
Maria Rita Manzini
Maria Rita Manzini is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Florence. She is known for her work on syntax, syntactic variation, principles and parameters, Romance languages and Balkan languages.
She studied at the University of Pisa and the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, writing her thesis (1979) on control and the generative syntax of Italian. In 1983 she completed a PhD at MIT, advised by Noam Chomsky, with a dissertation titled ‘Restructuring and Reanalysis’.
Books

Studime në gjuhësinë shqiptare
L.M. Savoia; M. R. Manzini; B. Baldi (2015). Prishtinë: Akademia e Shkencave dhe Arteve e Kosovës – Seksioni i Gjuhësisë dhe i Letërsisë, ISBN:978-9951-615-47-1

Work notes on Romance morphosyntax – Appunti di morfosintassi romanza
M. R. Manzini; L. M. Savoia (2008). Work notes on Romance morphosyntax – Appunti di morfosintassi romanza. Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso, ISBN:9788862740708

I dialetti italiani e romanci. Morfosintassi generativa. v. I: INTRODUZIONE – IL SOGGETTO – LA STRUTTURA DEL COMPLEMENTATORE: FRASI INTERROGATIVE, RELATIVE E ASPETTI DELLA SUBORDINAZIONE – Vol. I – Vol. II – Vol. III
M. R. Manzini; L. M. Savoia (2005). Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso, ISBN:9788876948350

L’italiano come L2 nella scuola scuola dell’obbligo
G. Cocchi; M. Giusti; M. R. Manzini; T. Mori; L. M. Savoia (1996). L’italiano come L2 nella scuola scuola dell’obbligo. Roma: Bulzoni, ISBN:9788871199887

