Giuliana Giusti

@unive.it

Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies
Ca' Foscari University of Venice

Giuliana Giusti


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https://researchid.co/gstgln61

RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS

Arts and Humanities, Language and Linguistics
28

Scopus Publications

6144

Scholar Citations

37

Scholar h-index

103

Scholar i10-index

Scopus Publications

  • Clitic climbing across Italy: Variation, optionality, and the role of bilectalism
    Anna Cardinaletti, Giuliana Giusti, Gianluca E. Lebani
    Linguistic Variation, 2026
    This study discusses clitic placement in restructuring contexts in Italian and the Italo-Romance dialects spoken in Italy. The data come from AIS map 1086 and a judgement task experiment conducted on bilectal speakers of Italian and the dialect at six representative points in the Italian territory. The variation between clitic climbing and enclisis turns out to be much more complex than previous literature has suggested. The two clitic positions are available to all varieties, but at different rates and with different degrees of optionality. Optionality can be analysed as a function of language dominance in an intricate fashion.
  • On (in)definite ART in Italian and Italo-Romance varieties
    Giuliana Giusti
    Intercultural Pragmatics, 2025
    This paper addresses the challenging nature of definiteness and indefiniteness, focusing on several non-canonical interpretations of the definite article (ART) in Italian. The core objective is to demonstrate that so-called “indefinite definites” should be unified with canonical indefinites, rather than being grouped with other non-canonical uses like “weak definites” (WDs) or “reference to kind”. Using cross-Romance diagnostics, the paper shows that ART-indefinites—which are exclusive to Italian—are fundamentally different from WDs, which are attested cross-linguistically. Unlike WDs, which often involve singular count nouns, are lexically marked, and sensitive to modification restrictions, ART-indefinites are restricted to mass and plural count nouns and appear broadly in verb-object combinations without modification restrictions. Structurally, ART-indefinites are unified with bare nouns and partitive determiners (di+ART), forming four possible indefinite nominal expressions in Italian. This variation is analysed as resulting from the overt or covert realisation of the indefinite operator (di/ de) in SpecDP and nominal features (ART) in D. Analysis of informal Italian and Italo-Romance varieties confirms that ART-indefinites correlate with weak indefinites and compete with bare nouns. Ultimately, the study supports the hypothesis that the so-called “definite article” in Italian realises nominal features (gender, number, and abstract Case) at the morphosyntactic level, implying that its semantic interpretations are often independent of it.
  • Determiners
    Giuliana Giusti
    Manual of Romance Word Classes, 2024
    This chapter introduces the reader to the intricate syntax and semantics of determiners highlighting common properties and dimensions of variation across Romance languages, with particular attention to Ibero-Romance (Catalan, Brazilian and European Portuguese, and Spanish), French, Italian, and Romanian and some of their regional dialects. It focuses on definite and indefinite articles, including null articles in so-called ‘bare’ nouns, as well as demonstratives and possessives. It claims that their grammatical status cannot be unified under a single category. It deals with the mandatory, optional, or impossible co-occurrence of these elements, the position they take with respect to one another and the other elements of the nominal expression, that is the noun, adjectival modifiers, and prepositional or genitival complements. It describes the major semantic ambiguity displayed by definite and indefinite articles. It presents the different positions and forms of demonstratives and possessives. In doing so, it provides language-specific diagnostics to distinguish strong, weak and clitic forms that are found across all types of determiners.
  • Quantifiers
    Giuliana Giusti, Anna Cardinaletti
    Manual of Romance Word Classes, 2024
    The chapter focuses on those quantity words that combine with a nominal expression. It distinguishes three main classes: quantifiers proper, quantity adjectives, and semi-lexical quantity nouns. Quantifiers select a full nominal expression (DP) as their complement, which can be either definite or indefinite. Quantifiers like ‘all’ select a definite DP, which can appear separated from the quantifier in so-called ‘floating constructions’. Quantifiers like ‘some’ select an indefinite DP, which can be realised by the quantitative clitic en/ne in Catalan, French, and Italian and can occur with a partitive prepositional phrase. Quantity adjectives do not occur in floating or partitive constructions. Semi-lexical nouns require a determiner and combine with an indefinite DP in pseudo-partitive constructions.
