Blog CRC1646

I have recently completed a three-month research stay at Bielefeld University, from 1 March to 31 May 2026, as part of the SFB 1646 project A03, “The creative listener: Interpretation at the interface of prosody, syntax and information structure”. I am currently pursuing my PhD at the University of Turin and the University of Genoa, at the Laboratorio di Fonetica Sperimentale “Arturo Genre”, where my research focuses on the prosodic and phonetic analysis of Italian poetic speech. More specifically, my doctoral project is connected to Voices of Italian Poets, a research archive and methodological framework devoted to the study of poetry read aloud by Italian poets.

The aims of my research aligned very well with the broader goals of the CRC and, in particular, with those of project A03, which investigates how listeners creatively interpret utterances in which prosody and/or information structure do not fully match a given context. This provided an ideal environment for extending my work on poetic speech, where mismatches between prosody, syntax, metre, and textual structure are often central to how meaning is produced and perceived.

Together with Professor Petra Wagner, I developed my research stay along two main directions. The first concerned the design of a perception experiment on mismatches between verse boundaries, syntax, and metre in Italian poetry. The experiment investigates how Italian native speakers perceive and recover poetic line boundaries when these occur in contexts of asymmetry between traditional metrical structure and syntactic organization. The study is currently being circulated, and the first results already appear solid and promising.

During my stay, I also had the opportunity to discuss my work with Professor Claudia Hillebrandt and Professor Berenike Herrmann. These exchanges helped me broaden the scope of my research by connecting phonetic and prosodic analysis with computational literary studies and digital humanities. Our discussions highlighted the importance of integrating quantitative approaches to timing, intonation, pauses, and rhythm with a continued attention to textual meaning, poetic form, and literary interpretation.

My integration into the phonetics group at CITEC was also extremely valuable. Sharing an office with Dr Fritz Seebauer was particularly stimulating, especially because of our discussions on statistics, Bayesian modelling, and data analysis. I also had the opportunity to discuss pausing strategies, rhythm, and quantitative analysis of speech data with Dr Simon Betz. During one of the group meetings, I presented my doctoral research and received important feedback on my work on intonation, rhythm, and voice quality in poetic speech.

More generally, the three months in Bielefeld were full of academic exchanges, discussions, and learning opportunities. Being part of the A03 project and of the phonetics group allowed me to work in a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary environment. Although my research focuses on Italian poetic speech, the questions addressed by the CRC — creativity, interpretation, prosody, syntax, information structure, and cross-linguistic variation — offered a broader theoretical framework in which my own work could be productively situated.

The stay was also very positive from a personal point of view. I appreciated the work-life balance, the welcoming atmosphere of the group, and the opportunity to experience life in Bielefeld and travel through northern Germany. The phonetics group was extremely welcoming from the very beginning, and I felt included, supported, and encouraged throughout my stay.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Prof. Petra Wagner, to the members of project A03, to the phonetics group at CITEC, and to the wider CRC community for their support, feedback, and hospitality. I am confident that the collaborations initiated during this fellowship will continue in the future, and I sincerely hope to return to Bielefeld soon to keep working together.

Petra Wagner & Frederico Lo Iacono in front of the X-Building of Bielefeld University © Frederico Lo Iacono