Brief Profile：
Prof. Carlotta Viti received her Ph.D. in Linguistics at the University of Pisa (Italy) in June 2003 and her Habilitation in Comparative Indo-European Linguistics at the University of Zurich (Switzerland) in January 2013. She had research and teaching appointments in different Universities of Europe and of Asia, especially in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, France, India and Turkey. Currently, Carlotta Viti is Full Professor at the Research Center for History and Culture of Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai Campus, China. Her main research interests are based on historical linguistics; Indo-European linguistics（especially Latin, Greek and Indo-Iranian); general linguistics; comparative syntax and syntactic theory; comparative semantics and semantic theory; pragmatics, information structure, discourse analysis and corpus linguistics; linguistic contact and multilingualism (especially contact between Indo-European and Semitic in the Middle East, contact between Indo-European and Turkic languages in Anatolia and Central Asia, and contact between Indo-European and Dravidian in South Asia); translation studies; ancient grammarians of Greco-Roman and Indian traditions; philosophy of language; modern linguistic theories (especially functionalism); linguistic typology (with particular attention to Arabic, Turkish and Tamil); linguistic history of Alexandria and Byzantium.
Email: carlottaviti@uic.edu.cn
Details:
Nationality: Italian
Affiliation: Research Centre for History and Culture, Beijing Normal University & UIC
Education
· Qualification as Professor of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland (February 2019); Professor of Linguistics in France
· Habilitations (=diplomas after the post-Doc) in A) Comparative Indo-European Linguistics (obtained at the University of Zurich with the monograph Variation und Wandel in der Syntax der alten indogermanischen Sprachen, January 2013) and B) General Linguistics and Phonetics (obtained at the École Pratique des Hautes Études in Paris, France, with the monograph Termes de couleur dans les anciennes langues indo-européennes. Une étude de sémantique comparative, June 2020)
· Post-Docs in A) General Linguistics (University of Pisa, Italy, 2004-2006) and B) Indo-European Linguistics (Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany, 2008-2010)
· Ph.D. in Linguistics (obtained at the University of Pisa with the monograph Strategies of subordination in Vedic, June 2003)
· BA and MA with honors in Humanities, obtained at the University of Pisa with the monograph Metafore cosmogoniche nel Rig-Veda (December 1997)
Working Experience
· China. (Currently, since September 2019): Full Professor in the Research Center for History and Culture of Beijing Normal University (Zhuhai Campus) and in the General Education Office of the Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College, Zhuhai (China). Additionally, Director of the Centre for Foreign Languages and Cultures of the same University.
· Switzerland. 2009-2019: teaching and research at the Department of Classics and at the Department of Indo-European Studies of the University of Zurich (Switzerland) – with various positions: September 2009 – January 2010: Lecturer (Lehrbeauftragte) of Greek and Latin Linguistics; February 2010 – January 2013: Assistant Professor (Assistenzprofessorin) of Greek and Latin Linguistics. January 2013 – January 2019: Associate professor (Privatdozentin) of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics. February 2019 – June 2019: Professor of Comparative Indo-European Linguistics.
· Turkey. 2018 – 2019 (temporary leave from the University of Zurich) research stay at the Department of Translation and Interpreting of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literature of the University of Marmara, Istanbul.
· France. Summer 2016 – winter 2017: Visiting Scholar at the Centre “Mondes Iranien et Indien” in Paris.
· Singapore. February – April 2015: Visiting Professor at the Division for Linguistics and Multilingual Studies of the Nanyang Technological University of Singapore.
· Germany. May 2009 – January 2010: Post-Doc Researcher in the project “Information structure in the ancient Indo-European languages (Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Hittite)”, Department of Indo-European Studies, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena. August 2008 – December 2008: research stay supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) at the same University. March – April 2005: research stay at the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig to study linguistic typology.
· Italy. 2008 – 2009: Contract Professor for General Linguistics, Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Bologna Alma Mater Studiorum. 2008 – 2010: Research Associate for Latin Grammar and Latin Literature, University G. Marconi of Rome. 1998 – 2006: Research Associate in the project “First Sanskrit-Italian Dictionary”, supported by the University of Pisa and by the Centre of Studies on Middle and Extreme Orient, Turin.
