Curriculum Vitae

About

• I am a postdoctoral researcher investigating adult language acquisition in migration contexts within the "LangInLife" project ("A lifetime with language: the nature and ontogeny of linguistic communication").
• My doctoral research focused on the selection of perfect HAVE with typically BE-selecting verbs in Italian. Specifically, I examined the role of semantic class as a predictor of auxiliary selection, alongside age-related effects in language acquisition and the influence of non-standardised Italo-Romance languages (so-called "dialects") on Italian unaccusative morphosyntax.

Department

• Department of Romance Languages and Literatures

Employment - Position

• Researcher II (Post-Doc)

Education and Academic Qualifications

• 2025: PhD in Linguistics; The University of Manchester; Thesis: "Non-standard bilingualism in Italy and the semantics of unaccusative verbs" (https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/non-standard-bilingualism-in-italy-and-the-semantics-of-unaccusat/)
• 2019: MA in Comparative Literatures and Cultures (English language and linguistics and Italian studies); University of Naples “L’Orientale”; 110 cum laude
• 2017: BA in Linguistic Mediation (Linguistic analysis and Translation, English and Portuguese); University of Naples “L’Orientale”; 110 cum laude

Research and Teaching Activities

• 2023: Research Assistant; Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, Netherlands
• 2022/2023: Teaching Assistant; The University of Manchester, UK
• 2022: Research Associate; The University of Manchester, UK
• 2020: Teaching Assistant; The University of Manchester, UK
• 2019: Teaching Assistant; The University of Bristol, UK
• 2015: Teaching Assistant; The University of Bristol, UK

Research interests

• Syntax-semantics interface
• Verb semantics
• Language acquisition
• Bilingualism

Major Publications

• TOBYN, Elizabeth. Perfect auxiliary selection with unaccusative verbs: insights from dialect-Italian bilinguals. In Bilingualism Matters Symposium (BMS), University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. 2025. info
• SLIM, Mieke Sarah; Elizabeth TOBYN a Caroline F. ROWLAND. Quantifier-Specific Usage Patterns Shape Learning—A Corpus Analysis on Universal Quantifiers in English and Dutch Child-Directed Language. First Language. SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD, 2025. ISSN 0142-7237. Dostupné z: https://doi.org/10.1177/01427237251385837. info
• SLIM, Mieke Sarah; Elizabeth TOBYN a Caroline F. ROWLAND. Quantifier-specific usage patterns shape learning – A corpus analysis on universal quantifiers in English and Dutch child-directed language. In 11th Biennial Experimental Pragmatics Conference (XPRAG 2025), Cambridge, UK. 2025. info
• TOBYN, Elizabeth. Perfective auxiliary selection in Palermitano-Italian and Sienese-Italian bilinguals. In LingO2024, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK. 2024. info
• TOBYN, Elizabeth. Auxiliary selection with verbs of non-quantized change in dialect-Italian bilinguals. In Cambridge Italian Dialect Syntax-Morphology Meeting 18 (CIDSM), University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. 2024. info
• TOBYN, Elizabeth; Delia BENTLEY a Simone DE CIA. Cambridge Italian Dialect Syntax-Morphology Meeting (CIDSM18). 2024. info
• TOBYN, Elizabeth; Núria BARRIOS-JURADO; Vanessa FUNG; Eve SUHARWARDY; Changxin KE a Zhiyao REN. Manchester Forum in Linguistics (MFiL) 2024. 2024. info
• TOBYN, Elizabeth. Auxiliary selection with verbs of indefinite change in dialect-Italian bilinguals. In Manchester Forum in Linguistics (MFiL), The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. 2023. info
• TOBYN, Elizabeth. The selection of HAVE with verbs expressing non-quantized change in Palermo. In Wroclaw Meeting of Young Philologists, Uniwersytet Wrocławski. 2023. info
• TOBYN, Elizabeth; Núria BARRIOS-JURADO; Michael CAMERON; Vanessa FUNG; Luísa FERRARI; Eve SUHARWARDY a Ellen SYMONDS. Manchester Forum in Linguistics (MFiL) 2023. 2023. info
• TOBYN, Elizabeth; Alina MCLELLAN; Núria BARRIOS-JURADO; Paul STOTT a Michael CAMERON. Manchester Forum in Linguistics (MFiL) 2022. 2022. info

2026/01/27