Acknowledgements

This book is the result of research I have done at the University of Bergamo and University of Pavia (Italy). First, I would like to thank an anonymous reviewer and the two editors of Typological Studies in Language Series, in particular Fernando Zúñiga, for their precious comments and corrections on the manuscript.

My work has benefited from several people with whom I had the opportunity to talk and discuss since the beginning of my project back in 2014. During the three years of my Ph.D. I had the privilege to visit several departments of linguistics; each of these visiting periods incredibly helped me in the process of growing up both professionally and personally. For this reason, I am very grateful to all the people I met.

I owe my most sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Sonia Cristofaro. She guided me since the very beginning from the selection of the topic to several discussions we had on the issues I encountered. I am in debt with her for having been a ‘background supervisor’ allowing me to make my own choices and mistakes and helping me when needed.

I would like to thank the people I met in Bergamo and Pavia. The professors who followed my work: Silvia Luraghi, Caterina Mauri, Andrea Sansò and Federica Venier. The colleagues with whom I spent a lot of time, a particular thank to Alessandra Barotto and Jessica Ivani (to whom I owe gratitude for the patience of having supported me during the last months of writing). I would also like to thank Ricca who very carefully read and commented the manuscript helping me improve it, and Francesca Masini for her support (and suggestions) during the months of revision of the manuscript in Bologna.

Then, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the people of the departments in which I was hosted, in particular: Martin Haspelmath (MPI-EVA, Leipzig), Martine Vanhove (LLACAN, Villejuif), Maarten Mous (LUCL, Leiden), Doris L. Payne (University of Oregon, Eugene), and Marianne Mithun (UCSB, Santa Barbara).

I owe a lot to the people who shared their data allowing me to look at specific constructions in specific languages: Martine Vanhove (Beja), Doris L. Payne (Maa), Spike Gildea (Akawaio and Cariban in general), Carol Alves (Arara), Nicolas Quint (Koalib). The case studies I have done helped in broadening my perspective from a very general and theoretical thinking to a language-specific and detail-oriented approach.

Finally, I owe gratitude to my family for the support they gave me. They always permitted and encouraged me to follow my interests and to do what I like to do: thank you very much.