Anna Maria Di Sciullo facts for kids

Anna Maria Di Sciullo (born 1951) is a professor in the Linguistics Department at the Université du Québec à Montréal and visiting scientist at the Department of Linguistics at New York University. Her research areas are Theoretical Linguistics, Computational Linguistics and Biolinguistics.

Field of research

Dr. Di Sciullo's contributions to Theoretical Linguistics are centered on asymmetry as a cornerstone of the Language Faculty. Her research on the asymmetry of morphological relations provides a further understanding of the regularity of form and interpretation of word internal argument, aspect and operator structures. Her publications include two MIT Press books on the centrality of asymmetrical relations in morpho-syntax.

Her work in Computational Linguistics led to the formulation of the Asymmetry Recovering Parser, generating deterministic parses for linguistic expressions. She also developed a search engine sensitive to asymmetric relations, as well as a semantic mining system based on syntactic asymmetries and semantic compositionality.

Her contributions to Biolinguistics target the sensitivity of the human brain to morpho-syntactic asymmetries as well as the role of experience on morpho-syntactic variation. In addition to her publications in Brain and Language and BMC Evolutionary Biology, she published in 2017 four volumes on Biolinguistics, Critical concepts in Linguistics covering major contributions in the field.

Since 1998, she has directed Major Collaborative Research Initiatives highly funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and by the Fonds de recherche du Québec. In 2004 she founded the Federation on Natural Language Processing, bringing together main actors in the area of theoretical linguistics, computational linguistics and information technology, in 2007 she founded the International Network on Biolinguistics, bridging biology, linguistics and bioinformatics.

She has received numerous distinctions and awards, including the following. She has been elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1999, recipient of the Research Award of the Board of Directors of the University of Quebec in 2001, visiting scholar positions at Harvard and MIT in 2012, recipient of the André Laurendeau award in Human Sciences in 2016, and recently nominated for the Governor General of Canada innovation award.

Selected awards and nominations

• 2017 Nominated for the Canadian Governor General award for innovation
• 2016 Andre Laurendeau Award, ACFAS, Government of Quebec.
• 2015 Ambassador of Abruzzi in the world, Government of Italy.
• 2005-2018 Dynamic Interfaces (FQRSC I, II, III), Government of Quebec, $1.2M.
• 2007 Founder and Director of the International Network in Biolinguistics.
• 2003-2012 Interface Asymmetries (MCRI), SSHRC, Government of Canada, $2.5M.
• 2004 Founder and President of the Federation on Natural Language Processing
• 2001-2004 Natural language processing (VRQ), Government of Quebec, $1.2M.
• 1999 Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada
• 1998-2003 Natural Language Asymmetries (MCRI), SSHRC, Government of Canada, $1.8M.
• 1992-1996 The Modularity of Grammar: arguments, projections and variation, SSHRC, Government of Canada, $629577.
• 1990 Award for Excellence in Research, awarded by the board of Governors of the University of Quebec.