Giuseppina Silvestri

Giuseppina Silvestri is a Lecturer in the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her academic affiliation is within the College of Letters and Science. She holds a Ph.D. from the University of Pisa (2013). Her primary research focuses on comparative and historical Indo-European linguistics, particularly in the domains of Italo-Romance and Greek varieties in southern Italy. Key areas include morphosyntactic variation, theoretical syntax (parametric approach), glotto-genetics, and interfaces between phonology-syntax and syntax-semantics.

Her work explores language contact phenomena, such as the structural convergence between Greek and Romance dialects in regions like Calabria and Salento. She investigates topics like complementizer systems, aspectual morphology, infinitival vs. finite constructions, and grammaticalization processes. Notable studies address the role of contact in shaping morphosyntactic features such as perfective aspect, negative imperatives, and possessive constructions in endangered Italo-Greek varieties.

Silvestri’s research also delves into phonology-syntax interactions, such as propagation phenomena and word-final schwa licensing in southern Italian dialects. Her contributions highlight syntactic microvariation and parameter hierarchies in Italo-Romance, with a focus on features like differential object marking, participle agreement, and adverb agreement. Her work bridges empirical dialectology with formal syntactic theory, offering insights into syntactic phylogeny and the historical reality of biolinguistic diversity.