Doctoral Fellowships at Rice University

[Suzanne E Kemmer]

                          DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS
                             IN LINGUISTICS
                           AT RICE UNIVERSITY

The Department of Linguistics at Rice University announces the opening
of competition for its doctoral fellowships for 2000-2001.

The Ph.D. program at Rice emphasizes the study of language use, the
relation of language and mind, and functional approaches to linguistic
theory and description. A strong component of the program is field
studies in particular language areas. Areas of intensive research
activity in the department include cognitive/functional linguistics,
language universals and typology, language change and
grammaticalization studies, lexical semantics, corpus linguistics,
computational modelling, neurolinguistics, phonetics,
sociolinguistics, and second language acquisition.

Interdisciplinary opportunities are available with the Ph.D. programs
in Cognitive Psychology, Philosophy, Anthropology, the interdisciplinary
group in Cognitive Sciences, and the Center for Cultural Studies.

The department hosts a distinguished speakers series, whose recent
and imminent speakers include Marianne Mithun, Wallace Chafe, Tom Givon,
Megan Crowhurst, and Knud Lambrecht.

The department also sponsors a biennial Symposium on Language. The
upcoming Symposium in April 2000 is "Causation and Interpersonal
Manipulation in the Languages of Central and South America." The last
two symposia were "The Interface between Comparative Linguistics and
Grammaticalization: Languages of the Americas" (1997) and "Usage-Based
Models of Language" (1995). Speakers have included Bernd Heine,
Alexandra Aikhenvald, Berend Hoff, Ronald Langacker, Joan Bybee, Brian
MacWhinney, Janet Pierrehumbert, Douglas Biber, Tom Givon, John Du
Bois, Mira Ariel, and Arie Verhagen.

FACULTY AND RESEARCH INTERESTS

Michel Achard, Ph.D. Linguistics, University of California, San
   Diego. Cognitive linguistics, French syntax, second language acquisition.

Michael Barlow, Ph.D. Linguistics, Stanford University. Grammatical
   theory, corpus linguistics, computational linguistics, second
   language acquisition, discourse.

James Copeland, Chair, Ph.D. Linguistics, Cornell University.
   Functional linguistics, Germanic linguistics, grammaticalization,
   American Indian linguistics (Tarahumara).

Philip W. Davis, Ph.D. Linguistics, Cornell University. Semantics and
   syntax, language and intelligence, Amerindian (Bella Coola; Alabama),
   Austronesian (Atayal, Ilokano, Yogad inter alia).

Spike Gildea, Ph.D. Linguistics, University of Oregon. Diachronic
   syntax, field methods and ethics, phonology, typological/functional
   linguistics, Amazonian linguistics, Cariban languages (Akawayo,
   Arekuna, Tiriyo).

Suzanne Kemmer, Ph.D. Linguistics, Stanford University. Cognitive
   linguistics, typology and universals, lexical semantics, semantics
   of grammar, syntactic and semantic change, Germanic, Austronesian,
   Nilo-Saharan (Luo).

Sydney Lamb, Ph.D. Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley.
   Cognitive linguistics, neurolinguistics, neural network modelling,
   Amerindian (Monachi).

E. Douglas Mitchell, Ph.D. Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin.
   Comparative Indo-European linguistics, historical linguistics,
   history of linguistics, early Germanic dialects, Sanskrit.

Nancy Niedzielski, Ph.D. Linguistics, University of California, Santa
   Barbara. Phonetics, digital speech processing, language and
   society, American dialectology.

Stephen A. Tyler, Ph.D. Anthropology, Stanford University. Cognitive
   studies, philosophy of language, anthropological linguistics,
   languages of India (Koya).


FINANCIAL AID

Graduate fellowships include tuition and a cash stipend. Fellowships
are normally renewable for four years upon satisfactory performance,
and students can apply for a fifth year of support. The department
has so far been fortunate to be able to support all its graduate students.

RICE UNIVERSITY

Rice University, founded in 1912, is a private university dedicated to
the promotion of arts and letters, science, and engineering. The
university is highly selective, and departments are small and
focused. The campus is spacious, tree-lined, and architecturally
distinctive (a blend of Mediterranean and Renaissance). Rice is a
close-knit academic community and the Department of Linguistics in
particular offers opportunities for personalized interaction and
collaboration with faculty.  Current enrollment is ca. 2700 under-
graduates and 1,200 graduate students; faculty:student ratio is 1:9.

Houston is the America's fourth largest city and offers the full array
of urban amenities (fine arts, large city parks, museums...). It is
ethnically extremely diverse (affording not only excellent
opportunities for working with linguistic consultants, but also a huge
number of restaurants representing a wide spectrum of cuisines at
all levels of affordability.) The university is 45 minutes from the Gulf
Coast (Galveston Island). Rents are affordable on a graduate stipend.

The university and department offer a wide range of computing
facilities available to students.  The library has an outstanding
linguistics collection, including a vast array of reference grammars.
Doctoral students are eligible for support for travel to conferences
and for summer research funds.  The department also supports
linguistic consultant fees and photocopying accounts for its doctoral
students.

Both U.S. and international applicants are admitted on the same basis.
Current graduate students include not only U.S. students but also
students from Australia, Brazil, China, and Germany.  Prospective
students of diverse linguistic backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

Visiting students with their own funding who would like to come to
Rice for a limited time to work with an individual faculty member
should contact that faculty member directly.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: February 1, 2000.

Prospective applicants for the Ph.D. program must take the Graduate
Record Examination as soon as possible, and have the results sent to
the university in time for consideration in February. Non-native
speakers of English must also take the TOEFL test.

Admission is competitive.

For more information about the program and the application process,
please contact:

Department of Linguistics, MS 23
Rice University
P.O. Box 1892
Houston TX 77251-1892
(713) 527-6010
Departmental Coordinator: Ursula Keierleber, ukeie at ruf.rice.edu
Graduate Adviser: Philip Davis, pwd at ruf.rice.edu

See also the home page at http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~ling