  • On the property-denoting clitic ne and the determiner de/di: a comparative analysis of Catalan and Italian
    M.Teresa Espinal, Giuliana Giusti
    Linguistics, 2024
    The clitic pronoun ne and the functional element de introducing nominal constituents have many nominal and prepositional functions across Romance languages. In this article, we focus on the nominal functions, singling out three different bundles of semantic features that characterize both ne and de. They can denote properties of individual entities, properties of kinds, or predicate properties. The article shows that Catalan ne and de display the three types of denotation, while Italian ne and de only display the first one. This article further supports the hypothesis that the indefinite determiner de can be overt or silent, thereby unifying de-phrases (and the Italian partitive article) with bare nouns. The analysis of de as an indefinite determiner is then extended to adjectival de, which is claimed to mark concord features on adjectives in both Catalan and Italian.
  • A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ROMANIAN AND SOUTHERN ITALIAN UNTENSED FINITE CLAUSES
    , Anna Cardinaletti, Giuliana Giusti, and
    Revue Roumaine De Linguistique, 2023
    The paper compares the Balkan phenomenon known as “infinitival loss” in two varieties of Romance that have not been in direct contact, i.e., Romanian and some southern Italian dialects. The aim is to investigate how the Romance clausal structure realizes a phenomenon that does not generally appear in Romance. We focus on two main properties: the fine structure of the complementizer field, with left-dislocated elements sandwiched between two overt complementizers, and that of the inflectional field, in which clitic pronouns and clausal negation adjoin to Tense and Mood, respectively. The differences between the two varieties of Romance are reduced to the different first-merge positions of the particles characterizing untensed finite clauses. Comparison with Romanian permits a better understanding of the southern Italian dialects, which show micro-variation and optionality in the position of complementizers and particles and the realization of negation.
  • Variation in the Occurrence and Interpretation of Articles in Malagasy: A Comparison with Italian
    Ileana Paul, Giuliana Giusti, Gianluca E. Lebani
    Languages, 2022
    In languages that have a definite article but no indefinite article, the definite article typically maps to definites, and the bare noun maps to indefinites. We investigate this mapping in Malagasy, which imposes an additional restriction: bare nouns cannot be subjects. We ask whether the subject can be interpreted as indefinite, given the obligatory nature of the article. We also look at DPs in other positions (direct object, clefted subjects) to determine whether the mapping between form and meaning is one-to-one. To answer these questions, we administered an on-line questionnaire that presented participants with the choice of the article or the bare noun in the different positions (subject, object, cleft) in contexts that favoured an indefinite/novel interpretation. As predicted, the article was obligatory in subject position, but disfavoured in the object and cleft position. These results confirm current descriptions in the literature. We compare these results with a similar case of definite article in indefinite nominals found in Italian and propose that the article does not carry definiteness features (at least in these cases) but overtly marks (abstract) Case assignment on subjects, while it can remain silent on objects.
  • Indefinite determiners in two northern Italian dialects. A quantitative approach
    Gianluca E. Lebani, Giuliana Giusti
    Isogloss, 2022
    Italian and Italian dialects express indefiniteness in different ways, among which with a null determiner (ZERO) like all other Romance languages, but also with the definite article (ART) unlike what is found in Romance. Italian and some northern Italian dialects also display the so-called “partitive determiner” DI+ART, which is present in French. Few northwestern Italian dialects display (bare) DI, parallel to French. We adopt Cardinaletti and Giusti’s (2015, 2016) unified analysis and build on Cardinaletti and Giusti’s (2018, 2020) hypothesis that the variation and optionality in the distribution of the four determiners in regional Italian mirror their distribution in Italian dialects along two isoglosses: the ART isogloss spreading from the center of Italy towards north-west and south-east; and the DI isogloss spreading from Piedmont eastwards. We conduct a quantitative analysis on the results of a questionnaire in Piacentino and Rodigino. We test the distribution of the four determiners with mass and count nouns in two dimensions: sentence type (positive vs. negative) and predicate type (telic vs. atelic). The results confirm the hypothesis that the complexity of the determiner is related to its distribution highlighting two hierarchies of contexts: NEG < POS and ATEL < TEL. It also confirms that Piacentino, located at the crossroads of the ART and DI isoglosses, has more optionality than Rodigino, located at their borders.