Publications
Monographs
(forthcoming) Termes de couleur dans les anciennes langues indo-européennes entre universalisme et relativisme. Une étude de sémantique comparative (written in French, 465 pages), Paris, École Pratique des Hautes Études.
(2015) Variation und Wandel in der Syntax der alten indogermanischen Sprachen, Tübingen, Narr (written in German, 530 pages), published with the contribution of the Swiss National Science Foundation for support of scientific research.
(2007) Strategies of subordination in Vedic, Milan, Angeli (written in English, 302 pages).
(1997) Metafore cosmogoniche nel Rig-Veda, unpublished Master’s thesis, University of Pisa (written in Italian, 200 pages).
Edited volumes/editorial activities
(2015) (ed.) Perspectives on syntactic change and syntactic reconstruction, Amsterdam & Philadelphia, Benjamins.
(2017-) Co-Editor of the book series Studien zur vergleichenden Sprachwissenschaft (together with Prof. K. Schmitz and Prof. J. Theisen), Narr/Francke/Attempto Publishing House, Tubingen.
(2020-) Associate Editor of the journal Old World. Journal of Ancient Africa and Eurasia (together with Prof. Chen Zhi (Editor in chief) and with Dr. Shawn Wang), Leiden, Brill.
(2020-) Associate Editor of the book series Ancient languages and civilizations (together with Prof. Chen Zhi (Editor in chief) and with Dr. Shawn Wang), Leiden, Brill.
Journal articles and book chapters
(forthcoming) “Bemerkungen über die Entwicklung der Farbbezeichnungen vom Lateinischen zu den romanischen Sprachen”, accepted in M. Kozianka & S. Hisatsugi (eds.), Die italischen Sprachen - neue Aspekte in linguistischer und philologischer Hinsicht.
(2021) “The colors of the Atharvaveda, with some comments on Atharvanic language and style”, Journal Asiatique 309: 57-91.
(2021) “Die Farbbezeichnungen des Vedischen”, in B. Bock & C. Freiberg (eds.), Indica & Germanica – Beiträge zur Indogermanistik gestern und heute in Jena, Hamburg, Kovać, 41-63.
(2020) “Synthetic and analytic structure of Tense, Aspect and Mood in the ancient Indo-European Languages”, in V. Bubenik, B. Drinka, J. Hewson, O. Sefcik (eds.), Towards Universals of Tense and Aspect, Hamburg, Baar-Verlag, 113-140.
(2019) “Observations sur la syntaxe et la sémantique des verbes météorologiques”, in J. Gallego et al. (eds.), Nemo par eloquentiam. Mélanges de linguistique ancienne en hommage à Colette Bodelot, Clermont-Ferrand, Presses Universitaires Blaise Pascal, 61-79.
(2018) “Syntax and semantics of modal predicates”, Transactions of the Philological Society 116: 257–281.
(2018) “Historical language contact between Indo-European and Semitic in argument structure and in clause organization”, Journal of Language Relationship 16: 231–246.
(2017) “Semantic and cognitive factors of argument marking in the ancient Indo-European languages”, Diachronica 34: 368-419.
(2017) “Mehfachbenennungen bei den Indogermanen”, in H. Bichlmeier & A. Opfermann (eds.), Das Menschenbild bei den Indogermanen, Hamburg, Baar Verlag, 163-185.
(2017) “Die Sprache der Macedo-Briefs”, in H. Heinen (ed.), Handworterbuch der antiken Sklaverei, Mainz, Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur, II, 1841-1843.
(2016) “Areal distribution of argument marking of Indo-European experience predicates”, Journal of Indo-European Studies 44: 1-84.
(2016) “The morphosyntax of experience predicates in Tocharian”, Cahiers de Linguistique - Asie Orientale 45: 26-70.
(2016) “Principi descrittivi ed esplicativi nel De Lingua Latina di Varrone”, in P. Poccetti (ed.), Latinitatis Rationes. Descriptive and historical accounts for the Latin language, Berlin & New York, de Gruyter, 780-797.
(2016) “Contrastive syntax of argument marking in Latin and in Ancient Greek”, in S. Neri, R. Schumann, S. Zeilfelder (eds.), Dat ih dir it nu bi huldi gibu: linguistische, germanistische und indogermanistische Studien Rosemarie Lühr gewidmet, Wiesbaden, Reichert, 477-494.
