sydney

         SCSS Sydney China Studies Student Society Seminar Series

         Presentation: How Mandarin encodes event participants: S-O asymmetries and grammatical relations

2015 - Università degli Studi di Milano

         Study Days on Chinese Linguistics (II)

         Presentation: Argument structure, event structure, and sentence structure in Mandarin Chinese

- Northumbria University, UK

         International Cognitive Linguistics Conference (ICLC13)

Presentation: Cognitive-functional principles shaping linear order in Chinese: a new perspective

2014 - Ca’Foscari University of Venice

         Study Days on Chinese Linguistics (I)

         Presentation: Cognitive linguistics: new approaches in the description of word order in Mandarin

 - University of Parma

         汉语作为第三语言研究国际研讨会 3rd Int. Conference on Chinese as a Second Language Research (CASLAR-2)

         Presentation: Word order and discourse in Chinese as a Second Language Acquisition

Invited lectures
 

2020, October; VIU, MUHAI (“Meaning and Understanding in Human-centric AI”, project funded by the EU), Kick-off meeting

– “Handling multilingual language sources: how languages craft meaningful forms and how we make sense of language”

2020, March - University of Firenze, PhD in Linguistics

- "Information Structure: Chinese and beyond” (rescheduled due to the pandemic)

2019 – School of Languages and Cultures, the University of Sydney

- (5 November)  “Syntax in translation – a focus on Asian languages”

- (20 November) “Translation theory and practice: teaching strategies, CAT tools, and AI”

Organisation of National and International conferences
 

With Bianca Basciano and Giorgio F. Arcodia: Organisation of the Lecture Series in Chinese Linguistics (3 series, A.A. 2020-21.)

Local chair of the Eighteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities (Venice, July 2020) https://thehumanities.com/2020-conference

Organiser of the EUROPEANA SPACE Opening Conference (Venice, 15-17 October 2014) European Union Project www.europeana-space.eu “Digital Cultural Content Re-imagined: New Avenues for the Economy and Society”.

Organiser of the DEF Forum (Venice, 9 May 2013) in collaboration with the US Embassy in Italy.

Prizes and Awards
•     2018 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Seal of Excellence (https://ec.europa.eu/research/soe/index.cfm)

•     2018 Selected as Valedictorian at Ca’Foscari University of Venice

•     2010 Campus Mentis Award for best graduates under 29 years of age, Italian Council of Ministers     

•     2010 Awarded with first class honours for MA thesis defence

•     2007 International Chinese Bridge Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students: 3rd prize

•     2007 Awarded with first class honours for BA thesis defence

•     2004 Rotary Club Prize for best high school thesis

Funding and scholarship

•     2019 - OVERSEAS Grant for Visiting Professors towards 2 months at the School of Languages and Cultures, The University of Sydney

•     2018 - Zhuanglin Hu Scholarship, The University of Sydney

•     2017-2018 - China Studies Centre Support Grant, the University of Sydney (2 rounds)

•     2016- Endeavour Research Fellowship, Australian Government

•     2015-2017 - Postgraduate Research Support Scheme (PRSS), the University of Sydney (3 rounds)

•     2015-2017 - FASS Doctoral Travel Grant Scholarship, the University of Sydney (3 rounds)

•     2015-2016 - Overseas Scholarship, the European Union (2 rounds)

•     2011-2014 - Research Fellow Grant (3 years), Ca’Foscari University of Venice

•     2009 - ERASMUS Scholarship, European Union for a research period at Ludwig Maximilian University, München

•     2008 - Foundation Scholarship towards a semester at Shaanxi Normal University, Xian, China

•     2007- Chinese Bridge Scholarship, Chinese Ministry of Education - course at Beijing Language and Culture University

•     2004 - Scholarship by Credito Trevigiano, BCC Bank (3 rounds)

Participation in industrial innovation
 

2020 – MUHAI | Meaning and Understanding in Human-centric AI https://www.univiu.org/focus-areas/science-communication-and-education/muhai-project#

2016 - Development of Innovative NLU (Natural Language Understanding) technology. Research project between the University of Sydney’s Linguistics and IT departments and PAT Inc. (a start-up offering Natural Language Understanding API technology) Researcher and expert in linguistics and Mandarin for the development of the technology, and in meeting/pitching with potential investors (e.g. Baidu 百度)

Institutional responsibilities
 

2019-current: Responsabile formazione linguistica (Responsible for Chinese langugage instruction), Dept. of Asian and North African studies, Ca’Foscari University of Venice

2019-current: Direttore responsabile (Editor in chief) Journal: Annali di Ca’ Foscari Serie orientale

2016-current: Reviewer for Journals and other publications, including: Journal of Linguistics, Routledge Handbook of Chinese Discourse Analysis,             Proceedings of the Role and Reference Grammar (RRG) Conference, Journal of Cognitive Linguistic Studies

2014-2015: Confucius Institute at Ca’Foscari University of Venice

            Responsible for Confucius Classes and teaching activities

2011-2013: Project management – University strategic projects related to innovation and internationalization.

Other work experience
 

2007–2018: Interpreter and translator (Chinese-to-English, German, and Italian and vice versa)

Clients include 西九文化區 West Kowloon Cultural District, Hong Kong, China; 万车网; 红科 Hongkee International, Beijing; Suzhou Municipality, China; Confucius Institute and Hanban; Gallery Eigen+Art, Berlin; Moncler; Royal Caribbean International.

Conferences and events include Beijing 2008 Olympics, China; Shanghai Asia Pacific International Art Fair (ShContemporary10), China; VicenzaOro (International Gold and Jewellery Fair); Venice Biennale Film Festival, Italy; 2010 EXPO, Shanghai, China.