Publications
Selected publications by topic below. For the full, continuously updated list, see my Utrecht University research profile.
New!
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Albu, Carlin Coleman, Caspi, Colina Fortuny & D'Alessandro. Submitted. "Deixis in motion: Addressee surfacing and the politeness path." Accepted in Linguistic Variation.
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Van Oostendorp & D'Alessandro. 2026. The Darwinian Mind of the Machine: Rethinking LLM Training as Evolution. Nordlyd 49(1), 117-129.
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Colina Fortuny, D'Alessandro & Parafita Couto. 2026. Collecting data in understudied language varieties: A methodological note. Nordlyd 49(1), 3-16.
Heritage Language Syntax
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D'Alessandro, Putnam & Terenghi (eds). 2025. Heritage Languages and Syntactic Theory. OUP.
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D'Alessandro, Putnam & Terenghi. 2025. Heritage languages and syntactic theory: An introduction. In Heritage Languages and Syntactic Theory, 1-16. OUP.
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Andriani & D'Alessandro. 2024. Perfective Auxiliary Selection in heritage Italo-Romance. Romanica Cracoviensia 24(3), 399-413.
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D'Alessandro & Terenghi. 2024. Non-monotonic functional sequences: A new metric for complexity in heritage languages. In Formal approaches to complexity in heritage language grammars, 153-179. Language Science Press.
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D'Alessandro & Frasson. 2023. Simplification or complexification: auxiliary selection and anti-agreement effect in Brazilian Venetan. Catalan Journal of Linguistics 22, 9-27.
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D'Alessandro. 2023. A complex solution to an unsolvable problem? Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism 13(1), 40-44.
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Andriani, Casalicchio, Ciconte, D'Alessandro, Frasson, van Osch, Sorgini & Terenghi. 2022. Documenting Italo-Romance minority languages in the Americas: Problems and tentative solutions. In Contemporary Research in Minoritized and Diaspora Languages of Europe, 9-56. Language Science Press.
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Frasson, D'Alessandro & van Osch. 2021. Subject clitics in microcontact. A case study from heritage Friulian in Argentina and Brazil. Heritage Language Journal 18(1), 1-36.
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D'Alessandro, Natvig & Putnam. 2021. Addressing challenges in formal research on moribund heritage languages: A path forward. Frontiers in Psychology 12, Article 700126.
(micro-) Contact
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D'Alessandro, Putnam & Terenghi. 2025. Syntactic change in diachrony versus contact-induced change: Two sides of the same coin? The Linguistic Review 42(4), 585-618.
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D'Alessandro, Andriani, Frasson, Pinto, Sorgini & Terenghi. 2021. Microcontact and syntactic theory. In Heritage Languages and Syntactic Theory, OUP. (also: Heritage Languages)
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D'Alessandro. 2024. Un atlante interattivo per le lingue degli emigrati. In You will shine, 159-174. Società Editrice Fiorentina.
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D'Alessandro. 2023. Doing Romance Linguistics. Keynote article, Isogloss 9(2), 1-12.
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Andriani, D'Alessandro, Frasson, Van Osch, Sorgini & Terenghi. 2022. Adding the microdimension to the study of language change in contact. Three case studies. Glossa 7(1).
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D'Alessandro. 2021. Syntactic change in contact: Romance. Annual Review of Linguistics 2021(7), 309-328.
Abruzzese
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D'Alessandro & Sorgini. 2019. Mə tε magnatə. Perifrasi modali in abruzzese orientale. Bollettino del Centro di studi filologici e linguistici siciliani, 1-12.
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D'Alessandro & van Oostendorp. 2016. Abruzzese metaphony and the |A| eater. In Approaches to metaphony in the languages of Italy, 349-368. De Gruyter Mouton.
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D'Alessandro. 2015. The diachrony of Abruzzese complementation. Revue Roumaine de Linguistique 60(2-3), 129-145.