(2016) “Null objects and clitics in some early IE languages”, in R. Lühr (ed.), Idiosynkrasie. Neue Wege ihrer Beschreibung, Wiesbaden, Reichert, 13-32.
(2015) “Reconstructing Proto-Indo-European accent paradigms”, Journal of Indo-European Studies 43: 1–40.
(2015) “On degrammaticalization: controversial points and possible explanations”, Folia Linguistica 49: 381–419.
(2015) “Observations on the active-stative alignment of Proto-Indo-European”, in Th. Krisch (ed.), Aktuelle Themen aus historischer und vergleichender Sprachwissenschaft, Innsbruck, Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft, 76-86.
(2015) “The use of frequentative verbs in Early Latin”, in G. Haverling (ed.), Latin Linguistics in the Early 21st Century, Uppsala, Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 170-182.
(2015) “Historical syntax: problems, materials, methods, hypotheses”, in C. Viti (ed.), Perspectives on historical syntax, Amsterdam & Philadelphia, Benjamins, 3–31.
(2014) “On etymology and lexical categorization in the ancient Indo-European languages”, International Journal of Diachronic Linguistics and Linguistic Reconstruction 11: 1–31.
(2014) “Reconstructing syntactic variation in Proto-Indo-European”, Indo-European Linguistics 2: 1-39.
(2014) “Latin parts of speech in historical and typological context”, Journal of Latin Linguistics 13: 279–301.
(2014) “Clause”, in G. Giannakis et al. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics, Leiden, Brill, Volume I, pp. 393-396.
(2014) “Dual”, in G. Giannakis et al. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics, Leiden, Brill, Volume I, pp. 533-534.
(2014) “Number”, in G. Giannakis et al. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics, Leiden, Brill, Volume II, pp. 536-539.
(2014) “Personal pronouns”, in G. Giannakis et al. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics. Volume III, 59-61.
(2014) “Plural, Pluralia Tantum”, in G. Giannakis et al. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek language and linguistics. Volume III, 101-102.
(2013) “Forms and functions of subordination in Indo-European”, Historische Sprachforschung 126: 89-117.
(2013) “The idiosyncrasy of the cum inversum and of Latin subordination”, in C. Bodelot, H. Gruet-Skrabalova, F. Trouilleux (eds.), Morphologie, syntaxe et sémantique des subordonnants, Clermont-Ferrand, Presses Universitaires Blaise Pascal, 115-130.
(2012) “Osservazioni sulla negazione cumulativa in italiano”, Linguarum Varietas 1: 13-25.
(2011) “The use of the dual number in Homeric Greek”, in Th. Krisch (ed.), Indogermanistik und Linguistik im Dialog, Wiesbaden, Reichert, 595-604.
(2010) “The meanings of coordination in the early IE languages”, Revue de Sémantique et de Pragmatique 24: 35-64.
(2010) “The non-literal use of tenses in Latin, with particular reference to the praesens historicum”, Revue de Linguistique Latine 5, https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/43735/1/carlotta_viti_doc.pdf
(2010) “Variation und Wandel der Vokale im Lateinischen”, Journal of Latin Linguistics 11: 301-320.
(2010) “The information structure of OVS in Vedic”, in G. Ferraresi & R. Lühr (eds.), Diachronic studies on information structure, Berlin, De Gruyter, 37-62.
(2010) “On long-distance reflexivity in Latin”, in P. Anreiter & M. Kienpointner (eds.), Latin Linguistics Today. Proceedings of the XV Colloquium Internationale Linguisticae Latinae, Innsbruck, Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Sprachwissenschaft, 355-366
(2010) “Observations on genitive word order in Latin”, in O. Spevak (ed.), Le syntagme nominal en latin. Nouvelles contributions, Paris, L’Harmattan, 77-96.
(2010) “The pragmatic grounding of flores rhetoricae”, in Atti del Convegno sulla Comunicazione Parlata, Napoli, Liguori, 149-165.
(2010) (with Dorothy Disterheft) “Subordination”, in V. Bubenik & S. Luraghi (eds.), A Companion to Historical Linguistics, London-New York, Continuum, 230-249.