Locality. A theory and some of its empirical consequences
M. R. Manzini (1992). Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, ISBN:9780262631402
Papers
Forthcoming (submitted for publication)
2025
G. Scontras; M.R. Manzini; G. Mazzaggio (2025). Italian Adjective Order Is Not Predicted by Syntactic Hierarchies and Movement. LINGUISTIC INQUIRY, pp. 1-19, ISSN:0024-3892.
2024
M.R. Manzini (2024). Negative Concord by phase. Multiple downward Agree and the parametrization of edge features. THE LINGUISTIC REVIEW, vol. 41, pp. 1-38, ISSN:1613-3676.
M.R. Manzini (2024). Italian and Arbëresh (Albanian) causatives. ISOGLOSS, vol. 10, pp. 1-34, ISSN:2385-4138.
M.R. Manzini (2024). DOM and ergative as structural oblique cases in an Agree framework. In: Christina Sevdali, Dionysios Mertyris, Elena Anagnostopoulou. The Place of Case in Grammar, pp. 127-153, New York: Oxford University Press, ISBN:9780198865926
2023
G. Rugna; M.R. Manzini (2023). Partial Wh-Movement in North Italo-Romance and the FormCopy Analysis of Wh-Doubling. QUADERNI DI LINGUISTICA E STUDI ORIENTALI, vol. 9, pp. 161-176, ISSN:2421-7220.
F. Foppolo; G. Mazzaggio; L. Franco; M.R. Manzini (2023). A group of researchers are testing pseudopartitives in Italian: Notional number is not the key to the facts. GLOSSA PSYCHOLINGUISTICS, vol. 2, pp. 1-34, ISSN:2767-0279.
2022
E. Bidese; M.R. Manzini (2022). Progressive and prospective aspect in a German dialect in Italy. In: Hanna Fischer, Melitta Gillmann, Mirjam Schmuck. Aspektualität in Varietäten des Deutschen, pp. 141-164, Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag, ISBN:978-3-96769-241-9.
M.R. Manzini (2022). Romance causatives and ergativity. In: Nora Boneh, Daniel Harbour, Ora Matushansky, Isabelle Roy. Building on Babel’s rubble, pp. 271-292, Paris: Presses Universitaires de Vincennes, ISBN:9782379242373.
M.R. Manzini; D. Pescarini (2022). The clitic string as a Pair Merge sequence. GLOSSA, pp. 1-37, ISSN:2397-1835.
M.R. Manzini; P. Lorusso (2022). A bisentential syntax for a/bare finite complements in South Italian varieties: Motion verbs and the progressive. In: Giuliana Giusti, Vincenzo Nicolò Di Caro, Daniel Ross. Pseudo-Coordination and Multiple Agreement Constructions, pp. 65-98, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, ISBN:9789027210883.
2021
M. R. Manzini; L. M. Savoia; B. Baldi (2021). -ŋ plurals in North Lombard varieties Differential plural marking and phases. In: Sergio Baauw, Frank Drijkoningen, Luisa Meroni. Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2018: Selected papers from ‘Going Romance’ 32, Utrecht, pp. 152-170 John Benjamins.
L. Franco; M. R. Manzini; L. M. Savoia (2021). Locative Ps as general relators: Location, direction, DOM in Romance. LINGUISTIC VARIATION, pp. 135-173, ISSN:2211-6834.
M. R. Manzini (2021). Chomsky’s (2020) Links and linker phenomena. QUADERNI DI LINGUISTICA E STUDI ORIENTALI, vol. 7, pp. 89-102, ISSN:2421-7220.
M. R. Manzini (2021). Morphology as syntax, features as categories, functional cascades. ISOGLOSS, vol. 7, pp. 1-8, ISSN:2385-4138.
2020
M. R. Manzini; L. M. Savoia; L. Franco (2020). DOM and Dative in (Italo-)Romance. In: András Bárány, Laura Kalin. Case, Agreement, and their Interactions, pp. 219-270, Berlino: De Gruyter, ISBN:978-3-11-066623-6.
G. Mazzaggio; L. Franco; M. R. Manzini (2020). Pseudopartitives vs. agreement attraction: an experimental study. LINGUE E LINGUAGGIO, vol. XIX, pp. 159-190, ISSN:1720-9331.
M. R. Manzini; L. M. Savoia (2020). Person splits in Romance: Implications for parameter theory. In: András Bárány, Theresa Biberauer, Jamie Douglas & Sten Vikner. Syntactic architecture and its consequences II: Between syntax and morphology, pp. 403-434 Language science Press, ISBN:978-3-96110-288-4.
M. R. Manzini (2020). The morphosyntactic structure of number in Italian and Albanian. High and low plurals. CATALAN JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS, vol. 19, pp. 127-157, ISSN:2014-9719.
M. R. Manzini (2020). Romance a-phrases and their clitic counterparts. Agreement and mismatches. In: Anna Pineda & Jaume Mateu. Dative constructions in Romance and beyond, pp. 351-370 Language Science Press, ISBN:978-3-96110-249-5.
L. M. Savoia; B. Baldi; M. R. Manzini (2020). Micro-Variation in Nominal Plural in NorthLombard and Neighbouring Rhaeto-Romance Varieties. A Phasal Treatment. In: Karolina Drabikowska, Anna Prazmowska. Exploring Variation in Linguistic Patterns, pp. 13-38, Lublino: Wydawnictwo KUL, ISBN:9788380618923.
2019
M. R. Manzini (2019). Parameters and the design of the language faculty: Northern Italian partial null subjects. EVOLUTIONARY LINGUISTIC THEORY, vol. 1:1, pp. 24-56, ISSN:2589-1588.
L. Bafile; M. R. Manzini (2019). From Phonological Rules to the Person Case Constraint. Monovalent vs. Bivalent Features in Grammar. QUADERNI DI LINGUISTICA E STUDI ORIENTALI, pp. 9-53, ISSN:2421-7220.
M. R. Manzini; L. M. Savoia (2019). N morphology and its interpretation. Romance feminine singular/plural -a. In: Silvio Cruschina, Adam Ledgeway, Eva-Maria Remberger. Italian dialectology at the interfaces, pp. 257-293 John Benjamins.
M. R. Manzini; L. Franco (2019). ‘Agreement of structural obliques’ parameter. LINGVISTICAE INVESTIGATIONES, pp. 82-101, ISSN:0378-4169.
