He then went on to earn a Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1984.
His dissertation, chaired by Barbara Partee, was titled "Topics in the Syntax and Semantics of Infinitives and Gerunds.
"[2] Chierchia began his professorial career when he served as Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Brown University from 1983 to 1985.
He then continued in the same role at Cornell University from 1985 to 1992, before moving back to his native Italy.
In 2014, Chierchia was named as Fellow of the Linguistic Society of America.