  • Theory-driven approaches and empirical advances: A protocol for Pseudo-Coordinations and Multiple Agreement Constructions in Italo-Romance
    Giuliana Giusti, Anna Cardinaletti
    Linguistik Aktuell, 2022
    Italo-Romance varieties present at least three types of constructions that cluster together two verbs displaying double tense and double subject agreement and are taken as Pseudo-Coordinations (PseCos) or Multiple Agreement Constructions (MACs). In this paper, we follow Cardinaletti and Giusti’s (1998, 2001, 2003, 2020) hypotheses and claim that unification between the PseCos with a and the MACs with mu/mi/ma or ku in Southern Italian dialects is not viable. We adopt a diagnostic tool, which we call a protocol, that clusters the predictions of theory-driven analyses and apply it to the ‘take and’ construction, which is widespread across dialects and productive in Italian. In doing so, we discuss unobserved facts arising in the well-studied dialectal structures and make fine-grained observations about the less studied ‘take and’ PseCo in Italian.
  • Pseudo-Coordination and Multiple Agreement Constructions: An overview
    Giuliana Giusti, Vincenzo Nicolò Di Caro, Daniel Ross
    Linguistik Aktuell, 2022
    This introductory chapter provides background on the phenomena of Pseudo-Coordination (PseCo) and Multiple Agreement Constructions (MACs) with the aim of familiarizing readers with major trends in previous research on these varied phenomena. Common structural and functional properties used to identify PseCo and MACs are described, along with a detailed discussion of the features that make crucial differences within each phenomenon in individual languages and cross-linguistically. We also observe interesting similarities between the two phenomena and across related and unrelated languages. We maintain a pre-theoretical view here that is compatible with the different approaches represented in the volume.
  • Adjectival concord in Romance and Germanic
    Giuliana Giusti
    Continuity and Variation in Germanic and Romance, 2021
  • A Protocol for Indefinite Determiners in Italian and Italo-Romance
    Giuliana Giusti
    Syntax and Semantics, 2021
  • Indefinite determiners in informal Italian: A preliminary analysis
    Anna Cardinaletti, Giuliana Giusti
    Linguistics, 2020
  • Psychological verbs as a vulnerable syntactic domain: A comparative study of Latin and Italian
    Giuliana Giusti, Rossella Iovino
    Lingua, 2019
  • Demonstratives as arguments and modifiers of N
    Atypical Demonstratives Syntax Semantics and Pragmatics, 2018
  • Dimensions of variation the inflected construction in the dialect of Delia (Caltanissetta)
    Vincenzo Nicolò Di Caro, Giuliana Giusti
    Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory, 2018
  • Quantified Expressions and Quantitative Clitics
    Anna Cardinaletti, Giuliana Giusti
    Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax, 2018
  • Indefinite Determiners: Variation and Optionality in Italo-Romance
    Anna Cardinaletti, Giuliana Giusti
    Grammars and Sketches of the World S Languages, 2018
  • Latin as a split-DP language
    Giuliana Giusti, Rossella Iovino
    Studia Linguistica, 2016
  • The syntax of the Italian indefinite determiner dei
    Anna Cardinaletti, Giuliana Giusti
    Lingua, 2016
  • A comparative analysis of Latin double accusative
    Giuliana Giusti, Rossella Iovino
    Pallas, 2016
  • Functional Heads: State of the Art and Further Developments
    Laura Brugé, Anna Cardinaletti, Giuliana Giusti, Nicola Munaro, Cecilia Poletto
    Functional Heads the Cartography of Syntactic Structures, 2012
  • Functional Heads: The Cartography of Syntactic Structures
    Andrew Radford, M. Vincent
    Functional Heads the Cartography of Syntactic Structures, 2012
  • The syntax of floating alles in German
    Issues in Germanic Syntax, 2011
  • The acquisition of adjectival ordering in Italian
    Anna Cardinaletti, Giuliana Giusti
    Studies in Theoretical Psycholinguistics, 2011
  • Parallels in clausal and nominal periphery
    Phases of Interpretation, 2008
  • The Syntax of Quantified Phrases and Quantitative Clitics
    Anna Cardinaletti, Giuliana Giusti
    Blackwell Companion to Syntax, 2007
  • Enclitic articles and double definiteness: A comparative analysis of nominal structure in Romance and Germanic1
    GIULIANA GIUSTI
    Linguistic Review, 1994

