Elizabeth Tobyn

Research project: The Acquisition of Unaccusativity on Evidence from Early and Late Dialect-Italian Bilinguals

Supervisors: Prof Delia Bentley and Dr Andrea Nini

I am interested in split intransitivity and one of its main diagnostics: auxiliary selection. I am currently working on a project that investigates auxiliary selection in dialect-Italian bilinguals. More specifically, I have been exploring the production of perfective auxiliaries with unaccusative verbs in simultaneous and consecutive bilinguals of Italian and Palermitano and Italian and Sienese.

• Syntax-semantics interface
• Bilingualism
• Dialects of Italy
• Language acquisition

• Organising and Scientific Committee for the 18th Cambridge Italian Dialect Syntax-Morphology Meeting (CIDSM)

• Organising Committee for the Manchester Forum in Linguistics 2024 (Lead Organiser)

• Organising Committee for the Manchester Forum in Linguistics 2023 (Lead Organiser)

• Organising Committee for the Manchester Forum in Linguistics 2022 (Communications Co-ordinator)

• AHRC Cohort Development Fund (2023/2024) - £750

• AHRC Student Development Fund (2023/2024) - £4,145.37

• AHRC Conference Fund (2023) - £155.52

• AHRC Fieldwork Bursary (2023) - £4,477.28

• Postgraduate Research Fieldwork Bursary Fund (2022) - £875.10

• AHRC NWCDTP PhD Award (stipend and tuition fees) - ~£46,000

Teaching Assistant LELA10201 Language, Mind and Brain

• (2017-2019)
  Master of Arts in Comparative Literatures and Cultures (English Linguistics and Italian Studies), Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale", 110 cum laude 
• (2013-2016)
  Bachelor of Arts in Linguistic and Cultural Mediation (Linguistic Analysis and Translation), Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale", 110 cum laude

E-mail: [email protected]