(2009) “Anaphorische und reflexive Strukturen im Altgriechischen und im Lateinischen”, Indogermanische Forschungen 114: 143-172.
(2009) “Pragmatic implications of head and dependent marking”, Folia Linguistica 43: 463-485.
(2009) “A quantitative analysis of the OSV word order in Vedic”, in E. Rieken & P. Widmer (eds.), Pragmatische Kategorien. Form, Funktion und Diachronie, Wiesbaden, Reichert, 307-322.
(2009) “Fenomeni di attractio relativi e di attractio inversa in indoeuropeo”, in Atti del Sodalizio Glottologico Milanese 2006 e 2007, Alessandria, Dell’Orso, 211-237.
(2008) “From space words to transitive markers: the case of Ancient Greek en «in»”, Transactions of the Philological Society 106: 375-413.
(2008) “Rheme before theme in the noun phrase: a case study from Ancient Greek”, Studies in Language 32: 894-915.
(2008) “The phylogenesis of hypotaxis in Vedic”, Diachronica 25: 386-409.
(2008) “Coding spatial relations in Homeric Greek: preverbs vs. prepositions”, Historische Sprachforschung 121: 114-161.
(2008) “Genitive word order in Ancient Greek: a functional analysis of word order freedom in the noun phrase”, Glotta 84: 203-238.
(2008) “The verb-initial word order in the early poetry of Vedic and Homeric Greek”, in K. Jones-Bley, M. Huld, A. Della Volpe, M. Robbins Dexters (eds.), Proceedings of the 19th Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference, Selected Papers, 89-111.
(2008) “The signal and the noise in the scale”, in M. Richards & A. Malchukov (eds.), Scales, Leipzig, Institut für Linguistik (Linguistische Arbeits Berichte 86), 55-72.
(2007) “Ibridismo nell’espressione del discorso riportato in area indiana”, Studi e Saggi Linguistici 45: 117-139.
(2006) “AND in the Early Indo-European languages”, Archivio Glottologico Italiano 91: 129-165.
(2006) “Lo sviluppo della subordinazione in vedico”, in R. Ronzitti & G. Borghi (eds.), Atti del terzo, quarto e quinto incontro genovese di studi vedici e pāNiniani, Milan, Quasar, 43-53.
(2005) “Il suffisso vedico -vat fra comparazione e possesso”, Archivio Glottologico Italiano 90: 19-53.
(2004) “Funzioni semantiche e pragmatiche nelle strategie di possesso dell’antico indiano”, Archivio Glottologico Italiano 89: 41-83.
(2004) “Osservazioni sulla frase relativa in vedico”, in O. Botto (ed.), Atti dell’undicesimo congresso nazionale di studi sanscriti, Turin, Italian Association of Sanskrit Studies, 241-256.
(2004) “Sul nome del ginocchio e della mascella in indoeuropeo”, in A. Parenti (ed.), Per Alberto Nocentini. Ricerche linguistiche, Florence, Alinea, 253-270.
(2002) “Comparazione e Individuazione: uno studio sugli equativi rigvedici iva e ná”, Archivio Glottologico Italiano 87: 46-87.
(2000) “RV. 10,129: Tat, un’entità impredicabile”, Studi e Saggi Linguistici 38: 225-239.
(2000) “RV. 1.164: una stratificazione di visioni cosmogoniche e gnoseologiche”, Studi e Saggi Linguistici 38: 205-223.
Selected oral communications
(online) Zhuhai, 21 July 2020: “The languages of the world”, online lecture held in the framework of GEO summer lectures, BNU-HKBU United International College, Zhuhai, China.
Paris, 22 June 2020: “Recherches de syntaxe et de sémantique”, online oral communication held at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, France.
Istanbul, 15 April 2019: “Les racines classiques de la civilisation française”, oral communication in the framework of the lectures “Langue et civilization française”, Department of Interpreting and Translation Studies, Marmara Universitesi, Istanbul, Turchia.
Seoul, 15 June 2018: “On language change”, invited oral communication, Seoul National University (South Korea).
Seoul, 14 June 2018: “Color terms between universalism and relativism”, invited oral communication, Seoul National University (South Korea).
