Research interests
My research interests are the areas of acquisition / teaching of second / foreign languages and linguistic typology. The approach I use, which is qualitative and quantitative, is based on the analysis of oral corpora in L1 and L2. In recent years, I have mainly worked on: (i) the expression of dynamic spatial relations in L1 and L2, (ii) the study of temporal relations in L1 and L2 and (iii) the analysis of discourse markers and self-reformulations in interactions produced by immigrants in Italian L2. My research work focuses on inter / intra-typological variations and the psycholinguistic implications that these variations can have on the speaker through the process of cross-linguistic influence. Recently, I have paid particular attention to the possible didactic implications of language acquisition research and vice versa.
Current research projects
Didactique, Oral, Corpus (DOC), coordinated by Emmanuelle Canut & Juliette Delahaie (UMR STL8163 CNRS, Université de Lille). The project aims to create a database made of oral interactions within a comparative perspective between languages (French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Portugese) exploitable for research in linguistics and for the teaching of French as a L2. A part of the corpus is already availabe on Ortolang DOWNLOAD. The project is funded by the Corpus, Langues, Interactions consortium (CORLI).
Les mouvements provoqués dans plusieurs langues indo-européennes et dans une langue dravidienne (CAUSEMOTYP), coordinated by A. C. Demagny (UMR 7023 SFL CNRS). The project concerns caused-motion, such as the French verbs pousser ('push) and tirer ('pull') and transitive verbs such as rouler ('roll') an object, representing a habitual action in everyday life. Nevertheless, up to now, this type of motion has received little attention by scholars. Specifically, we aim at a) studying caused-motion events with respect to Talmy's typology, b) in underrpresented languages in the field and c) eventually at reconsidering Talmy's proposal. The project is funded by the Appel à Projets Recherche (AAP 2024-26) of the University of Paris 8 and by the UMR7023 SFL CNRS. Members of the projet: Henriette HENDRIKS (University of Cambridge), ANASTASIO Simona (University of Toulouse 2), Sarra EL AYARI (UMR 7023 SFL CNRS).
Acquérir une langue étrangère: processus oraux et écrits dans l’expression de l’espace dynamique en L1, L2 et L3 project, coordinated by A. C. Demagny (UMR 7023 SFL CNRS). The project, funded by the UMR 7023 SFL CNRS and the GIS RéAL2, deals with the expression of voluntary and caused motion in written and oral tasks in French, English and Italian as L1 and French as L2 and/or L3. A particular focus is on the process of second and third language acquisition and the possible impact of the L1’s properties on learners’oral and written productions.
Past research projects
Apport de la linguistique cognitive à la traduction automatique (ALCTA) project, coordinated by Annie-Claude Demagny (UMR 7023 SFL CNRS). The project deals with the elaboration of a repository which put together recent research, in temporal and spatial perspectives, about the expression of motion in written tasks in four different typological languages (in spatial terms): English, French, Italian and Tamoul. From a computing point of view, the project aims to evaluate to what extent the statistical treatements of our written data may have benefits for natural language processing. The ALCTA project involves the collaboration of two research engineers, Coralie Vincent and Sarra El Ayari, (UMR 7023 SFL). The project is funded by the Appel à Projets Recherche (AAP) of the University of Paris 8 and by the UMR7023 SFL CNRS.
Structure Informationnelle et Prosodie dans le discours natif et non natif (SiPro) project, coordinated by Fabian Santiago & Sandra Benazzo (Université de Paris 8/UMR 7023 SFL). This international project involves the collaboration of Christine Dimroth (University of Münster) and Cecilia Andorno (University of Turin). The main goal of the SiPro project is to study how the prosodic systems interact with syntax and semantics in the expression of additive and contrastive relations in Romance vs Germanic languages (French, Italian vs German, English). We try to shed light on the complexity of interactions in adult L1 /L2 French productions with an experimental and typological perspective. We are currently exploring native data of a Spot the difference task collected in French, Italian, German and English (introduction and localization of entities, confirmations & disconfirmations). The project is funded by the Appel à Projets Recherche (AAP) of the University of Paris 8. and the CNRS (UMR7023 SFL) since 2020.
FARO Dimensioni, misure, e determinanti dell’integrazione degli immigrati nelle società di destinazione, University of Naples Federico II. The project is situated in the context of sociolinguistic integration of immigrants in the area of Naples. The main goal of the sociolinguistic part of this project is to analyze the self-reformulations in Italian L2 in interactions produced by immigrants in Naples. in order to evaluate the contribution of sociobiographical variables in learners' interlanguage. The project was coordinated by Salvatore Strozza (University of Naples Federico II) and funded by the Finanziamento per l'Avvio di Ricerche Originali (FARO).
ANR/DGF franco-allemand LANGACROSS II Linguistic diversity and cognition : implications for language acquisition (2011-2014), coordinated by Maya Hickmann (UMR 7023 & Paris 8) and Christine Dimroth (Osnabrück, Heidelberg). This project is an extension of the 'Langacross I' project ans deals with the context of language acquisition and the language-cognition debate in two research domains: 1) space and time; 2) contrastive and additive relations. My doctoral thesis is part of this project. The project was funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR, France) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, Germany)
Scientific affiliations
Member of the Réseau Acquisition des langues secondes (ReAL2)
Member of the Société de Linguistique Romane (SLR)
Member of the Association Française de Linguistique Cognitive (AFLICO)
Member of Associazione Italiana di Linguistica Applicata (AItLA)
Member of the International Society for Applied Psycholinguistics (ISAPL)
Organization of scientific events
Member of the organizing commitee for the international workshop « MoCo: mouvement et cognition: regards croisés entre langues, arts et neurosciences » , University of Toulouse 2, 17-18 June 2024.
Member of the organizing commitee for the international conference of the « Le français et ses frontières» of the Association for French Language Studies, Université de Lille, 7-9 September 2023.
Member of the organizing committee for the workshop « Structure Informationnelle dans le discours natif et non natif : contrastes typologiques /, University Paris 8, Saint-Denis, 14th March 2019.
Member of the organizing committee for the international conference « 22 International Congress on Historical Linguistics », University of Naples ‘Federico II’, Napoli, 27th-31st July 2015.
Member of the organizing committee for the international conference « Linguistic diversity and cognition : implications for first and second language acquisition », University Charles de Gaulle Lille 3, 20th-21st June 2014.
Reviewing activities
Journal reviews
Since 2023 Language and Cognition (ISSN 1866-9808)
Since 2022 International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching (ISSN 0019-042X)
Since 2021 Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050)
Education Sciences (ISSN 2227-7102)
Since 2020 Languages (ISSN 2226-471X)
Volumes
2023 Insegnare (e imparare) l'italiano in contesti germanofoni: ricerca scientifica ed esperienze didattiche a confronto (Frank & Timme Editions).
International conferences
2023 Scientific Committee of the international conference of the Association for French Language Studies 'Le français et ses frontières'.
Since 2021 Scientific Committee of the International Society for Applied Psycholinguistics (ISAPL).