Acknowledgements

This book is based on my PhD thesis submitted at the University of Melbourne in 2016. I would like to thank my supervisors, John Hajek and Leo Kretzenbacher, who have been immensely valuable in providing guidance and support throughout the beautiful journey of my PhD and beyond. Also, I wouldn’t have been able to collect all the necessary data without the help of my family and friends in Italy, who have hosted me, introduced me to many interviewees, and provided insight into locals’ perspectives. My friends in Australia have also provided great support. The detailed and thoughtful observations made by the external examiners of the PhD thesis, as well as those made by the reviewers and the editors for John Benjamins, helped me to improve the material presented here both in its form and its content. The University of Melbourne, and the School of Languages and Linguistics in particular, have provided financial support as well as research assistance for the successful conduction of the project. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the generosity of the donors of the Emma Grollo memorial scholarship, who financially helped me to sustain my work in Italy.