RECENT SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

  • Introduction to LaGendA 2024
    G Giusti, D Elmiger, F Marenghi, V Patti, G Zunino
    Linguistik online 144 (3), 3-11 , 2026
    2026
  • Clitic climbing across Italy: Variation, optionality, and the role of bilectalism
    A Cardinaletti, G Giusti, GE Lebani
    Linguistic Variation 26 (1), 76-96 , 2026
    2026
    Citations: 4
  • A protocol for the Syntax of ‘Other’in Indefinite Nominal Expressions across Romance Languages
    L Brugè, G Giusti
    Syntax and Semantics. Other: Ambiguity, Constraints, an Change 45, 25-62 , 2025
    2025
  • On (in) definite ART in Italian and Italo-Romance varieties
    G Giusti
    Intercultural Pragmatics 22 (3), 545-570 , 2025
    2025
  • Consapevolezza linguistica come strumento di benessere individuale e sociale
    G Giusti
    QUADERNI DEL CONSIGLIO REGIONALE DELLE MARCHE 30 (447), 78-90 , 2025
    2025
  • The cartography of quantity nouns in Italian
    A Cardinaletti, G Giusti
    The Ziggurat of Grammar: In honor of Ur Shlonsky, 279-302 , 2025
    2025
  • The position of clitic pronouns in restructuring: diatopic and diachronic variation in Italo-Romance
    A Cardinaletti, G Giusti
    VERBUM 26 (1), 51-71 , 2025
    2025
  • La posizione dei pronomi clitici nellaristrutturazione: variazione diatopicae diacronica in italo-romanzo
    C Anna, G Giuliana
    VERBUM: ANALECTA NEOLATINA 26 (1), 52-71 , 2025
    2025
    Citations: 5
  • 9 Quantifiers
    G Giusti, A Cardinaletti
    Manual of Romance Word Classes 36, 237 , 2024
    2024
  • 7 Determiners
    G Giusti
    Manual of Romance word classes 36, 177 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 1
  • On the property-denoting clitic ne and the determiner de/di : a comparative analysis of Catalan and Italian
    MT Espinal, G Giusti
    Linguistics 62 (2), 457-489 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 16
  • CHAPTER ONE THE EXPRESSION OF INDEFINITENESS IN ITALO-FERRARESE BILECTAL SPEAKERS: TRUE OPTIONALITY AND GRAMMATICAL HYBRIDITY
    C Procentese, GE Lebani, G Giusti, A Cardinaletti
    New approaches to multilingualism, language learning, and teaching, 12 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 5
  • Indefiniteness and the clitics" lo" and" ne" in Italian
    M Teresa Espinal, G Giusti
    Buceando entre palabras: inmersiones en la gramática de la mano de Manuel … , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 2
  • Lingua inclusiva e variazione linguistica
    AM De Cesare, G Giusti
    LIVVAL. LINGUAGGIO E VARIAZIONE| VARIATION IN LANGUAGEN 6, 3-18 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 2
  • Lingua inclusiva: forme, funzioni, atteggiamenti e percezioni
    AM De Cesare, G Giusti
    Fondazione Università Ca'Foscari , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 2
  • Districare gli stereotipi dal genere semantico in italiano. Un'indagine psicolinguistica
    M Ducoli, G Giusti, G Lebani
    LIVVAL. LINGUAGGIO E VARIAZIONE| VARIATION IN LANGUAGEN 6, 155-178 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 2
  • Sviluppo della metacompetenza linguistica nell’insegnamento della L2 per il benessere delle persone e della società
    G Giusti
    STRUMENTI PER LA DIDATTICA E LA RICERCA 226, 97-110 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 2
  • Three classes of quantity nouns in Italian
    A Cardinaletti, G Giusti
    Exploring Linguistic Landscapes. A Festschrift for Larisa Avram and Andrei … , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 1
  • Language Attitudes and Bi (dia) lectal Competence
    G Giusti, P Mura, C Procentese
    LIVVAL. LINGUAGGIO E VARIAZIONE| VARIATION IN LANGUAGEN 4, 1-336 , 2024
    2024
    Citations: 1
  • Tra maschile “non marcato” e schwa. Riflessioni sul riferimento inclusivo in italiano
    G Giusti
    MicroMega, 7 , 2024
    2024

MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

  • The categorial status of determiners
    G Giusti
    The New Comparative Syntax , 1997
    1997
    Citations: 539
  • A Bare Phrase Structure Approach
    G Giusti
    Functional Structure in DP and IP 1, 54 , 2002
    2002
    Citations: 403
  • La Sintassi dei Determinanti
    G Giusti
    Unipress , 1993
    1993
    Citations: 275
  • The categorial status of quantified nominals
    G Giusti
    Linguistische Berichte 136, 438-454 , 1991
    1991
    Citations: 238
  • Partitive ne and the QP hypothesis. A case Study
    A Cardinaletti, G Giusti
    1991
    Citations: 224
  • Fragments of Balkan nominal structure
    M Dimitrova-Vulchanova, G Giusti
    Possessors, predicates and movement in the determiner phrase, 333-360 , 1998
    1998
    Citations: 214
  • “The Syntax of Quantified Phrases and Quantitative Clitics”
    A Cardinaletti, G Giusti
    Blackwell Companion to Syntax ed. by Martin Everaert 5, 23-93 , 2006
    2006
    Citations: 203
  • " Semi-lexical” motion verbs in Romance and
    A Cardinaletti, G Giusti
    Semi-lexical categories: The function of content words and the content of … , 2001
    2001
    Citations: 197
  • Is there a FocusP and a TopicP in the Noun Phrase structure?
    G Giusti
    Working Papers in Linguistics, 6.2, 1996, pp. 105-128 , 1996
    1996
    Citations: 192
  • Parallels in clausal and nominal periphery
    G Giusti
    Phases of interpretation, 163-184 , 2006
    2006
    Citations: 166
  • Enclitic articles and double definiteness: A comparative analysis of nominal structure in Romance and Germanic
    G Giusti
    Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York 11 (3-4), 241-256 , 1994
    1994
    Citations: 153
  • Floating quantifiers, scrambling, and configurationality
    G Giusti
    Linguistic inquiry 21 (4), 633-641 , 1990
    1990
    Citations: 120
  • The Birth of a functional Category
    G Giusti
    Current Studies in Italian Syntax: Essays Offered to Lorenzo Renzi, 157 , 2001
    2001
    Citations: 111
  • Nominal syntax at the interfaces: A comparative analysis of languages with articles
    G Giusti
    Cambridge Scholars Publishing , 2015
    2015
    Citations: 105
  • At the left periphery of the Romanian noun phrase
    G Giusti
    On space and time in language, 23-49 , 2005
    2005
    Citations: 99
  • Motion verbs as functional heads
    A Cardinaletti, G Giusti
    The syntax of Italian dialects, 31-49 , 2003
    2003
    Citations: 98
  • Heads and modifiers among determiners: Evidence from Rumanian
    G Giusti
    Advances in Roumanian linguistics, 103-125 , 1995
    1995
    Citations: 93
  • A unified structural representation of (abstract) case and article: evidence from Germanic
    G Giusti
    Studies in comparative Germanic syntax, 77-93 , 1995
    1995
    Citations: 88
  • The syntax of the Italian indefinite determiner dei
    A Cardinaletti, G Giusti
    Lingua 181, 58-80 , 2016
    2016
    Citations: 86
  • Indefinite determiners: Variation and optionality in Italo-Romance
    A Cardinaletti, G Giusti
    Advances in Italian dialectology, 135-161 , 2018
    2018
    Citations: 79