Würzburg, 25 May 2018: “Die indogermanischen Farbbezeichnungen – zwischen Etymologie, linguistischer Theorie und Kulturwissenschaft”, invited oral communication, University of Würzburg (Germany).
Jena, 3 May 2018: “Bemerkungen über die Entwicklung der Farbbezeichnungen vom Lateinischen zu den romanischen Sprachen”, invited oral communication at the conference “Die italischen Sprachen - neue Aspekte in linguistischer und philologischer Hinsicht”, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena (Germany).
Verona, 11 October 2017: “Inwiefern lässt sich Semantik rekonstruieren?”, Arbeitstagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft, University of Verona (Italy).
Salzburg, 8 June 2017: “Die Rekonstruktion der Farbbezeichnungen im Urindogermanischen”, invited oral communication, University of Salzburg (Austria).
Jena, 18 May 2017: “Die Farbbezeichnungen des Vedischen: Formen und Funktionen”, invited oral communication, University of Jena (Germany).
Lyon, 27 April 2017: “Le grec et le latin dans le contexte linguistique de la Méditerranée ancienne”, invited oral communication, University of Lyon 2 (France).
Verona, 21 April 2017: “Historical language contact between Indo-European and Semitic in argument structure and in clause organization”, invited oral communication, University of Verona (Italy).
Oslo, 3 November 2016: “Greek and Latin color terms between universalism and relativism”, invited oral communication, University of Oslo (Norway).
Brno, 22 June 2016: “Synthetic and analytic structures of tense, aspect, mood and modality in Latin and Greek”, invited oral communication at the Brno Colloquium ‘Towards Universals of Tense and Aspect’, Masaryk University of Brno (Czech Republic).
Singapore, 9 April 2015: “Figurative speech in diachrony and in typology”, invited oral communication (together with Francesco Perono Cacciafoco), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Erlangen, 9 February 2015: “Form und Funktion der indogermanischen Nasalstämme”, invited oral communication, University of Erlangen (Germany).
Poznań, 13 September 2014: “Contact factors between Indo-European and Semitic in coding valency and transitivity”, oral communication presented at the Workshop “Valency and transitivity in contact: a cross-linguistic perspective”, 47th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea, Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznań (Poland).
Ghent, 6 May 2014: “Areal distribution and socio-cultural factors of Indo-European argument coding”, invited oral communication presented at the conference “Case, arguments and clause structure in Indo-European”, University of Ghent (Belgium).
Marburg, 5 March 2014: “Simplification, complexification, and maintenance in language contact between Indo-European and Semitic”, oral communication presented at the Workshop “Language in historical contact situations”, 36th Annual Conference of the German Linguistic Society, University of Marburg (Germany).
Salzburg, 23 November 2013: “Observations on the active-stative alignment of Proto-Indo-European”, invited oral communication presented at the 40th Austrian Linguistic Conference, University of Salzburg (Austria).
Tallin, 6 June 2013: “Colour in the early Indo-European languages”, oral communication presented at the “Colour Language and Colour Categorization Conference”, Institute of the Estonian Language (Estonia).
Zurich, 14 May 2013: “Die Rekonstruktion der indogermanischen Phono-Morphologie am Beispiel der Betonungsparadigmen”, University of Zurich (Switzerland).
Copenhagen, 22 September 2012: “Flat taxonomies in the Indo-European lexicon”, oral communication presented at the 14th Conference of the Society for Indo-European Studies, University of Copenhagen (Denmark).
Zurich, 8 May 2012: “Linguistische Theorien über den syntaktischer Wandel”, lecture presented at the “Ringvorlesung Historische Linguistik” of the University of Zurich (Switzerland).
Zurich, 4 April 2012: “Die Sprache des Macedo-Briefs”, oral communication presented at the international workshop on the project “Handwörterbuch der antiken Sklaverei” at the Department of Classics of the University of Zurich (Switzerland).
Zurich, 17 April 2012: “Globale Sprachen in der Antike”, oral communication presented at the Senior University of Zurich (Switzerland).
Zurich, 2 March 2012: “Reconstructing syntactic variation in Indo-European”, oral communication presented at the Linguistic Colloquium of the Department for General Linguistics of the University of Zurich (Switzerland).
Berlin, 24 February 2012: “On exceptions to grammaticalization”, oral communication presented at the Conference “Refining grammaticalization”, Free University of Berlin (Germany).
