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PhD program
Linguistic Sciences
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The PhD program in Language Sciences provides educational and research activities which are also related to two of the main macro-themes of the five-year project “Dipartimento di Eccellenza”. The program includes a specific course on “Corpora and computational linguistics”; it is held by academics from the affiliated Universities of Bergamo and Pavia, and by scholars from other Italian and foreign Universities. The themes relating to Translation Studies are dealt with from a linguistic and socio-cultural point of view, and by means of digital instruments.
Below are the research projects currently in progress:
Francesca Almini
Italian Sign Language (LIS) in Twenty-first century schools: use, translation, teaching.
Supervisor: Federica Venier
This project aims at investigating the current state of the Italian School as regards several aspects of deafness. The initial goal is to outline Italian foundations dealing with the education of the deaf, and take into account all institutions hosting deaf children – be they specialized institutes or simply less structured schools. At present, the information available are incomplete and not up to date; hence they need total review and updating. On one hand, thanks to the tools provided by “Digital Humanities”, once the mapping of the institutions is completed, the project will create a website listing such institutions to let everybody check the information found. On the other hand, my research also draws on “Translation”. This will include visits to some schools in order to investigate some aspects relating to the linguistic field. Special attention will be paid to morphological differences between the Italian language and Italian Sign Language (LIS). Lastly, once the Italian educational institutions involved with the deaf have been outlined, it will be worth of interest to compare them to more advanced international institutions.
Matteo De Franco
Guta lag: translation and glossary
Supervisor: Maria Grazia Cammarota
My research deals with Guta lag, a thirteenth-century juridical text. It is the longest piece of writing in Old Gutnish – the medieval language spoken in the Swedish Island of Gotland. The project aims at providing the first Italian translation of Guta lag and widen the knowledge of the laws from the Nordic Middle Ages through an Italian translation. Besides, I will also provide the first modern translation of the latest and the shortest text in Old Gutnish, The Statues of Saint Catherine’s Guild – another juridical text written around 1443. The glossary appended to both translations will highlight the lexical traits of the Medieval language.
Demis Galli
Development of the Tobler-Mussafia law in the Fifteenth century Florentine vernacular
Supervisor: Federica Venier
The purpose of my research project is to analyse the development of the Tobler-Mussafia law as to the Florentine vernacular in a time spam from the end of the Fourteenth century to the end of the Fifteenth century. Such a period of time is crucial in the history of the language not only for the persistent rediscovery of Latin, but also for the profound structural changes faced by the Florentine vernacular, particularly on a syntactical level in which Latin might have played a central role. Despite this, my research has revealed right away a shortcoming in the digitalization of the linguistic heritage of this period, which corresponds to the absence of wide-ranging corpora – not limited to one author only. Such a lack of corpora can be a starting point for future research.
Laura Poggesi
An unedited medical book in Cambridge, Trinity College Library, MS R.14.32: edition and translation
Supervisor: Maria Grazia Cammarota
My research project focuses on a medical book in Cambridge, Trinity College Library, MS R.14.32 from the second half of the Fifteenth century. Together with several theoretical treatises, the manuscript contains more than two hundred unedited medical recipes written in Middle English. The main goal of the project is to provide the first edition of the medical book, an Italian translation, and a glossary with technical words. Brining to light this unedited corpus will allow to widen the current number of documents relating to such texts and to shed some new light on medieval medical knowledge.
Elena Valvason
The rhetoric of sustainability: A cross-linguistic, corpus-assisted analysis of news discourse about the environment
Supervisor: Gianguido Manzelli
The research project is based on a cross-linguistic analysis of Italian, English and Hungarian news discourse relating to environment sustainability. It will be carried out thanks to the methodological instruments provided by corpora linguistics in the analysis (of the rhetoric) of discourse. Research will particularly focus on the rhetorical and discursive construction in Italian, English and Hungarian news regarding sustainability between 2015 and 2016, after the publication of the 2030 Agenda.