Marco Fioratti

Sidney Sussex College
  • PhD student
Marco Fioratti

Contact

About

I received my B.A. in Language, Civilisations and the Science of Language from the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (2017), majoring in English, Spanish, and European Portuguese. There I also graduated with my M.A. in Language Sciences (2020), majoring in Spanish language, language teaching and learning, and linguistics. During my M.A. I also studied at the University of Porto, Portugal (2018), and the University of León, Spain (2019).

After university, I taught English and Spanish as foreign languages in Italy, and Italian as an L2 to foreign students in Italy, both in Secondary School. That was an amazing experience, which reinforced my conviction that languages and linguistics are the most powerful tool we have to break barriers, understand others and, ultimately, care about them.

In October 2022, I started my PhD at Sidney Sussex, supervised by Prof Adam Ledgeway. My PhD research focuses on some aspects of the syntax of (not only) Romance varieties, both standard and non-standard. My study is fully funded by the Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership together with the Cambridge Trust.

Between one thing and another, I always managed to keep doing other things I love: I played football for many years, did some boxing, and tried every sport towards which I felt some curiosity. I read (a lot) and write (I wish I did it more). I also played the drums in a few minor rock and pop bands in Italy and, luckily, I am finding my way back to music, drums and guitar here in Cambridge as well!

Scholarships and Prizes:

  • Open-Oxford-Cambridge AHRC Doctoral Training Partnership (2022-2026)
  • Trevor Brown Bursary (May-June 2024)
  • MA Thesis Prize – Municipality of S. Bellino (RO), Italy (2020-21)
  • Regional Scholarship for University Studies – Italian Ministry of Education (2014-2020)

Conference papers:

  • 2023, “Microvariation in Romance inversion: from northern Italian dialects to a pan-Romance perspective”, poster presented at the 17th CIDSM (Cambridge Italian Dialect Syntax-Morphology Meeting), Zurich, Switzerland, 12th September 2023.
  • 2023, “Dialettologia tra teoria e dati: costruzioni con si e clitici soggetto in altopolesano”, joint talk with Leonardo Russo Cardona (University of Cambridge), paper presented at the VII Convegno Internazionale di Dialettologia. “Dialetti per parlare e parlarne”, Potenza (PZ) Italy, 21st April 2023.

Research

My research investigates the phenomenon commonly referred to as “interrogative” inversion, or, more generally “non-veridical” inversion, building on data from northern Italian dialects and other (mainly) Romance varieties. Under the generative framework, this research can shed light both on the triggering of the set of interpretations – not limited to the interrogative one – linked to the movement of the verb past a subject-like element, and the status of subject clitics in northern Italian dialects. More generally, this study will contribute to the understanding of the parameters of variation linked to the availability of inversion in Romance. My study therefore aims to explain how, and why, certain pragmatically marked readings are encoded in the syntax, towards what direction language change is headed, and what limits the availability of subject (clitic)-verb inversion in the languages at issue.

Supervisor: Prof Adam Ledgeway

Teaching and supervision

Supervisions (University of Cambridge): 

  • IT1/ITA3 “Introduction to Italian Linguistics” (2023, 2024)
  • IT2 “Structures and Varieties of Italian” (2024)
  • IT10 “The Language of Italy” (2024)
  • CS1 “The Romance Languages” (2024)
  • LI2 “Structures” (2024)
  • LI9 “Syntax” (2024)
  • PG1 “Introduction to Portuguese Linguistics” (2024)

Other teaching experience:

  • Teaching assistant (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice): Spanish Language 1. (2020)
  • Language teacher in Secondary School (Italian Ministry of Education): Italian (L2), English, Spanish. (2020-22)

Other activities and roles:

  • Co-organiser of the RoLinC (Romance Linguistics Circle) seminars, organised by the Universities of Cambridge and Newcastle (2022-23, 2023-24)
  • Co-chair of the Cambridge Linguistics Society (2022-23; 2023-24)
  • Vice-president of the Sidney Sussex College MCR