Giulio Bajona

Profile

I came to Leeds in 2015 to do a Master’s in Linguistics at this University. I submitted a dissertation titled ‘Subjunctive ‘that’-clauses and ‘to’-infinitive clauses of English:A grammatical-dependency approach to mood and tense’, where I started to explore issues around the English ‘subjunctive mood’ from a syntactic perspective. This was also the starting point of my current PhD project, which is funded by WRoCAH (White Rose College of the Arts and Humanities).

 

Research interests

My research project looks at the development of the ‘subjunctive mood’ in present-day British English. I am particularly interested in the so-called ‘mandative subjunctive’, as in the sentence: ‘He requested that a vote be held’.

Building on my MA dissertation, I initially focused on the syntax-semantics interface of this construction; my project is now gradually developing to also include a social and historical perspective. I am currently looking at the discourse around the English subjunctive mood and perceptions of correctness in the UK from the 18th century. My ultimate goal is to demonstrate that, in order to truly understand these forms, we need multi-faceted models that combine syntactic and historical representations.   

This duality is also reflected in my overall research interests, which range from formal syntax to sociolinguistics. 

Finally, I am also one of the editors for Language@Leeds Working Papers, an online, peer-reviewed journal edited by postgraduate researchers. 

      

Qualifications

• BA Psychology, Universita' degli Studi di Palermo (Italy), 110/110 cum laude
• MA Developmental Psychology, Universita' degli Studi di Palermo (Italy), 110/110 cum laude
• MA Linguistics, University of Leeds, Distinction

Research groups and institutes

• Language at Leeds
• Language variation
• Formal Linguistics