34.2884, Support: Cognitive Science, Computational Linguistics, General Linguistics: PhD, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics

Tue Oct 3 19:05:02 UTC 2023

LINGUIST List: Vol-34-2884. Tue Oct 03 2023. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 34.2884, Support: Cognitive Science, Computational Linguistics, General Linguistics: PhD, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics

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Date: 29-Sep-2023
From: Angela Heuts [Angela.Heuts at mpi.nl]
Subject: Cognitive Science, Computational Linguistics, General Linguistics: PhD, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics

Institution/Organization: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
Department: Multimodal Language
Web Address:
https://www.mpi.nl/department/multimodal-language-department/23

Level: PhD

Specialty Areas: Cognitive Science; Computational Linguistics; General
Linguistics

Description:

Multimodal reference and social cognition across languages

Four-year fully funded PhD position in the Multimodal Language
Department.

Doctoral supervisors: Prof. Asli Özyürek (MPI, Radboud University),
Dr. Paula Rubio-Fernández (MPI), Assoc. Prof. David Peeters (Tilburg
University).

Job description:
Reference is one of the most basic functions of language and
therefore, all languages in the world have reference systems that
allow conversational partners to coordinate on an intended referent.
Demonstratives, for example words like ‘this’ and ‘that’ in English,
are a universal reference system that is used together with pointing
to orient the addressee’s attention towards an element in the speech
situation. Because of their fundamental function to establish joint
attention, demonstratives are linked to human social cognition.
Definite articles and pronouns, on the other hand, are used to signal
referents that are familiar to the addressee (e.g., ‘We finally bought
the house, but it was really expensive’). Therefore, these reference
systems also rely on social cognition. This research project will
investigate referential communication from a cross-linguistic
perspective, adopting an integrated production and comprehension
perspective  and a multimodal approach that integrates speech, gesture
and attention to understand which aspects of social cognition they tap
into an whether and how this varies cross-linguistically.

The main questions to be addressed in the project are i) how do
speakers of different languages integrate the use of reference systems
and pointing gestures when referring to objects in different
locations, ii) how do speakers of different languages monitor  joint
attention when producing/interpreting referential expressions. While
the project does not aim to study any specific language, it will
investigate potential cross-linguistic differences. For example, both
Portuguese and Turkish have a 3-way demonstrative system that
distinguishes proximal, medial and distal forms, but the Turkish
medial demonstrative ‘şu’ is often used together with pointing to
redirect the listener’s attention to the correct referent – unlike the
medial form in Portuguese.

The above questions will be investigated using different
methodologies. A corpus of naturalistic dialogue interactions will be
compiled as a basis for analyzing the use of reference systems in
speech as well as concurrent gestural and eye gaze behavior, for
instance via kinematic and mobile eye-tracking data. This corpus will
also serve as a basis for development of targeted AR and VR studies
that experimentally test specific theoretical claims in mobile setups
that combine experimental control with ecological validity.

The project will be led by an interdisciplinary team including Prof.
Asli Özyürek
(https://www.mpi.nl/people/ozyurek-asli), an expert in human
cross-linguistic multimodal language use and processing at the
Multimodal Language Department of the Max Planck Institute for
Psycholinguistics and Dr. Paula Rubio-Fernández (https://www.mpi.nl/de
partment/multimodal-language-department/23/people) an expert in
experimental cross-linguistic pragmatics and social cognition, and Dr.
David Peeters
(https://research.tilburguniversity.edu/en/persons/david-peeters/), an
expert in the study of multimodal communication using experimental
methods, including virtual reality.

Application Deadline: 01-Nov-2023

Web Address for Applications: https://www.mpi.nl/career-education/vaca
ncies/vacancy/phd-position-multimodal-language-department-0

Contact Information:
If you have questions about the position that you wish to discuss
before you apply, please email the Department Director Prof. Asli
Özyürek at asli.ozyurek at mpi.nl.

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