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The Institute for Language & Communication of the University of
Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium) offers <b>a PhD position</b> on the
topic: <b>Emerging discourse markers in the right periphery</b>. The
successful candidate will be hosted by the Research Center Valibel-
Discours & Variation
(<a href="http://www.uclouvain.be/valibel">www.uclouvain.be/valibel</a>)
and work in close collaboration with researchers involved in projects on
the grammaticalization of discourse markers.<br><br>
The aim of the PhD-project is to investigate to what extent the right
periphery of the utterance favours the emergence of new discourse
meanings, especially in the area of discourse markers. The right
periphery represents the end of a message at a moment in time where the
message itself exists and is manifest to both speaker and hearer.
Therefore the right periphery is the natural place to comment on a
message or to express expectations pertaining to it towards the
hearer.<br><br>
Recent work (e.g. Degand & Fagard in press) has shown that the
occurrence of discourse markers in the right periphery is a fairly recent
phenomenon and that the migration of discourse markers from initial and
medial position goes hand in hand with semantic change. From a synchronic
point of view, markers appearing at the right of their host unit of
discourse are exceptional (cf. Fraser 1999); however if they do appear in
this position, they tend to have an interpersonal function (cf. Brinton
1996), rather than an information-structuring one. They serve to confirm
shared assumptions, check or express understanding, request confirmation,
express deference or are used for face-saving (cf. Brinton 1996: 37).
Right-peripheral constructions reflect or invite attitudes towards the
message or the situation rather than contributing to the message itself.
This hypothesis seems to be confirmed by certain patterns of language
change, since the right periphery seems to be involved in the rise of
modal constructions such as modal particles.<br><br>
The first aim of the PhD-project is thus to discover whether one can
establish a “discourse marker paradigm” on the right periphery in speech
and/or writing in synchrony.<br><br>
The second aim of the project is to discover whether such a potential
discourse marker paradigm can be explained in diachronic terms. Following
Traugott (1982: 256) we will assume that “[i]f there occurs a
meaning-shift which, in the process of grammaticalization, entails shifts
from one functional-semantic component to another, then such a shift is
more likely to be from propositional through textual to expressive than
in reverse direction.”.<br><br>
Language of investigation will be French, preferably in contrast to one
or more other languages.<br><br>
<b>Profile</b>: MA in Linguistics, (near) native command of French, very
good knowledge of English, acquaintance with grammaticalization theory,
acquaintance with corpus analyses, knowledge of French in
diachrony<br><br>
<b>Starting date</b>: A soon as possible from October 1<sup>st</sup> 2010
on<br><br>
<b>Duration of the project</b>: 2 years, renewable once, monthly
allowance: +/- 1500 EUR (including social security) <br><br>
<b>Application: </b>Send complete CV and a research proposal compatible
with the general theme (2-3 pages) before <b>September 7<sup>th</sup>
2010</b> to:<br><br>
Prof. Liesbeth Degand<br>
Institute for Language and Communication<br>
Université catholique de Louvain<br>
Place B. Pascal 1<br>
1348 Louvain-la-Neuve<br>
Belgium<br>
liesbeth.degand@uclouvain.be <br>
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Liesbeth Degand <br>
Institute for Language and Communication (IL&C)<br>
VALIBEL - Discours et Variation <br>
Université catholique de Louvain <br>
Place B. Pascal, 1 <br>
B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve<br><br>
liesbeth.degand@uclouvain.be<br>
<a href="http://www.uclouvain.be/304220.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.uclouvain.be/304220.html<br>
</a>T. +32 10 474982<br>
F. +32 10 474942<br>
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