M. R. Manzini; A. Roussou (2019). Morphological and Syntactic (non-)finiteness. A Comparison between English and Balkan Languages. QUADERNI DI LINGUISTICA E STUDI ORIENTALI, pp. 195-229, ISSN:2421-7220.
M. R. Manzini (2019). The Agreement of Structural Obliques Parameter. Pseudopartitives, DOM and partitive articles in Romance. STUDIES IN POLISH LINGUISTICS, pp. 35-51, ISSN:2300-5920.
M. R. Manzini; L. Franco; L. M. Savoia (2019). Suffixaufnahme, oblique case and Agree. In: franco, ludovico; mihaela marchis moreno; matthew reeve. Agreement, case and locality in the nominal and verbal domains, pp. 211-255, berlino: Language Science Press, ISBN:978-3-96110-201-3.
L. M. Savoia; B.Baldi; M. R. Manzini (2019). Asymmetries in Plural Agreement in DPs. In: Joseph Emonds, Markéta Janebová, Ludmila Veselovská. Language Use and Linguistic Structure Proceedings of the Olomouc Linguistics Colloquium 2018, pp. 204-224, Olomouc: Palacký University Olomouc, ISBN:978-80-244-5525-9.
2018
M. R. Manzini; L. M. Savoia (2018). What orders the Romance clitic strings? Against precompiled hierachies. In: Danniel da Silva Carvalho, Dorothy Bezerra Silva de Brito. Pronomes. Morfossintaxe e semantica, pp. 15-37, Salvador – Bahia: Edufba, ISBN:978-85-232-1667-2.
2017
L. Franco; M. R. Manzini (2017). Instrumental prepositions and case: Contexts of occurrence and alternations with datives. GLOSSA, vol. 2, pp. 1-37, ISSN:2397-1835.
M. R. Manzini; L. M. Savoia (2017). N morphology and its interpretation: The neuter in Italian and Albanian varieties.. In: Anna Bloch-Rozmej, Anna Bondaruk. Constraints on Structure and Derivation in Syntax, Phonology and Morphology, pp. 213-236, Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, ISBN:978-3-631-67379-9
M. R. Manzini; L. M. Savoia (2017). CASE IN THE NOMINAL AND PRONOMINAL SYSTEMS IN AROMANIAN: OBLIQUE CASE AND ITS INTERACTIONS WITH THE PERSON SPLIT. REVUE ROUMAINE DE LINGUISTIQUE, vol. LXII, pp. 115-142, ISSN:0035-3957.
2016
M. R. Manzini; L. M. Savoia (2016). Caso e proprietà denotazionali: la flessione nominale nella varietà ghega di Shkodër. In: Benedetta Baldi, Leonardo M. Savoia. La lingua e i parlanti. Studi e ricerche di linguistica, pp. 79-93, Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso, ISBN:978-88-6274-735-6.
L. Franco; M. R. Manzini (2016). The instrumental: dative and its double. In: Benedetta Baldi, Leonardo M. Savoia. La Lingua e i Parlanti. Studi e ricerche di linguistica, pp. 3-49, Alessandria: Edizioni dell’Orso, ISBN:978-88-6274-735-6.
M. R. Manzini; L. Franco (2016). Goal and DOM datives. NATURAL LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTIC THEORY, vol. 34, pp. 197-240, ISSN:0167-806XM. R. Manzini; L. Franco (2016). Goal and DOM datives. NATURAL LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTIC THEORY, vol. 34, pp. 197-240, ISSN:0167-806X.
2015
M. R. Manzini (2015). Italian adverbs and discourse particles. In: Josef Bayer, Roland Hinterholzl, Andreas Trotzke. Discourse-Oriented Syntax, pp. 93-120 John Benjamins, ISBN:978 90 272 5709 3.
M. R. Manzini (2015). On the substantive primitives of morphosyntax and their parametrization: Northern Italian subject clitics. In: Marc van Oosterdorp, Henk van Riemsdijk. Representing structure in phonology and syntax, pp. 167-194 Mouton De Gruyter, ISBN:978-1-5015-1066-3.
L. Franco; M. R. Manzini; L. M. Savoia (2015). N morphology and its interpretation: The neuter in Central Italian varieties and its implications. ISOGLOSS, vol. Isogloss 2015, Special Issue, pp. 41-67, ISSN:2385-4138.
M. R. Manzini; L. M. Savoia (2015). Notes on the contact between Italo-Albanian and Romance (Calabrian, Lucanian) varieties: borrowings, code-mixing and convergence. HYLLI I DRITËS, vol. 35, pp. 92-116, ISSN:1816-5885.
M. R. Manzini; L. M. Savoia (2015). Causatives and ‘inverse’ agreement in Ginestra (Arbëresh). In: Bardhil Demiraj, Matteo Mandalà, Shaban Sinani. STUDIME Në nderim të prof. Francesco Altimarit me rastin e 60-vjetorit të lindjes STUDI In onore del prof. Francesco Altimari in occasione del 60° compleanno, pp. 345-364, Tirana: Albpaper, Tiranë, ISBN:9789928051868.
2014
M. R. Manzini (2014). The Romance k- complementizers. In: Peter Svenonius. Functional Structure from Top to Toe The Cartography of Syntactic Structures, Volume 9, pp. 148-187, New York: Oxford University Press USA, ISBN:9780199740390
M. R. Manzini (2014). Grammatical categories: Strong and weak pronouns in Romance. LINGUA, vol. 150, pp. 171-201, ISSN:0024-3841.
2012
M. R. Manzini (2012). From Romance clitics to case Split accusativity and the person case constraint. In: Franco, Irene, Sara Lusini and Andrés Saab (eds.). Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 2010: Selected papers from ‘Going Romance’ Leiden 2010., pp. 1-20 JOHN BENJAMINS, ISBN:9789027203847.
2011
M. R. Manzini; L. M. Savoia (2011). Reducing ‘case’ to denotational primitives: Nominal inflections in Albanian. LINGUISTIC VARIATION, vol. 11, pp. 76-120, ISSN:2211-6834.
M. R. Manzini; L. M. Savoia (2011). (Bio)linguistic variation: have/ be alternations in the present perfect. In: A. M. Di Sciullo, C. Boeckx. The Biolinguistic Enterprise: New Perspectives on the Evolution and Nature of the Human Language Faculty, pp. 222-265, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN:9780199553280.








