[Corpora-List] PhD position and Post Doc Position Dutch/French linguistics

[Liesbeth Degand]

APOLOGIES FOR CROSS-POSTINGS


Within the framework of the PAI-project 
“Grammaticalization and (Inter)Subjectification” 
funded by the Belgian federal government, the 
Centre for Text and Discourse Studies (CETIS) 
from the University of Louvain (UCL, 
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium) invites applications 
for one PhD position and one post-doc position. 
The positions are available as of April 1st 2007 
and not later than January 1st 2008. They will 
continue for a period of 4 years for the PhD 
position and a period of 3 years for the post-doc 
position (with a possibility of extension, shorter periods are possible too).

Description of the project:

The project aims to contribute to current 
research efforts dealing with (the interaction 
between) the processes of grammaticalization (in 
the structural domain) and 
(inter)subjectification (in the semantic domain) 
in language change. It will focus on three major issues:

1)      The precise nature of the semantic 
changes in subjectification and in 
intersubjectification, and their relationship 
with the structural developments in grammaticalization.
2)      The teleology of the processes: are 
grammaticalization and (inter)subjectification unidirectional or not?
3)      The ‘scope’ of these processes: how do 
grammaticalization and (inter)subjectification 
relate to other mechanisms of language change, notably, to analogy?

In collaboration with research groups from the 
universities of Antwerp, Leuven, Ghent, and 
Hannover (Germany), and the Department of 
Cultural Anthropology at the Royal Museum of 
Central Africa, these foci will be implemented in 
terms of work packages, dealing with different 
semantic and/or grammatical domains in which 
these issues can be raised and investigated from 
different angles.  The task of the group in 
Louvain-la-Neuve is to work out the package on 
discourse particles (together with colleagues 
from Ghent and Hannover) (see work package 
description on 
http://www.fltr.ucl.ac.be/FLTR/GERM/lingne/Degand/workpackage-discourse.htm). 
The specific research area concerns the 
grammaticalization of Dutch and French discourse 
particles (where possible, in contrast to other languages).

Essential requirements

Post-doc position
Candidates must hold a PhD in the field of 
linguistics (Dutch and/or French), with a primary 
specialisation in diachronic linguistics. 
Applicants should have been awarded their 
doctorate within the last six years. They should 
have experience of corpus linguistics, and 
ideally, have already published in the area of 
grammaticalization and/or typological language 
description.  Expertise in the area of discourse 
studies or willingness to gain such expertise is 
also required. Good knowledge of Dutch and French 
is an asset (with near-native command of one of the two languages)

PhD position
Candidates must have a Masters degree or 
equivalent in Dutch and/or French linguistics, 
and to have completed diachronically-oriented 
courses in language description, or show 
willingness to learn methods of diachronic 
(corpus-based) research. The successful applicant 
is expected to continue their training with 
additional post-graduate courses in their area of 
specialization. Good knowledge of Dutch and 
French is an asset (with near-native command of one of the two languages).

For the two positions, we especially welcome 
applications from candidates who share the
research group’s interest in approaching language 
from a usage-based perspective with solid 
empirical grounding in primary data, especially 
approaches of a cognitive and/or functional nature.

Application
Applications including letter, curriculum vitae, 
copies of any relevant publications, and two
academic references can be sent to the address below or by e-mail to:
liesbeth.degand at uclouvain.be

Address for Applications:
dr. Liesbeth Degand
CETIS
Université catholique de Louvain
Place B. Pascal 1
1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Belgium

Application Deadline: 1-March-2007 (Open until filled)