Research Interests
Text linguistics
The pragmatics of discourse and conversation
Corpus linguistics
Stylistics
Multimodality
TESOL
(Audiovisual) translation
Research topics
Referential strategies: anaphora and deixis in oral and written texts
The pragmatic functions of some discourse markers from a contrastive viewpoint: (in fact vs infatti)
Hostorical pragmatics: the use of pronouns and terms of address in the language of Shakespeare
Paraphrase as a strategic instrument to reformulate and ease comprehension
Speech acts in English and Italian (in AVT): compliments and conversational routines, greetings, leave-takings and social pleasantries
Stylistics: say and manner of speaking verbs in Jane Austen; say and manner of speaking verbs in the Italian translations of Little Women and in the English translations of Pinocchio, reporting signals in Harry Potter and its Italian translations
Politeness, especially with reference to compliments and pragmatic meaning in dubbing and subtitling from English into Italian
Conversational routines in language teaching
Representing cultural identity thorugh varieties in audiovisual texts and their translations
Political interviews as a hybrid genre between spontaneous and planned orality
Creativity and innovation in teen talk
Research projects
1997-1999 National research project “Corpora and telematic networks for the comprehension, production and translation of specialised discourse” (project coordinator Prof. Lavinia Merlini Barbaresi, University of Pisa).
1998-2000 National research project “CITATAL – Corpora on line, hypermedia, translation, textual analysis and language learning” (project coordinator Prof. Carol Taylor Torsello, University of Padua), funded by the Italian Ministry of Education and Research.
2000-2002 National research project “LINGUATEL”: a telematic project of language and interlanguage mediation (project coordinator Prof. Carol Taylor Torsello, University of Padua), funded by the Italian Ministry of Education and Research .
2002 University of Pavia, “Metadiscourse in specialised texts and conversation: paraphrase and incapsulations”.
2002-2004 National research project “DIDACTAS” (project coordinator Prof. Christopher Taylor, University of Trieste; local research unit, University of Pavia “CCT: Corpora, Cinema, Translation” coordinated by Prof. Anthony Baldry), funded by the Italian Ministry of Education and Research.
2003 University of Pavia, research project with Prof. Annamaria Caimi, “Construction of corpora for comparative analysis, comprehension, translation and testing of general and specialised English”.
2005-2007 National research project “eColingua: e-corpora in linguistic and multimodal studies, translation, language learning and on-line testing” (project coordinator Prof. Christopher Taylor, University of Trieste; local research unit, University of Pavia “Translation and English language learning in multimedia contexts” coordinated by Prof. Maria Pavesi).
2015-2017 National research project (PRIN)“Knowledge Dissemination across media in English: continuity and change in discourse strategies, ideologies, and epistemologies” (project coordinator Prof. Marina Bondi, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia; local research unit, University of Pisa, coordinated by Prof. Belinda Crawford).
2017-18 Principal investigator of the Pisa University project (PRA_2017_53) “Efficienza pragmatica e comprensione di testi in L1 e L2 in giovani adulti normolettori e dislessici” (Pragmatic efficiency and text comprehension in L1 and L2 readers with and without dyslexia).
2022-2025 National research project ((PRIN 2020NNJTW3) “The informalisation of English language learning through the media: language input, learning outcomes and sociolinguistic attitudes from an Italian perspective” (project coordinator Prof. Maria Gabriella Pavesi, University of Pavia; local research unit, University of Pisa, coordinator Prof. Silvia Bruti).