Hello!
My name is Silvia Terenghi and I'm a theoretical linguist. I'm currently working as Assistant Professor at Utrecht University (Institute for Language Sciences). I hold a PhD in linguistics from Utrecht University (2023; [dissertation]↩︎). Before coming to the Netherlands, I studied Linguistics in Pisa, both at the Scuola Normale Superiore and at the University of Pisa.
My research interests mainly lie in morphosyntax and morpho-semantics, which I investigate with a focus on variation and change. In particular, I am interested in identifying the limits of language variation and change and in finding out what these tell us about the underlying properties of human language. Empirically, I mainly work with both standard and minoritised Romance languages, but I also carry out typological research. Specific topics I have worked on include: the morpho-semantics of demontrative forms and their (internal, as well as DP-) syntax; the internal syntax of personal pronouns; theoretical issues pertaining to person and number features; agreement.
You can access my full CV here (March 2025)
Feel free to get in touch! s.terenghi at uu dot nl
News
I have been invited to give a talk at the LIMES Colloquium 2025 in Göttingen (March 17–19) [info]
On April 4, I will present my research on pronouns at the Theoretical Linguistics Colloquium of the University of Vienna
Our (open access!) book Heritage Languages and Syntactic Theory has been published! [link] [PDF]
(under revision) Putting person in space: The internal structure of demonstratives.
Talk version: A person-rooted spatial analysis of demonstratives
(In preparation) The syntax of manner demonstratives
Talk versions:
Terenghi, Silvia. 2024. The syntax of manner demonstratives. Poster presented at IGG 49, IUSS Pavia, 22–23 February 2024. Poster
Terenghi, Silvia. 2023. Manner demonstratives: Preliminary remarks. Talk presented at the MiMA midway workshop, Utrecht University, 10 November 2023.
(In preparation) Demonstratives in space and discourse
Talk version: Demonstratives in space and discourse: A unified account
(In preparation) The DP-internal syntax of DemP
Talk version: A new approach to the syntax of DemP
Invited talk at Syntax Seminars, University of Groningen, 22 March 2024.
Terenghi, Silvia. 2022. Integrating deictic co-speech gestures in demonstrative forms. Linguistics in the Netherlands: 39(1): 225–239. DOI: 10.1075/avt.00071.ter
Talk version: Integrating deictic co-speech gestures in demonstratives
IGG 46, University of Catania, 24– 26 February 2022. Beamer
De Grote Taaldag, Utrecht University, 4 February 2022.
Terenghi, Silvia. 2023. Last in, first out: Patterns of reduction in Romance demonstrative systems. Journal of Historical Syntax 7(11): 1–40. DOI: 10.18148/hs/2023.v7i6-19.157
Talk version: Non-primary person features and the evolution of Romance ternary demonstrative systems
Terenghi, Silvia. 2022. Demonstrative systems are not affected by contact: Evidence from heritage southern Italo-Romance. Languages 7(3): 201. DOI: 10.3390/languages7030201
Talk versions:
Terenghi, Silvia. 2021. Demonstrative systems are not affected by contact: evidence from Italo-Romance. CIDSM 15, University of Helsinki/online, 08–10 September 2021. Beamer
Terenghi, Silvia. 2020. Indexicality is not affected by contact: Ternary demonstrative systems in Italo-Romance HLs. HLS 1, Utrecht University/online, 12-16 October 2020 [postponed]. OSF
Terenghi, Silvia. 2021. Stable and unstable person features: A structural account. In A. Farinella & A. Hill (eds), NELS 51: Proceedings of the Fifty-First Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society, vol. 2, 229–242. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Graduate Linguistics Student Association. Lingbuzz
Talk versions:
Terenghi, Silvia. 2020. Stable and unstable person features: A structural account. NELS 51, Montréal/online, UQAM, 6–8 November 2020. Link
Terenghi, Silvia. 2020. Structural differences in the syntax of person indexicals. CamCoS 9 New, Newcastle University/online, 8-11 September 2020. Link
Terenghi, Silvia. 2020. The stability of person: a structural account. De Grote Taaldag, Utrecht University, 31 January 2020.
Terenghi, Silvia. 2019. Romance demonstratives in diachrony and the organisation of person features. WoSSP 16, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, 17–18 June 2019.
(In preparation) Demonstratives in diachrony
Talk version: One structure to derive them all: Demonstratives in diachrony
DiGS 25, Universität Mannheim, 25–28 June 2024. Beamer
De Grote Taaldag, Utrecht University, 2 February 2024
Terenghi, Silvia. 2023. A structural constraint on typological variation in personal pronouns. In Suet-Ying Lam & Satoru Ozaki (eds), NELS 53: Proceedings of the Fifty-Third Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society, vol. 3, 173–181. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Graduate Linguistics Student Association.
Talk version: Counting heads: A structural constraint on typological variation in personal pronouns
Other talks:
Terenghi, Silvia. 2025. You before me: Dvandva 1incl and the syntax of pronouns. De Grote Taaldag, Utrecht University, 31 January 2025.
Terenghi, Silvia. 2022. Possessives are inherently Case-marked pronouns. LSRL 52, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 21–23 April 2022. Beamer
Terenghi, Silvia. 2023. Heritage languages & linguistic theory: The view from Romance morphosyntax. Invited talk at Going Romance 37, Radboud University (Nijmegen), 30 November–1 December 2023.
