26.3611, Jobs: Baltic; Slavic; Russian; General Linguistics; Historical Linguistics: Principal Investigator, University of Mainz

Wed Aug 12 18:38:15 UTC 2015

LINGUIST List: Vol-26-3611. Wed Aug 12 2015. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 26.3611, Jobs: Baltic; Slavic; Russian; General Linguistics; Historical Linguistics: Principal Investigator, University of Mainz

Moderators: linguist at linguistlist.org (Damir Cavar, Malgorzata E. Cavar)
Reviews: reviews at linguistlist.org (Anthony Aristar, Helen Aristar-Dry, Sara Couture)
Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

*****************    LINGUIST List Support    *****************
Please support the LL editors and operation with a donation at:
              http://funddrive.linguistlist.org/donate/

Editor for this issue: Andrew Lamont <alamont at linguistlist.org>
================================================================

Date: Wed, 12 Aug 2015 14:38:07
From: Björn Wiemer [wiemerb at uni-mainz.de]
Subject: Baltic; Slavic; Russian; General Linguistics; Historical Linguistics: Principal Investigator, University of Mainz, Mainz, Germany

University or Organization: University of Mainz 
Department: TriMCo-Project, Department of Slavic Studies
Job Location: Mainz, Germany 
Web Address: https://www.trimco.uni-mainz.de/
Job Title: Full position of the principal investigator
Job Rank: Researcher

Specialty Areas: General Linguistics; Historical Linguistics 

Required Language(s): Russian (rus)
                      Baltic 
                      Slavic 

Description:

The project “Triangulation Approach for Modelling Convergence with a High Zoom-In Factor” (TriMCo) has to offer a full position of a principal investigator for the period Jan. 2016-Feb. 2017. The DFG-financed project is hosted at Mainz University under the guidance of Björn Wiemer.

Payscale: TVL-EG 13, 100%, January 2016 – February 2017 (13 months)

JGU Mainz, project TriMCo (see https://www.trimco.uni-mainz.de/)

The project aims at methodological triangulation of factors that contribute to structural convergence in a small-scale area among (for the most part) closely related varieties, namely the Baltic-Slavic contact zone situated at the intersection of East Slavic and Baltic dialects (Lithuania, Belarus, Latgalia/Latvia). In connection with this the project also pursues the aim of profiling this small area by mapping it onto the background of increasingly larger concentric areas. Among other issues, we are inquiring into the following type of questions: Which features can really claim to have arisen as exclusive innovations (or archaisms)? How are particular features “inserted” into larger clines? How do different clines intersect in the chosen small area? How can features of different complexity be weighed against each other as for their significance in constituting a ‘contact superposition zone’? How can we account for less spectacular features in order to profile the region on t
 he background of larger clines?

In parallel, a corpus of dialectal speech for East Slavic and Baltic dialects involved in that area is being built up, and it will be enhanced further.

Applicants are required to have:

- PhD in Slavic, Baltic or General Linguistics (but with a research focus on Slavic and/or Baltic).
- Good knowledge of Russian and at least one of the Baltic languages (Latvian (Latgalian), Lithuanian); additional knowledge of Belarusian and/or Polish is a plus.
- Fluent command of English (written and spoken).

Preference will be given to candidates with the following skills:

- Experience in corpus linguistics (the project’s corpus is run on ELAN)
- Experience with related computer tools
- At least basic skills in statistics is a plus
- Research experience in the following linguistic areas: areal linguistics, dialect geography and dialectometry, language variation
- Knowledge in diachronic linguistics (in particular of the Baltic-Slavic region)
- Communicative competence and ability to work in a team
- Knowledge of German is another plus

The successful applicant will be given a chance to develop her/his own agenda. This should be done in tight connection with the agenda of the project, which is research on language contact phenomena between Baltic and East Slavic including regional Polish. The research should be based on the TriMCo Dialect Corpus that is being created within the project.

More information about the project may be found on https://www.trimco.uni-mainz.de/.

Applications (CV, publication list, diploma, letter of motivation) should be sent to Prof. Dr. Björn Wiemer at the application address below.

Deadline of application: Sept., 20, 2015.

Application Deadline: 20-Sep-2015 
Mailing Address for Applications:
	Prof. Dr. Björn Wiemer 
	Johannes-Gutenberg-Universität Mainz 
	Institut für Slavistik 
	Jakob-Welder-Weg 18 
	Mainz D- 55128 
	Germany  
Email Address for Applications: wiemerb at uni-mainz.de 
Contact Information:
	Prof. Dr. Björn Wiemer 
	Email: wiemerb at uni-mainz.de 

----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-26-3611	
----------------------------------------------------------
Visit LL's Multitree project for over 1000 trees dynamically generated
from scholarly hypotheses about language relationships:
          http://multitree.org/