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D'Alessandro & van Oostendorp. 2014. La metafonia ariellese tra fonologia e lessico. Quaderni di lavoro ASIt 17, 1-18.
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D'Alessandro. 2011. Soggetti non canonici in abruzzese: i pronomi impersonali nome ed anne. Archivio Glottologico Italiano 2, 227-262.
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D'Alessandro, Ledgeway & Roberts. 2010. The Abruzzese T-v system: feature spreading and the double auxiliary construction. In Syntactic Variation: The Dialects of Italy, 201-210. CUP.
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D'Alessandro. 2010. The verbal domain: TP-VP structure and auxiliaries. In Syntactic Variation: The Dialects of Italy. CUP.
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D'Alessandro. 2010. On the role of gemination in passives: the case of Abruzzese. Snippets 28.
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D'Alessandro & Ledgeway. 2010. At the C-T boundary: Investigating Abruzzese complementation. Lingua 120(8), 2040-2060.
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D'Alessandro & Roberts. 2010. Past participle agreement in Abruzzese: Split auxiliary selection and the null-subject parameter. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 28, 41-72.
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D'Alessandro & Di Sciullo. 2009. Proper Subset Relation and Concord: agreement in Abruzzese Possessive Copular Constructions. In Proceedings of NELS 38
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Biberauer & D'Alessandro. 2006. Syntactic doubling and the encoding of Voice in Eastern Abruzzese. In Proceedings of the 25th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL 25).
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D'Alessandro & Alexiadou. 2006. The syntax of the indefinite pronoun nome. Probus 8(2), 189-218.
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D'Alessandro & Alexiadou. 2003. Nome: a subject clitic in a southern Italian dialect. In Current Studies in Comparative Romance Linguistics.
Agreement
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D'Alessandro. 2022. Agreement. In The Cambridge Handbook of Romance Linguistics, 519-543. CUP.
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D'Alessandro. 2020. Agreement across the board: Topic agreement in Ripano. In Agree to Agree, Language Science Press.
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D'Alessandro. 2017. When you have too many features: auxiliaries, agreement, and clitics in Italian varieties. Glossa 2(1), Article 50.
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D'Alessandro & Pescarini. 2016. Agreement restrictions and agreement oddities in Romance. In Manual of Grammatical Interfaces in Romance, 267-294. De Gruyter Mouton.
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D'Alessandro, Fischer & Hrafnbjargarson. 2008. On Agreement restrictions. In Agreement Restrictions. De Gruyter Mouton.
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D'Alessandro. 2008. Syntaktische und pragmatische Merkmale: Eine Fallstudie. In Romanistische Syntax – minimalistisch. Narr Verlag.
(Impersonal) Pronouns
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D'Alessandro. 2022. Crossing domains: topic marking and doubling in Romance. In Building on Babel's Rubble. PUV.
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D'Alessandro & Migliori. 2017. Sui possessivi (enclitici) nelle varietà italo-romanze meridionali non estreme. In Di tutti i colori, 55-71. Utrecht University.
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D'Alessandro. 2015. Null subject. In Contemporary Linguistic Parameters. Bloomsbury Academic.
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D'Alessandro. 2014. Death and contact-induced rebirth of impersonal pronouns. A case study. Probus 26(2), 249-274.
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D'Alessandro. 2004. Impersonal si constructions. How semantics determines agreement. In Proceedings of NELS 34.
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D'Alessandro. 2003. On quirky subjects and the person restriction in Icelandic and Italian. In Proceedings of Console XI.
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D'Alessandro. 2002. Agreement in Italian impersonal si constructions. A phase-based analysis. Revista da Abralin 1(1), 35-72.
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D'Alessandro. 2002. On impersonal si constructions in Italian. In Proceedings of Console X.
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D'Alessandro & Alexiadou. 2002. Inclusive and exclusive impersonal pronouns: a feature-geometrical analysis. Rivista di grammatica generativa 27, 31-44.
