29.1530, Jobs: Language Acquisition: Post Doc, UiT The Arctic University of Norway

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-29-1530. Mon Apr 09 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.1530, Jobs: Language Acquisition: Post Doc, UiT The Arctic University of Norway

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Date: Mon, 09 Apr 2018 14:46:54
From: Marit Westergaard [marit.westergaard at uit.no]
Subject: Language Acquisition: Post Doc, UiT The Arctic University of Norway

 
University or Organization: UiT The Arctic University of Norway 
Department: Deparrtment of Language and Culture
Job Location: Tromsø, Norway 
Web Address: http://site.uit.no/lava/
Job Title: Postdoctoral researcher in Multilingual Language Acquisition & Attrition
Job Rank: Post Doc; Postdoc/Researcher

Specialty Areas: Language Acquisition; Multilingual Acquisition & Attrition


Description:

A two-year Post-doctoral Research Fellowship/Researcher position is available
in the Department of Language and Culture at UiT - The Arctic University of
Norway. The position is affiliated with the LAVA research group (Language
Acquisition, Variation & Attrition; see further information about the group
here: http://site.uit.no/lava/) and is connected to the project MiMS
(Micro-variation in Multilingual Acquisition & Attrition Situations). The MiMS
project is funded by the Research Council of Norway. For further information
about the MiMS project, see the project website here:
http://site.uit.no/mims/. 

Brief project description MiMS: Children clearly learn language from the
ambient input, but not from input alone. One of the main questions in
theoretical linguistics and language acquisition is how much is provided by an
innate endowment and how much must be learned from the primary linguistic
data. The MiMS project addresses this central issue within a new approach to
language acquisition and attrition, the micro-cue model (MCM) that the PI has
developed in a number of publications in recent years (e.g. Westergaard 2014)
based on data from monolingual acquisition. The MiMS project will extend this
theoretical approach to multilingual situations, and new data will be
collected from several populations of bi- and multilingual children and
adults, e.g. German-Russian bilingual children, Norwegian-American heritage
speakers, and bilingual children learning English as an L3. The focus is on
(morpho-)syntactic micro-variation in Norwegian, Russian, German and English,
related to word order and certain aspects of nominal structure (grammatical
gender, determiner use). These languages and these syntactic constructions are
chosen as they represent an interesting combination of challenges, both for
children acquiring and adults maintaining these systems in multilingual
contexts. According to the MCM, both acquisition and diachronic change take
place in small steps (e.g. Westergaard 2008, 2009). By identifying the small
steps in these processes (referred to as micro-cues), the project will
increase our understanding of the human language faculty and the building
blocks of language. It will also investigate the effect of more general
factors such as complexity, frequency and economy in the acquisition and
attrition processes. The MiMS project will thus make important contributions
to current research in the fields of language acquisition, multilingualism and
theoretical linguistics.

The MiMS project is divided into four Work Packages, where the successful
candidate for this researcher/postdoc position is expected to participate.
Please see the MiMS website for  the full research proposal or contact the PI
Marit Westergaard for further information.

Qualification requirements:
- A PhD in Linguistics or another relevant field (dissertation must have been
submitted, but not necessarily defended by the application deadline, May 18).
- Experience with experimental methods in language acquisition.
- Native or near-native proficiency in Russian and/or Norwegian will be
preferred.
- Excellent command of spoken and written English.

The applicants must provide a brief research proposal (3-5 pages), stating how
their work will fit in and contribute to the research of the MiMS project.



Application Deadline: 18-May-2018 
	  
Web Address for Applications: https://bit.ly/2qnPLK7 
Contact Information:
	Professor Marit Westergaard 
	Email: marit.westergaard at uit.no 


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