Zurich, 2 February 2012: “Funktion und Geschichte der morphologischen Kategorien in den klassischen Sprachen”, oral communication presented at the “Hochschultagforum 2012”, University of Zurich (Switzerland).
Uppsala, 9 June 2011: “The use of frequentative verbs in Early Latin”, oral communication presented at the “XVI Colloquium Internationale Linguisticae Latinae”, University of Uppsala (Sweden).
Zurich, 22 January 2011: “Argumentkodierung im Lateinischen und im Altgriechischen”, oral communication presented at the “XXXII Metageitnia”, University of Zurich (Switzerland).
Zurich, 29 November 2010: “Globale und lokale Sprachen in der antiken Welt”, inaugural lecture as Assistant Professor presented at the University of Zurich (Switzerland).
Zurich, 7 October 2010: “Le parti del discorso del latino”, oral communication presented at the Colloquium of the Department of Romance Languages of the University of Zurich (Switzerland).
Zurich, 15 April 2010: “Syntactic change”, oral communication presented at the “Ringvorlesung Historische Linguistik”, University of Zurich (Switzerland).
Clermont-Ferrand, 13 March 2010: “The idiosyncrasy of the cum inversum and of Latin subordination”, oral communication presented at the “Colloque international sur la morphologie, syntaxe et sémantique des subordonnants”, University of Clermont-Ferrand (France).
Berlin, 24 February 2010: “Null anaphora in Latin and Greek”, oral communication presented at the 32nd “Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gemeinschaft für Sprachwissenschaft”, Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany).
Innsbruck, 4 April 2009: “Reference tracking devices in Latin”, oral communication presented at the “XV Colloquium Internationale Linguisticae Latinae”, University of Innsbruck (Austria).
Zurich, 9 March 2009: “Anaphorische und reflexive Strukturen im Altgriechischen und im Lateinischen”, invited oral communication presented at the University of Zürich for the position of Assistant Professor of Latin and Greek Linguistics, primo loco (Switzerland).
Rome, 26 February 2009: “La ridondanza della negazione”, invited oral communication presented at the Conference on “Negation” at the University of Roma3 Tor Vergata (Italy).
Bordeaux, 24 October 2008: “The meanings of coordination in the early IE languages”, invited oral communication presented at the meeting “Semantic aspects of coordination”, University of Bordeaux 3 (France).
Paris, 11 October 2008: “Genitive word order in Latin: a functional analysis of word order freedom in the noun phrase”, oral communication presented at the “Colloque du centre Alfred Ernout”, Sorbonne University (France).
Salzburg, 21 September 2008: “The use of the dual number in Homeric Greek”, oral communication presented at the 13th “Fachtagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft”, University of Salzburg (Austria).
Paris, 2 June 2008: “The non-literal use of tenses in Latin, with particular reference to the praesens historicum”, oral communication presented at the “Colloque du centre Alfred Ernout”, Sorbonne University (France).
Oslo, 29 May 2008: “Reference-tracking devices in Vedic and in Homeric Greek”, invited oral communication presented at the start-up meeting of the project “Pragmatic resources in Old Indo-European languages”, University of Oslo (Norway).
Leipzig, 29 March 2008: “The signal and the noise in the hierarchy”, invited oral communication presented at the meeting “Scales” at the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Germany).
Wuppertal, 18 March 2008: “Dislocation and evidentiality in English and Italian”, oral communication presented at the meeting “Contrastive Information Structure Analysis”, University of Wuppertal (Germany).
Florence, 22 February 2008: “Phenomena of topicalization in English and Italian”, oral communication presented at the Florentine Linguistic Circle, University of Florence (Italy).
Los Angeles, 2 November 2007: “The verb-initial word order in the early poetry of Vedic and Ancient Greek”, oral communication presented at the 19th International Conference of Indo-European Studies, UCLA (USA).
Marburg, 24 September 2007: “Discourse analysis of OSV in Vedic”, oral communication presented at the “Arbeitstagung der Indogermanischen Gesellschaft”, University of Marburg (Germany).
Milan, 5 March 2007: “Le strategie della subordinazione”, invited oral communication presented at the “Sodalizio Glottologico Milanese”, State University of Milan (Italy).
