About
My research expertise covers three areas.
First, I published in historical linguistics taking a corpus-based cognitive-constructional perspective alongside a more pragmatic/discursive perspective. As part of my PhD, I constructed the largest, freely available diachronic corpus of Latin to date. On the basis of data from the construction ‘secundum NP’, I examined (inter-)subjectification and proposed a new grammatical category of attribution, erroneously conflated with evidentiality. I also proposed a new usage-based semantic map for the construction secundum NP (‘according to’ NP). I also examined constructional productivity, extending a model originally proposed on phonetic grounds only to syntax. This model is currently being applied to Late Latin syntax, with particular interest to medieval charters and the problem posed by their formulaicity. I also examined meta-pragmatic comments related to the concept of ‘urbanitas’ in Latin, and interpreted them making reference to theories of politeness. I terms of lexical semantics, I conducted a very large corpus-based semantic analysis of Early Modern English citizenship terms, namely: ‘citizens’, ‘burgesses’ and ‘freemen’ and carried out a lexicographic/semiotic study of the word ‘eresia’(‘heresy’) in contemporary written Italian.
My second area of research relates to the discourse surrounding European migrants in the UK (in the Brexit era) and more broadly, issues of language and migration. In particular, my research to date has focused on nationality-based microaggressions, local identities and microaggressions and family ties.
The third research area I am interested in relates to the Sociolinguistics of Latin in the UK. After researching the use of Latin by Shakespeare, I am currently taking an interest in issues such as the Latin Mass revival and the teaching of Latin in schools and colleges. I am also interested in the pedagogy of Late Latin.
I hold two degrees from the University of Pavia (Italy) and gained my PhD from Lancaster University. Prior to joining the University of Liverpool, I taught at Lancaster University, the University of Central Lancashire and Liverpool Hope University. In 2024 I held a visiting lecturer position at the Nazarene Theological College (Manchester University). My teaching expertise spans across English, Linguistics, Italian, Latin and (to an extent) Spanish.
I am happy to supervise postgraduate (MA/MRes and PhD) students in (but not limited to) the following areas: sociolinguistic aspects of migration, language and identity, language and religion, semiotics, (im)politeness, language change.