How do grammatical patterns emerge, stabilise and change through use and interaction?
I study spoken language as cooperative action, examining how grammatical organisation emerges from recurrent practices in interaction.
Linguist · University of Bologna
I study how the grammars of the world’s languages take shape in use, as speakers interact, negotiate knowledge and build meaning together.
My University of Bologna profile provides the institutional record of my academic work. This website complements it by organising projects, publications, resources, and activities around the questions that connect them, making the different parts of my work easier to navigate.
Research
Current research directions
My work develops across three interconnected research directions. Individual projects and publications often contribute to more than one of them. Across all three, I ask how grammar takes shape across languages, in use and through interaction.
How do languages and varieties differ, and what recurrent patterns emerge across linguistic diversity?
Through linguistic typology and the study of intralinguistic variation, I examine recurrent strategies, constraints and pathways of change in the organisation of grammar and meaning.
How do speakers build categories, meanings and shared understanding in interaction?
I examine how categories and meanings are constructed locally, reshaped by context, and negotiated as speakers manage knowledge and expectations together.
Research topics
Phenomena and constructions
Recurring areas of investigation represented in publications and talks include:
- Coordination and connectives
- Alternative and disjunction
- Irrealis, modality and conditionals
- Non-exhaustivity, lists and exemplification
- Categorisation and reference
- Evidentiality, epistemicity and mirativity
- Directives
Research materials
Data, resources and methods
My research combines spoken-language corpora, typological comparison and diachronic evidence. I develop corpora and annotations that preserve variation, document analytical choices, and make naturally occurring language data accessible for further research.