Ignazia Tiziana Emmi
Tiziana Emmi is PhD in Modern Philology and researcher (RTDb) in Glottology and Linguistics at the University of Catania. She obteined the National Scientific Qualification for Associate Professor in the SSD 10/G1 “Glottology and Linguistics". She teaches “General linguistics with laboratory” in the degree programs in Literature and European euroamerican and oriental languages and culture and “Glottology and Linguistics” in the degree programs in Health Professions of Rehabilitation Sciences. She is the departmental delegate as a member of the Scientific Committee of the School of Italian Language and Culture (ITALSTRA).
For several years, she was a research fellow with projects related to i.) the formation of the Sicilian lexicon in synchrony (title of the research program: Un bene culturale dimenticato: l’opera linguistico-letteraria di Nino Martoglio e la formazione del lessico siciliano. Per una linguistica del territorio, from December 2008, for three years); ii.) Italian grammar writing (research program title: Le grammatiche dell’italiano per stranieri: teorie, norme, metodologie e sviluppi. La grammaticografia dell’italiano L2 nell’ultimo decennio alla luce dei cambiamenti in corso nella società italiana in direzione multietnica e plurilingue,, from July 2017, for two years) and the etymological analysis of the Sicilian lexicon of Latin origin (research program title: Il lessico del siciliano di matrice latina. Schedatura e analisi per la realizzazione di un Prontuario Etimologico Siciliano (PES), from September 2022 for two years).
She is currently continuing her work on this latter line of research with a Starting Grant Project (Pia.ce.ri., Line of Intervention 3) of which he is PI, entitled: Latin heritage and learned Latin in the lexicon of Sicily. Synchronic and diachronic etymological research for the compilation of the Prontuario Etimologico Siciliano (PES).
Her research interests include theoretical and descriptive studies of language, historical linguistics, and studies related to language teaching.
Her most recent publications include the monograph Lessico siciliano in movimento. Uno studio sulla formazione delle parole in diacronia (Palermo 2023) and the contributions: Fissità, which appeared in Manuale di fraseologia italiana (Edizioni dell'Orso 2025), and Elementi galloitalici in area etnea settentrionale (Palermo 2025).
My research interests concern theoretical and descriptive studies on language, historical linguistics, and language teaching studies, and are divided into four main areas:
i.) inflectional and lexical morphology of Italian and dialects, with particular reference to word formation in modern and ancient Sicilian (from a synchronic and historical perspective), the history of linguistic thought and studies related to Wortbildung, and through the analysis of word formation in grammars;
ii.) phraseology, both from a theoretical perspective and in relation to the treatment of complex lexemes in grammars and dictionaries;
iii.) the relationship between literature and dialect: marked uses of lexicon and syntax in literary works;
iv.) acquisition, interlanguages, and learning.