Siegen, 1 March 2007: “The information structure of the OVS order”, oral communication presented at the 29th “Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gemeinschaft für Sprachwissenschaft”, University of Siegen (Germany).
Rome, 27 January 2007: “Analisi linguistica di un discorso d’amore in sascrito”, oral communication presented at the 13th Italian Meeting of Sanskrit Studies, University of Oriental Languages (Italy).
Bremen, 2 September 2006: “The discourse basis of head marking”, oral communication presented at the 39th Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea, University of Bremen (Germany).
Genoa, 29 June 2006: “Lo sviluppo della subordinazione in vedico”, oral communication presented at the 5th Meeting of Vedic and Pāṇinean Studies, University of Genoa (Italy).
Florence, 30 June 2006: “La marca sulla testa nell’italiano colloquiale”, oral communication presented at the Florentine Linguistic Circle, University of Florence (Italy).
Florence, June 2004: “Preposizioni e preverbi nel greco omerico”, oral communication presented at the Florentine Linguistic Circle, University of Florence (Italy).
Milan, November 2002: “Osservazioni sulla frase relativa in vedico”, oral communication presented at the 11th Italian Meeting of Sanskrit Studies, State University of Milan (Italy).
Florence, June 2001: “Strutture equative e quantificazione in vedico”, oral communication presented at the Florentine Linguistic Circle, University of Florence (Italy).
Turin, November 1999: “Problemi cosmogonici nel Rigveda”, oral communication presented at the 10th Italian Meeting of Sanskrit Studies, University of Turin (Italy).
Research Projects and grants
· Grant of UIC for the project “Studies on Historical Language Contact” (2020);
· Start-up Fund of BNU for studies on Historical Syntax and Historical Semantics (2020);
· Project “Termes de couleur dans les anciennes langues indo-européennes entre universalisme et relativisme” (=Color terms in ancient Indo-European languages between universalism and relativism), École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, France, 2019;
· Project “Altgriechisch und Latein im linguistischen Kontext des alten Mittelmeers” (=Ancient Greek and Latin in the linguistic context of the Ancient Mediterranean), University of Zurich, 2017-2018;
· Project “Facteurs d’héritage et de contact dans le développement de la langue sanskrite (=Inheritance and contact factors in the development of the Sanskrit language), Institute “Mondes Iranien et Indien”, Paris, 2016-2017;
· Project “Possessive Structures in Vedic”, University of Zurich (2017);
· Grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation for a research stay at the Division of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies of the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore with the project “Towards an ontology of historical language contact” (2014);
· Grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation for the publication of the monograph “Variation und Wandel in der Syntax der alten indogermanischen Sprachen” (=Variation and change in the syntax of the ancient Indo-European languages). (Grant obtained in 2013; publication appeared in 2015 in Tubingen, Narr);
· Grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation for the organization and direction of the conference “Syntactic change and syntactic reconstruction: new perspectives” (2012);
· Grant of the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences, Section of Linguistics and Literature, for the organization and direction of the conference “Syntactic change and syntactic reconstruction: new perspectives” (2012);
· Grant of the Zürcher Universitätverein for the organization and direction of the conference “Syntactic change and syntactic reconstruction: new perspectives” (2012);
· Habilitation project “Variation und Wandel in den alten indogermanischen Sprachen”, University of Zurich (2010-2015)
· Start-up fund of the University of Zurich for teaching and research activities on Greek and Latin linguistics (2010)
· Project “Information structure in the ancient Indo-European languages (Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Hittite)”, Department of Indo-European Studies, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena (Germany) (2009-2010).
· Grant of the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst, DAAD) for a research stay at the Department of Indo-European Studies of the Friedrich Schiller-University of Jena with the project “Syntax der alten indogermanischen Sprachen“ (=Syntax of the ancient Indo-European languages) (2008).