D’Alessandro, Roberta, Michael T. Putnam & Silvia Terenghi (eds). 2025. Heritage languages and syntactic theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/9780191987731.001.0001
D’Alessandro, Roberta, Michael T. Putnam & Silvia Terenghi. 2025. Heritage languages and syntactic theory: An introduction. In D’Alessandro, Roberta, Michael T. Putnam & Silvia Terenghi (eds), Heritage languages and syntactic theory, 1–16. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/9780191987731.003.0001
Andriani, Luigi, Roberta D’Alessandro, Alberto Frasson, Manuela Pinto, Luana Sorgini & Silvia Terenghi. 2025. Microcontact and syntactic theory. In D’Alessandro, Roberta, Michael T. Putnam & Silvia Terenghi (eds), Heritage languages and syntactic theory, 19–56. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/9780191987731.003.0003
Andriani, Luigi, Roberta D’Alessandro, Alberto Frasson, Brechje van Osch, Luana Sorgini & Silvia Terenghi. 2022. Adding the microdimension to the study of language change in contact. Three case studies. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 7(1).
DOI: 10.16995/glossa.5748
Andriani, Luigi, Jan Casalicchio, Francesco M. Ciconte, Roberta D’Alessandro, Alberto Frasson, Brechje van Osch, Luana Sorgini & Silvia Terenghi. 2022. Documenting Italo-Romance minority languages in the Americas: Problems and tentative solutions. In Matt Coler & Andrew Nevins (eds), Contemporary research in minoritized and diaspora lan- guages of Europe, 9–56. Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4902965
Related talks:
Andriani, Luigi, Roberta D’Alessandro, Alberto Frasson, Brechje van Osch, Luana Sorgini and Silvia Terenghi. 2021. Structural vs typological similarity in microcontact: A view from heritage Italo-Romance. Poster presented at IGG 46, Workshop: “Multilingualism: Social and Cognitive Dimension”, University of Siena (online), 19 February 2021
Andriani, Luigi, Roberta D’Alessandro, Alberto Frasson, Brechje van Osch, Luana Sorgini and Silvia Terenghi. 2020. The ranking of internal and external factors in heritage language syntactic change. Talk presented at GLOW 43, Humboldt University Berlin (online), 8–20 April 2020.
(In preparation, with R. D'Alessandro & M. Putnam) Syntactic change in diachrony vs. contact settings: Two sides of the same coin?
Related talks:
D'Alessandro, Roberta, Michael T. Putnam & Silvia Terenghi. 2022. Change in contact is not accelerated spontaneous change (with R. D’Alessandro & M. Putnam). HLS 3, Université Paris 8 & Inalco, 20–21 October 2022.
D'Alessandro, Roberta, Michael T. Putnam & Silvia Terenghi. 2022. On the similarities and differences between diachronic & contact-induced syntactic change (with R. D’Alessandro & M. Putnam). GLOW in Asia 13, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (online), 4–7 August 2022.
D’Alessandro, Roberta & Silvia Terenghi. 2024. Non-monotonic functional sequences: A new metric for complexity in heritage languages. In Maria Polinsky & Michael T. Putnam (eds), Formal approaches to complexity in heritage language grammars, 153–179. Berlin: Language Science Press. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.12090445
(In preparation) (Non-)monotonicity effects in the person domain
Related talks:
Terenghi, Silvia. 2022. Monotonic and non-monotonic person categories: New natural classes. SinFonIJa 15, University of Udine, 22–24 September 2022. Beamer
Terenghi, Silvia. 2022. Hearer-splits across Italo-Romance varieties: A monotonicity-based account. CIDSM 16, Università di Napoli Federico II, 14–16 September 2022. Beamer
Terenghi, Silvia. 2021. (Non-)monotonicity effects in the person domain. 2021 Annual Meeting of the LAGB, online, 06–09 September 2021. Beamer
Terenghi, Silvia. 2021. Uniform and non-uniform feature values: A new type of markedness? De Grote Taaldag, Utrecht University/online, 29 January 2021. OSF
Topic: (Non-)agreeing pronominal possessors
Talk:
Terenghi, Silvia. 2023. Pronominal possessors and agreement. Talk presented at De Grote Taaldag, Utrecht University, 3 February 2023.
Topic: Agreeing adverbials
Talk:
Terenghi, Silvia. 2023. Agreeing adverbial troppo across Italo-Romance: Preliminary re- marks. Talk presented at CIDSM 17, University of Zurich, 11–13 September 2023. Beamer
Terenghi, Silvia. 2021. Deictic fission in Romance demonstrative systems. In S. Baauw, F. Drijkoningen and L. Meroni (eds), Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory. Selected papers from 'Going Romance', Utrecht 2018. Amsterdam/Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins. DOI: 10.1075/cilt.357.16ter
Terenghi, Silvia. 2019. Demonstrative-reinforcer constructions and the syntactic role of deictic features. Linguistics in the Netherlands 36: 192–207. DOI: 10.1075/avt.00032.ter
Related talks:
Casalicchio, Jan & Silvia Terenghi. 2019. Demonstrative-reinforcer constructions: variation in Italo-Romance. CIDSM 14, Prague, Charles University, 27–29 May 2019.
Terenghi, Silvia. 2019. (Partial) deictic incompatibility exists! Deictic Fission in Romance demonstrative-reinforcer constructions. De Grote Taaldag, Utrecht University, 02 February 2019.
Terenghi, Silvia. 2018. Deictic fission in Romance demonstrative systems (poster). Going Romance 32 (main session), Utrecht University, 12–13 December 2018.