Research output per year
Research output per year
I am a Professor of Romance Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at the University of Manchester. My principal research interest is in the interface of syntax with discourse and lexical meaning, which I explore on evidence from the microvariation attested synchronically in the grammars of the lesser-known Romance languages. By observing these closely cognate languages, I investigate how atoms of lexical meaning are reflected by patterns of grammatical variation. Over the years I have explored extensively the interplay of discourse with syntax, notably in existential and presentational constructions. I have held Principal Investigator positions in two research projects funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (see http://existentials.humanities.manchester.ac.uk). From 2006 to 2012 I was an Honorary Member of Council of the Philological Society (http://www.philsoc.org.uk/ ). I am currently on the board of consulting editors of Linguistics and an Associate Editor of Folia Linguistica Historica (one of two peer-reviewed journals of the Societas Linguistica Europaea). I am a syntax consultant on the Atlante Linguistico della Sicilia (http://atlantelinguisticosicilia.it/cms/)) and I have in the past collaborated with the Atlante Sintattico dell’Italia Settentrionale (http://asit.maldura.unipd.it/). I am the author of two monographs, published by Mouton de Gruyter (2006) and Oxford University Press (2015), and of over forty research articles, which have appeared in major linguistics journals (Glossa, Journal of Linguistics, Language, Lingua, Linguistics, Rivista di Linguistica, Transactions of the Philological Society…) and in edited collections. I have edited four collections/ thematic issues of journals and at present I am a member of the editorial team of the Cambridge Handbook of Role and Reference Grammar (to be published in 2023 by Cambridge University Press). Although I fully engage with linguistic research of any theoretical persuasion, the framework which I usually adopt in my own work is that of Role and Reference Grammar (http://linguistics.buffalo.edu/people/faculty/vanvalin/rrg.html). This is ideally suited to the investigation of the discourse-semantics-syntax interface and to the study of syntactic typology. I am also familiar with the cartographic model, which has been applied extensively to the study of the syntax of the dialects of Italy.
Appointment history
My principal research interest is in the interface of morphosyntax with discourse and lexical meaning, which I explore on evidence from the microvariation attested synchronically in the grammars of major and lesser-known Romance languages. By observing these closely cognate languages, I investigate whether and to what extent the attested patterns of grammatical variation depend on differences in the sensitivity to lexically-driven meaning and to discourse. My principal research contributions to date have been on split intransitivity, existential and presentational constructions, the discourse and semantic underpinnings of subjecthood, and the formation of result state adjectives. At present I am investigating V-S agreement on evidence from Northern Italo-Romance dialects and psych-verbs on evidence from Sicilian and other Romace languages.
I have a keen interest in the documentation of the Romance dialects of Italy, a large number of Romance languages which are rapidly receding under pressure from the national language (Italian). In my AHRC-funded research project on existential and locative constructions, I set up a publicly accessible source of data from Italo-Romance and Sardinian dialects of Italy (http://existentials.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/). With Francesco Ciconte and Silvio Cruschina, the RAs on the project, I also produced a collection of short stories and fairy tales in the dialects of Italy. This is available on DVD and booklet.
Principal awards :
Research Support Fund award of the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures (£1.8K) to conduct research on Gallo-Italian dialects (November 2014-June 2015).
AHRC Research Grant, Standard Scheme (AH/H032509/1, £535,927): Existential constructions: An investigation into the Italo-Romance dialects (November 2010-June 2014): http://www.existentials.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/
AHRC Research Grant, Research Leave Scheme (AH/E506011/1, £23,268): Existential constructions: discourse, semantics, syntax (Semester 2: Academic year 2008/2009).
As a teacher, I seek to encourage curiosity and enthusiam for knowledge and scientific investigation. I reward rigorous and independent thinking and clarity of thought and expression. I pay particular attention to the development of transferable skills, which students can apply later in life in any work environment.
Over the years I have taught undergraduate and postgraduate course units on Italian and Romance linguistics, the syntax-lexical semantics interface, English morphology and syntax, stylistics, dialectology (in particular, the Romance dialects of Italy) and Role and Reference Grammar.
I currently teach both in the Department of Linguistics and English Language and in the Modern Languages Department. The course units that I offer at the moment are the following:
LELA10301 - English Word and Sentence Structure (level 1, 20 credits, ca. 130 students, compulsory for all students on English Language and Linguistics degrees).
LELA32001/LELA62001/ITAL32001 - Romance Linguistics (level 3 and MA, 20 credits, ca. 30 students).
LELA20042/LELA30642/LELA60642 - Meaning in Grammar (levels 2, 3 and MA, 20 credits, ca. 50 students).
ITAL50510 - Italian Language Lecture (a weekly lecture on the Italian language, which is part of the core language course unit taken by Italian Studies students at level 1).
I also co-teach the Research Methods component of our MA Linguistics.
Postgraduate supervisions
Over the years I have supervised postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers working on a variety of topics in Italian and Romance syntax as well as tense, aspect, modality and voice in typological perspective. I welcome doctoral supervisions in the following areas: syntactic microvariation, Italian and Romance syntax and dialectology,the discourse-syntax interface, the syntax-lexical semantics interface, syntactic theory.
Here is a sample of the PhD theses that I have supervised recently:
The Syntactic-Pragmatic Interface in North-Eastern Italian Dialects: Consequences for the Geometry of the Left Periphery
Author: De Cia, A.
Supervisor: Bentley, D. (Supervisor)
UoM administered thesis: Phd
2017
The microvariation in passive and impersonal constructions in Italo-Romance dialects of Italy
Author: Stampone Chapman, V.
Supervisor: Bentley, D. (Supervisor)
UoM administered thesis: Phd
2012
Testing the Interclausal Relations Hierarchy: Aspectual and Modal Periphrases in Modern Sardinian
Author: Casti, F.
Supervisor: Bentley, D. (Supervisor)
UoM administered thesis: Phd
2010
Existentials in Early Narratives of the Vernaculars of Italy
Author: Ciconte, F.M.
Supervisor: Bentley, D. (Supervisor)
UoM administered thesis: Phd
In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):
Research output: Other contribution › peer-review
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
Research output: Book/Report › Anthology › peer-review
Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › peer-review
Research output: Other contribution › peer-review
Delia Bentley (Speaker)
Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
Delia Bentley (Speaker)
Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
Delia Bentley (Speaker)
Activity: Talk or presentation › Oral presentation
Delia Bentley (Speaker)
Activity: Talk or presentation › Oral presentation
Delia Bentley (Speaker)
Activity: Talk or presentation › Invited talk
Bentley, D. (Creator), Ciconte, F. M. (Contributor) & Cruschina), S. (Contributor), University of Manchester, 2014
http://existentials.humanities.manchester.ac.uk/resources/dataset/
Dataset
Bentley, D. (Creator), Cinconte, F. M. (Creator) & Cruschina, S. (Creator), University of Manchester, 14 Nov 2014
DOI: 10.15127/1.220826, https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/api/datastream?publicationPid=uk-ac-man-scw:220826&datastreamId=Booklet.DOCX
Dataset