· Project “Typological Studies” at the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany) (March – April 2005)
· Project “First Sanskrit-Italian Dictionary”, supported by the University of Pisa and by the Centre of Studies on Middle and Extreme Orient, Turin. 1998 – 2006
Teaching experience
At the General Education Office of the Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College
“The Indo-European languages”, since Spring Semester 2020 (3 hours per weeks)
“The beginning of Western civilization: a journey in time”, since Autumn Semester 2019 (3 hours per weeks)
“Indian civilization and society”, since Autumn Semester 2019 (3 hours per weeks)
“World’s religions: Western traditions”, Autumn Semester 2019 (3 hours per weeks)
At the University of Marmara, Istanbul (Autumn Semester 2018 and Spring Semester 2019)
Translation practice in English (6 hours per week)
Translation practice in French (6 hours per week)
Translation practice in German (4 hours per week)
At the University of Zurich, Courses of lectures (Vorlesungen) (2 hours per weeks)
“Griechische Wortbildung”, Spring Semester 2018
“Latein im linguistischen Kontext des alten Mittelmeers und Nahen Ostens”, Autumn Semester 2017
“Altgriechisch im linguistischen Kontext des alten Mittelmeers und Nahen Ostens”, Spring Semester 2017
“Geschichte der lateinischen Sprache”, Autumn Semester 2016
“Das Nomen im Altgriechischen”, Spring Semester 2016
“Lateinische Historische Morphologie”, Autumn Semester 2015
“Das lateinische Verbum”, Autumn Semester 2014
“Griechische Phonologie”, Spring Semester 2014
“Lateinische Wortbildung”, Autumn Semester 2013
“Griechische Syntax”, Spring Semester 2013
“Lateinische Syntax”, Autumn Semester 2012
“Wortbildung im Altgriechischen”, Spring Semester 2012
“Die Morphologie des Lateinischen”, Autumn Semester 2011
“Die Morphologie des Altgriechischen”, Spring Semester 2011
“Das lateinische Verb”, Autumn Semester 2010
“Sprachwandel im Altgriechischen”, Spring Semester 2010
“Einführung in die Sprachwissenschaft, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Griechischen und des Lateinischen”, Autumn Semester 2009
At the University of Zurich, Seminars (Seminare) (2 hours per weeks)
“Homer”, Spring Semester 2018
“Entwicklung eines NetClassics-Modul für lateinische und griechische Sprachwissenschaft”, Spring Semester 2017
“Grammatikalisierung”, Spring Semester 2017
“Platons Euthydemos”, Spring Semester 2016
“Platons Kratylos: der Anfang der Sprachphilosophie”, Spring Semester 2014
“M. Terentius Varro, De lingua Latina: Die Sprachphilosophie in Rom”, Spring Semester 2013
“Die lateinische Sprache von den Anfängen bis Cicero”, Spring Semester 2012
“Language change and grammaticalization”, Department of General Linguistics, Spring Semester 2012
“Die homerische Sprache”, Spring Semester 2011
“Altlatein”, Spring Semester 2010
“Lateinische Syntax, neue Ansätze”, Autumn Semester 2009
At the University of Zurich, Introductory seminary courses (Proseminare) (2 hours per weeks)
“Einführung in die lateinische Linguistik”, Autumn Semester 2017, Autumn Semester 2016, Autumn Semester 2015, Autumn Semester 2014, Autumn Semester 2013, Autumn Semester 2012
“Einführung in die Geschichte der lateinischen Sprache”, Autumn Semester 2011
“Einführung in die Morphologie des Lateinischen”, Autumn Semester 2010
At the University of Bologna, Alma Mater Studiorum, Italy (2008-2009)
“General Linguistics”
At the University G. Marconi of Rome, Italy (2008-2009)
“Latin Literature”, “Latin Grammar”
At the University of Pisa, Italy (1998-2008)
Seminars of “Sanskrit”
Seminars of “Latin”
Seminars of “Phonetics”
Courses of Italian as a foreign language
LANGUAGE EXPERTISE
Modern languages:
Italian (native); French (fluent); English (fluent); German (fluent); Spanish (good); Modern Greek (intermediate);Hindi (intermediate); Modern Standard Arabic (intermediate); Turkish (intermediate).
Ancient languages:
Latin; Sabellic languages; Ancient Greek; Old Indian (both Vedic and Classical Sanskrit) and Middle Indian languages; Avestan; Old Persian; Hittite; Classical Armenian; Tocharian; Old Church Slavonic; Gothic; Old Norse; Lithuanian; Old Irish; Biblical Hebrew; Classical Arabic; Ottoman Turkish; Old Tamil.