Silvia Terenghi
Hello!
My name is Silvia Terenghi and I'm currently Assistant Professor of Multilingualism at Utrecht University (ILS). I hold a PhD in syntax from Utrecht University (2023). Before moving to the Netherlands, I studied Linguistics in Pisa, both at the Scuola Normale Superiore and at the University of Pisa.
I'm interested in morphology, syntax, and morpho-semantics, and especially in diachronic and interface issues. My research is currently focusing on indexicality and I mainly work on Romance languages.
To contact me:
s.terenghi at uu dot nl
Trans 10, 3512 JK Utrecht, NL
News
I will be presenting my poster on Manner demonstratives at IGG 49 (Feb. 22/23)!
My paper Last in, first out: Patterns of reduction in Romance demonstrative systems has been published in the Journal of Historical Syntax! Link
Research
Since August 2017, I've been working in Roberta D'Alessandro's ERC project Microcontact (subproject: 'The encoding of deixis in pronouns, determiners, adjectives, and adverbs'). For my disseration, I mostly focus on the following questions:
how is deixis encoded in the DP?
does the encoding of deixis undergo contact-induced change?
Output
For a full list, see my CV. Feel free to contact me for papers/handouts/beamers!
Some publications
2022. Integrating deictic co-speech gestures in demonstrative forms. Linguistics in the Netherlands: 39(1): 225–239. Full text
2022. Demonstrative systems are not affected by contact: Evidence from heritage southern Italo-Romance. Languages 7(3): 201. Full text
2022. Adding the microdimension to the study of language change in contact. Three case studies (with L. Andriani, R. D'Alessandro, A. Frasson, B. van Osch, L. Sorgini). Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 7: 1. Full text
2022. Documenting Italo-Romance heritage languages in the Americas (with L. Andriani, J. Casalicchio, F. M. Ciconte, R. D'Alessandro, A. Frasson, B. van Osch, L. Sorgini). In M. Coler & A. Nevins (eds), Contemporary research in minority and diaspora languages of Europe. Berlin: Language Science Press. Full text
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
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. 2nd draft
2019. Demonstrative-reinforcer constructions and the syntactic role of deictic features. Linguistics in the Netherlands 36: 192–207. 2nd draft
Some presentations
2023. Pronominal possessors and agreement. Talk presented at De Grote Taaldag, Utrecht University, 3 February 2023.
2023. Counting heads: A structural constraint on typological variation in personal pronouns. NELS 53, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, 12–14 January 2023. Poster
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.
2022. Monotonic and non-monotonic person categories: New natural classes. SinFonIJa 15, University of Udine, 22–24 September 2022. Beamer
2022. Hearer-splits across Italo-Romance varieties: A monotonicity-based account. CIDSM 16, Università di Napoli Federico II, 14–16 September 2022. Beamer
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.
2022. Counting heads: A structural constraint on typological variation in personal pronouns. CGG 31, Universitat de les Illes Balears, 1–3 June 2022. Beamer
2022. Possessives are inherently Case-marked pronouns. LSRL 52, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 21–23 April 2022. Beamer
2022. Integrating deictic co-speech gestures in demonstratives. IGG 46, University of Catania, 24– 26 February 2022. Beamer
2021. Demonstrative systems are not affected by contact: evidence from Italo-Romance. CIDSM 15, University of Helsinki/online, 08–10 September 2021. Beamer
2021. (Non-)monotonicity effects in the person domain. 2021 Annual Meeting of the LAGB, online, 06–09 September 2021. Beamer
2021. Non-primary person features and the evolution of Romance ternary demonstrative systems. DiGS 22, University of Konstanz/online, 20-22 May 2021. Beamer
2021. A person-rooted spatial analysis of demonstratives. GLOW 44, online, 15–17 March 2021. Poster
2021. A person-rooted spatial analysis of demonstratives. WCCFL 39, University of Arizona/online, 8–11 March 2021. Beamer
2021. Non-primary person features and the evolution of Romance ternary demonstrative systems. IGG 46, University of Siena/online, 23–26 February 2021. Beamer
2021. Structural vs typological similarity in microcontact: A view from heritage Italo-Romance (poster; with L. Andriani, R. D’Alessandro, A. Frasson, B. van Osch, L. Sorgini). IGG 46, University of Siena/online, 19 February 2021.
