Dr Francesco Maria Ciconte
AHRC Postdoctoral Research Associate
Address: School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures - Italian Studies
University of Manchester
Samuel Alexander Building
Oxford Road
Manchester, M13 9PL, UK
Room Number: W.405
E-mail: francescomaria.ciconte@manchester.ac.uk
Research
Main research areas
Italo-Romance Linguistics, Theoretical Linguistics, Discourse-Semantics-Morphosyntax Interface, Historical Linguistics, Classical and Romance Philology.
Current research
I currently work as a Research Associate on the AHRC-funded project 'Existential constructions: An investigation into the Italo-Romance dialects' (Project Director: Dr Delia Bentley).
Past research
My AHRC-funded PhD research investigated existential constructions in the early Italo-Romance vernaculars. The project involved the linguistic analysis, historical and synchronic, of a relatively large corpus of early Italo-Romance texts, dating from C13th to C16th. My principal findings concern (i) the complementary distribution of the pro-form and the locative phrase in early Tuscan; (ii) the emergence of the pro-form in existentials with overt encoding of definiteness; (iii) the presence of an optional expletive which, particularly in Tuscan, does not have subject properties. The study is framed in a comparative analysis which takes into consideration both Latin and Modern Italian. Some aspects of my research relate to the research project 'Strutture degli Antichi Volgari d'Italia' (SAVI).
[Thesis abstract][Thesis index]
Publications
- Ciconte, F. M. (2010). Argument Realization in Early Italo-Romance: The case of Existentials. In J. Barðal, M. Cennamo & E. Van Gelderen (eds.), Proceedings of the Workshop: Variation and Change in Argument Realization. Amsterdam: Benjamins (in preparation).
- Ciconte, F. M. (2010). The Emergence and the Reanalysis of the Existential Pro-form: Evidence from Early Italo-Romance. Submitted to Transactions of the Philological Society for the Sixth R. H. Robins Prize.
- Ciconte, F. M. (2010). Costrutti esistenziali nelle varietà italo-romanze antiche. In Écho des études romanes, Vol. VI / Num. 1. eske Budejovice: Institut d'études romanes de la Faculté des Lettres de l'Université de Bohême du Sud - Gallica.
- Ciconte, F. M. (2009). Pro-forms in Existential Constructions of Early Italo-Romance Vernaculars. In G. A. Kaiser & E. -M. Remberger (eds.), Proceedings of the Workshop "Null-subjects, expletives, and locatives in Romance". Arbeitspapier 123. Fachbereich Sprachwissenschaft, pp. 183-198. Konstanz: Universität Konstanz.
- Ciconte, F. M. (2008). Existential Constructions in Early Italo-Romance Vernaculars: the Locative Hypothesis. In Proceedings of the Oxford Postgraduate Conference LingO 2007, pp. 35-42. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Ciconte, F. M. (2005). Cenni sull'incontro della tradizione celtica irlandese con la cultura latina nella Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis. In Quaderni del Dipartimento di Filologia Linguistica e Tradizione Classica, n.s. 4. Bologna: Pàtron.
Conference papers and talks
- 'Existential Constructions: From Early Italo-Romance to Modern Italian'. Invited talk. Institute for Linguistics and Language Studies (ILLS). University of Manchester, 30 November 2010.
- 'The Emergence and the Reanalysis of the Pro-form in the Early Italo-Romance Vernaculars'. Cambridge Italian Dialect Syntax Meeting (CIDSM 5). Freie Universität Berlin, 2-3 July 2010. [Abstract]
- 'Argument Realization in Early Italo-Romance: The Case of Existentials' (with Delia Bentley). Workshop: Variation and Change in Argument Realization. Naples-Capri, 27-30 May 2010. [Abstract]
- 'Existential Constructions in the Early Italo-Romance Vernaculars: a Research Perspective'. Italian Studies Postgraduate Day. University of Manchester, 19 May 2010.
- 'Existential Constructions in the Early Italo-Romance Vernaculars'. Invited lectures. Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Filozofická fakulta, Ústav románských studií, Oddelení italianistiky, and Ceské Budejovice, Jihoceská univerzita v Ceských Budejovicích, Filozofická fakulta, Ústav romanistiky, 28-30 April 2010.
- 'Pro-forms in Existential Constructions of the Early Italo-Romance Varieties'. Workshop on Null-subjects, Expletives and Locatives in Romance. Universität Konstanz, 27-29 March 2008. [Abstract]
- 'Existential Constructions in Early Italo-Romance Vernaculars: the Locative Hypothesis'. VIII Incontro di Dialettologia Italiana. University of Bristol, 5-6 October 2007.
- 'Existential Constructions in Early Italo-Romance Vernaculars: the Locative Hypothesis'. LingO: The Oxford Postgraduate Conference. St. Anne's College University of Oxford, 21-22 September 2007.
Membership of professional organisations
- Institute for Linguistics and Language Studies (ILLS)
- The Philological Society
- The Linguistics Association of Great Britain
- Centro Diffusione Lingua e Cultura Italiana 'Leonardo Da Vinci' (CDLCI) at the Italian Consulate, Manchester
- Provveditorato agli Studi, Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione, Italy. The membership enables me to teach Italian, Latin and Ancient Greek in all Italian high schools in Italy and abroad.
Teaching
Before my arrival in Manchester in 2005, I taught Italian, Latin and Ancient Greek in two high schools in Turin, Italy. After my arrival in Manchester, I taught Italian as a second language in several colleges and companies. From January 2006 to June 2009, I worked as a Teaching Assistant at the University of Manchester, where I taught Italian Language and I was responsible for the delivery of the linguistics modules in Italian at levels 1, 2 and 3: Introduction to Italian Linguistics, Structures of Modern Italian and Italian Stylistics. From October 2007 to September 2008, I was Associate Lecturer in Italian at the Open University, UK. In semester 2, 2008, I lectured in Italian Sociolinguistics at the University of Birmingham. During the years at the University of Manchester, I was involved in several foreign languages workshops; I also contributed to some language projects, in particular CAMILLE (Cultural Awareness Modules to Improve Language Learning Experience), for which I created part of the didactic material.
Administration
- Member of the ILLS Seminar Series Organising Team
- Library Representative for Italian Studies
Professional biography
- April 2010, University of Manchester, UK: I completed a full-time PhD programme in Italian Studies with a thesis entitled Existential Constructions in the Early Italo-Romance Vernaculars (Supervisor: Dr Delia Bentley; Co-supervisor: Prof Nigel Vincent; Advisor: Prof Stephen J. Milner).
- September 2006, University of Manchester, UK: I completed a full-time MA taught programme in Italian Studies, which focussed on Italian and theoretical linguistics.
- August 2005, Università per Stranieri di Siena, Italy: DITALS II Certificate Training. Approved by the Italian Ministry for Education, the certificate is worldwide recognised as the official credential for teachers of Italian as a second language.
- July 2004, Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy: Laurea in Lettere Classiche (equivalent of a BA + MA in Classics). Main modules: Latin Language and Literature, Old Greek Language and Literature, Italian Language and Literature, Glottology, Classical Philology, Linguistics. My final thesis on the philological tradition of the Hiberno-Latin manuscripts of the Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis involved a two-year research at the National University of Ireland, Galway and at Trinity College, Dublin.