Acknowledgements
This book represents a thoroughly revised version of my doctoral dissertation, which I defended in February 2019 at the University of Pavia/University of Bergamo. These few words are intended as a sincere thank you to all the people who have supported and helped me since the start of this project.
First of all, my most sincere thanks go to my supervisor, Silvia Luraghi. She has encouraged me to venture into the intricacies of Hittite grammar, and has closely followed each stage of this project with attention and dedication. Once again, I find myself expressing her my gratitude for her constant advice and stimulating criticism. I am also indebted to my other co-advisors, Sonia Cristofaro, Pierluigi Cuzzolin, and Andrea Sansò, for sharing their knowledge with me and commenting over various earlier drafts of this work.
A profound thank you also goes to Craig Melchert, who encouraged me to submit the book to the series Brill’s Studies in Indo-European Language and Linguistics and shared with me stimulating comments and critical thoughts at every stage of the project. This book would have looked rather different without his invaluable support.
Over the past years, I have greatly benefited from discussion with several scholars, whose comments have always proven helpful in improving the quality of this book. I thank Paola Cotticelli, Mauro Giorgieri, Petra Goedegebuure, Yaroslav Gorbachov, Willemijn Waal, Maarten Mous, Michela Cennamo, Laura Grestenberger, and Chiara Gianollo for sharing with me their most useful comments and insights on many crucial points.
Part of this research has been carried out during two visiting periods at the University of Leiden and at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. I would like to thank Alwin Kloekhorst and Theo van den Hout for their warm hospitality and for taking their time to discuss aspects of this work with me. My heartfelt thank you also goes to those young colleagues who have made my time abroad a pleasant and stimulating experience with their friendship and their scientific support: Michele Bianconi, Xander Vertegaal, Stefan Norbruis, Thalia Lysen, and Emily Smith.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge the support of the FWO and of Jean Christophe Verstraete and Hendrik De Smet for having allowed me to complete this book during the first months of my postdoctoral fellowship at KU Leuven. I also want to thank Elisa Perotti and all the staff at Brill for kindly helping me see this project through.
I would not have been able to complete this book without the (almost daily) support of my PhD colleagues. Among them, I am especially grateful to Chiara Zanchi for her brilliant mind and her never-ending support since the day we first discussed historical linguistics in my freshman year. Silvia Ballarè and Silvia Micheli also deserve a special mention: I am lucky that these years of work together have turned into a profound friendship. My last thank you goes to my family and to all my friends, for standing by my side for better and for (my) worse.
This project has been carried out thanks to the support of the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, Prin 2015 Project “Transitivity and Argument Structure in Flux” (grant 20159M7X5P_002, University of Pavia, principal investigator Silvia Luraghi).