28.2933, Support: Computational Linguistics; Sociolinguistics; Syntax; Text/Corpus Linguistics: PhD, KU Leuven

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-28-2933. Wed Jul 05 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.2933, Support: Computational Linguistics; Sociolinguistics; Syntax; Text/Corpus Linguistics: PhD, KU Leuven

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Date: Wed, 05 Jul 2017 09:46:17
From: Dirk Speelman [dirk.speelman at kuleuven.be]
Subject: Computational Linguistics; Sociolinguistics; Syntax; Text/Corpus Linguistics: PhD, KU Leuven, Belgium

 Institution/Organization: KU Leuven 
Department: Linguistics 
Web Address: http://wwwling.arts.kuleuven.be/qlvl/ 

Level: PhD 

Duties: Research,Project Work
 
Specialty Areas: Computational Linguistics; Sociolinguistics; Syntax; Text/Corpus Linguistics 
 

Description:

The Department of Linguistics of the KU Leuven and the Centre for Language
Studies at RU Nijmegen are looking for a PhD candidate for a jointly funded
(joint doctorate) project entitled
Using big data to model syntactic variation in Belgian and Netherlandic Dutch.

Project outline:

While Belgians and Dutchmen are well aware that they use different words, and
that their pronunciation diverges, they are mostly oblivious to the fact that
there are also grammatical discrepancies between Belgian and Netherlandic
Dutch. Few Belgians, for instance, will realize that the preposition 'voor' in
'Jan maakte (voor) haar een boterham' is optional for them, whereas it is
indispensable for almost all the Dutch.

How come there are such outspoken syntactic differences between two varieties
(in a comparatively small language area) which did not begin to diverge before
the 16th century? And where do these differences come from? In order to answer
these questions, we draw on large subtitle and newspaper corpora, and marshal
machine translation, machine learning, and automated semantic classification
technologies to access the syntactic motor, or motors, of Dutch.

What we offer:

Full-time position for 4 years (remuneration is in accordance with the
official Belgian scales for academic personnel and bursaries – see the KU
Leuven jobsite for more information).
The PhD-candidate will be stationed at the KU Leuven, but the position
includes internships at the Meertens Institute Amsterdam and the RU Nijmegen.

Profile:

We are looking for a PhD-candidate with:
- experience in big data analysis and natural language processing (such as
statistical machine translation, machine learning, automatic semantic
classification, ...);
experience with variationist linguistics and (preferably functional) syntax;
- experience with different types of fixed- and mixed-effects regression
analyses; 
- a good deal of mobility (in view of the required internships)
- good communication skills (both written and oral – the candidate will be
asked to present his or her work at conferences, and to write papers), as well
as strong interpersonal skills.

Candidates who do not speak Dutch are expected to acquire a good proficiency
in the (early) course of the project.

Submit:

If you are interested in this PhD-project, please send your curriculum vitae
and a motivation letter to qlvl (at) kuleuven.be by August 10. Shortlisted
candidates will be invited for an interview at the end of August. The project
is scheduled to start on October 1 2017.

For more information about this project, or a more extensive project
description, please email Stefan Grondelaers (S.Grondelaers (at) let.ru.nl) or
Dirk Speelman (dirk.speelman (at) kuleuven.be).
 

Application Deadline: 10-Aug-2017 

Web Address for Applications: http://wwwling.arts.kuleuven.be/qlvl/Jobs.html 

Contact Information: 
	Stefan Grondelaers 
	s.grondelaers at let.ru.nl  


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