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D'Alessandro. 2008. Impersonal "si" Constructions: Agreement and Interpretation. De Gruyter.
Linguistic Theory
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Van Oostendorp & D'Alessandro. 2026. The Darwinian Mind of the Machine: Rethinking LLM Training as Evolution. Nordlyd 49(1), 117-129
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D'Alessandro. 2021. Not everything is a theory. Theoretical Linguistics 47(1-2), 53-60.
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D'Alessandro & van Oostendorp. 2020. Language Variation and Functional Heads: Magnetic Grammar. Linguistic Analysis 42(3-4), 405-440.
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D'Alessandro. 2019. The achievements of Generative Grammar: a time chart and some reflections. Catalan Journal of Linguistics, Special Issue, 7-26.
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Van Oostendorp & D'Alessandro. 2018. Metaphony as Magnetism. In Structuring Variation in Romance Linguistics and Beyond, 297-306. John Benjamins.
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D'Alessandro & van Oostendorp. 2017. On the Diversity of Linguistic Data and the Integration of the Language Sciences. Frontiers in Psychology 8, Article 2002.
Ethics / Methodology / Position papers
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Colina Fortuny, D'Alessandro & Parafita Couto. 2026. Collecting data in understudied language varieties: A methodological note. Nordlyd 49(1), 3-16.
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Chandra, D'Alessandro & Putnam. 2025. Ethical concerns for theoretical research in linguistics: Issues and best practices. Linguistics 63(2), 349-375.
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D'Alessandro. 2023. Raccogliere dati di varietà romanze in via di estinzione: il caso delle lingue ereditarie in America. In Dialettologia ed etimologia, 83-105. Edizioni ETS.
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Leivada, D'Alessandro & Grohmann. Eliciting Big Data From Small, Young, or Non-standard Languages: 10 Experimental Challenges. Front. Psychol. 10:313.
Phases and Syntax-PF Mapping
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D'Alessandro & Scheer. Modular PIC. Linguistic Inquiry 46:4, 593-624.
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D'Alessandro & Roberts. 2008. Movement and agreement in Italian past participles and defective phases. Linguistic Inquiry 39/3, 477-491. (also: Agreement)
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D'Alessandro & Scheer. Phase-head marking. In Universal Syntax and Parametric Phonology, Linguistic Analysis 38:4, 305-330.
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D'Alessandro & van Oostendorp. When imperfections are perfect. Prosody, phi-features and deixis in Central and Southern Italian vocatives. Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 10. (also: Abruzzese)
Books
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D'Alessandro, Putnam & Terenghi (eds). 2025. Heritage Languages and Syntactic Theory. OUP.
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Armstrong, D'Alessandro & Parafita Couto (eds). 2024. RLLT21: Selected papers from LSRL 52, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Isogloss 10(2).
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D'Alessandro & Pescarini (eds). 2018. Advances in Italo-Romance dialectology: Sketches of Italo-Romance Grammars. Brill.
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D'Alessandro, Iannàccaro, Passino & Thornton (eds). 2017. Di tutti i colori: Studi linguistici per Maria Grossmann. Utrecht University.
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D'Alessandro, Franco & Gallego (eds). 2017. The Verbal Domain. Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics. OUP.
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D'Alessandro, Ledgeway & Roberts (eds). 2010. Syntactic Variation: The Dialects of Italy. CUP.
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D'Alessandro, Fischer & Hrafnbjargarson (eds). 2008. Agreement Restrictions. Interface Explorations, Vol. 15. De Gruyter Mouton.
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D'Alessandro. 2008. Impersonal "si" Constructions: Agreement and Interpretation. Studies in Generative Grammar, Vol. 90. De Gruyter.
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D'Alessandro, Di Felice, Franco & Ledgeway (eds). 2014. Approcci diversi alla dialettologia italiana contemporanea. Special Issue of L'Italia Dialettale.