2021. Uniform and non-uniform feature values: A new type of markedness? De Grote Taaldag, Utrecht University/online, 29 January 2021. OSF
2021. A person-rooted spatial analysis of demonstratives. ConSOLE 29, Leiden University/online, 26–28 January 2021. OSF
2020. Stable and unstable person features: A structural account. NELS 51, Montréal/online, UQAM, 6–8 November 2020. Link
2020. Structural differences in the syntax of person indexicals. CamCoS 9 New, Newcastle University/online, 8-11 September 2020. Link
2020. The ranking of internal and external factors in heritage language syntactic change (with L. Andriani, R. D’Alessandro, A. Frasson, B. van Osch, L. Sorgini). GLOW 43, HU Berlin/online, 8-20 April 2020.
2020. The stability of person: a structural account. De Grote Taaldag, Utrecht University, 31 January 2020.
2019. Romance demonstratives in diachrony and the organisation of person features. WoSSP 16, Universidad Complutense, Madrid, 17–18 June 2019.
2019. Demonstrative-reinforcer constructions: variation in Italo-Romance (with J. Casalicchio). CIDSM 14, Prague, Charles University, 27–29 May 2019.
2019. (Partial) deictic incompatibility exists! Deictic Fission in Romance demonstrative-reinforcer constructions. De Grote Taaldag, Utrecht University, 02 February 2019.
2018. Deictic fission in Romance demonstrative systems (poster). Going Romance 32 (main session), Utrecht University, 12–13 December 2018.
Some invited/workshop presentations
2020. Demonstrative systems in Portuguese-based creoles: Some markedness considerations. ARC-RLS (Anglia Ruskin-Cambridge Romance Linguistics Seminars), University of Cambridge/online, 3 December 2020. Link
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
2020. Asymmetries in person indexicals. Syntax Interface Lectures, Utrecht University, 5 October 2020.
2019. Romance ternary demonstrative systems as a probe into the architecture of person features. Invited talk at Leiden University (Italiëstudies), 5 November 2019.
2018. Person and deixis: microvariation in Eastern Abruzzese (with L. Sorgini). Symposium on Linguistic Microvariation, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi-Utrecht University, 22 October 2018.
2018. Microcontact: i dialetti italiani nelle Americhe (with J. Casalicchio). Invited talk at CILGI 3, Bochum University, 11–13 October 2018.
Outreach
Between March and April 2019, I carried out four weeks of fieldwork in Montreal and Quebec City (Canada). There, I also gave popularisation talks and TV interviews:
Microcontact: i dialetti italiani nelle Americhe. Casa del Veneto, Montreal, 28 March 2019; Invited talk at the Società Dante di Québec, Quebec City, 21 March 2019.
I dialetti italiani. Guest lecture at the École de langues de l’Université Laval, Quebec City, 25 March 2019.
A TV interview for OMNI TV News.
A TV interview for ICI Télévision (in the talk show: 'Appuntamento con Nick & Silvana').
In late 2017, the Microcontact team was invited to publish a series of popularisation articles as a special issue for the Treccani magazine 'Lingua Italiana'. There, together with Francesco M. Ciconte, I contributed a short article entitled Il riferimento a spazio, tempo e persone: la deissi in contatto [The reference to space, time, and persons: deixis in contact], which was published online on 26 February 2018.
CV
For my full CV, see here [last update: September 25th, 2023].
Employment
2023–: Assistant Professor, Utrecht University
2021–2023: Lecturer, Utrecht University
2022–2023: Lecturer, Leiden University
Education
2017–2023: PhD student in Linguistics, Utrecht University. Supervisors: Roberta D'Alessandro, Martin Everaert, Luigi Andriani.
2012–2017: Diploma di Licenza in Modern Literature and Philology, Linguistics (linguistic track), Scuola Normale Superiore.
2015–2017: MA in Linguistics and Translation (linguistic track), University of Pisa. Cum laude.
2012–2015: BA in Humanities (linguistic track), University of Pisa. Cum laude.