LL-L "Job openings" 2004.05.03 (08) [E]

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From: M.Verhagen <M.Verhagen at let.kun.nl>
Subject: LL-L "Job Opening" 2004.05.03 [B/L/D/LS]

2 Job Openings for PhD-student at Nijmegen University

The Centre for Language Studies at the University of Nijmegen invites
applications for two funded Ph.D. student positions whose projects form part
of a larger programme Variation and standardisation: the influence of
language contact on the emerging Dutch standard language, funded by the
Dutch Organization for Scientific Research NWO. The successful candidates
will receive funding for up to four years to do research on a subproject
within the research programme briefly described below, leading up to a Ph.D.
The full version of the text of the overall research programme can be
obtained by contacting the programme coordinators mentioned below.

The programme is on the dynamics of language change in Dutch between
1400-1650, and its impact on the emerging standard language. This period is
marked by relatively rapid change in the grammatical systems of varieties of
Dutch while at the same time the standard language is taking shape. The
emergence of a standard language, essentially a desire for uniformity and
perhaps conservatism in the written and official spoken language, may be
expected to counteract the rise of variation. But the standard language
itself is not uniform in origin: it has so far been thought to have been
influenced primarily by the social and cultural prestige of the language of
Holland as the economic centre, and reinforced by the influx of
intellectuals from the southern Netherlands (Brabant). There are, however,
indications that language contact with socially less prestigious immigrants
from the eastern parts of the Netherlands has influenced the standard
language as well. In this project, we attempt to tease apart the effects of
language-internal development, contact with higher and lower prestige
dialects, and standardization. The methodology will involve morphosyntactic
and sociolinguistic analysis, and corpus-based quantitative research. We
take a number of grammatical features which are known to have been subject
to regional variation in Middle Dutch, and which emerged in the standard
language as different from Middle Hollandic (features relating to word
order; verb clustering; and negation). We study the development of these
features in three main dialect areas: Holland, Brabant, and the Northeastern
Netherlands, in comparison to the emerging standard language. Tracing the
time course of the historical development in the varieties under
investigation (in various corpora, some to be created) will lead to
conclusions about the interaction between language-internal factors and
types of language contact in the various case studies.

The two PhD projects within this programme will investigate changes in the
word order in the Dutch "middle field", and changes in the syntax of the
sentence-final verb cluster, respectively.

Since the project concerns the history specifically of Dutch, applicants
must have at least a good working knowledge of modern standard Dutch, as
well as familiarity with older Dutch. Some knowledge of modern syntactic
theories and theories of language contact is also required. Knowledge of
morphological theory and experience with corpus-based methods will be
considered an asset.

More information, as well as the full text of the overall research
programme, can be obtained from:

Peter Ackema
P.Ackema at let.kun.nl

Dept. of Dutch Language and Culture
University of Nijmegen
P O Box 9103
6500 HD Nijmegen
 or
 Ans van Kemenade
A.v.Kemenade at let.kun.n

Dept. of English Language and Culture
University of Nijmegen
P O Box 9103
6500 HD Nijmegen

Candidates should send a letter of application, their CV, and two recent
letters of reference, to:

Afdeling PZ, t.a.v. B. Treep
Faculteit der Letteren
Postbus 9103
6500 HD Nijmegen
The Netherlands

with reference to vacancy no. 23.34.04

Deadline for application: 10 May, 2004

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