last-minute opportunity post-doc

[Elisabeth Degand]

Last minute opportunity!
Post-doc position: “Grammaticalization and Intersubjectification of
discourse markers”

Within the framework of the ongoing IUAP-project “Grammaticalization and
(Inter)Subjectification” (http://webh01.ua.ac.be/gramis/) funded by the
Belgian federal government, the Institute for Language and Communication
(IL&C) from the University of Louvain (UCL, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium)
invites applications for one post-doc position. The position is available
for one year as of November 1st 2010 and not later than January 1st 2011.
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 focuses 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 are
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 markers (together
with colleagues from Ghent and Hannover) (see work package description on
http://www.uclouvain.be/cps/ucl/doc/valibel/documents/workpackage4-web.pdf).
The specific research area concerns the grammaticalization of (Dutch,
French and English) discourse markers (where possible, in contrast to
other languages).

Essential requirements

The position is reserved for international candidates or Belgian citizens
who have not been employed in Belgium for more than two years during the
2008-2010 period. Applicants should have been awarded their doctorate
within the last six years. Candidates must hold a PhD in the field of
linguistics (pref. Dutch and/or French), with a primary specialization in
discourse analysis. 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 diachronic
linguistics 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). 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, social-interactional, and/or functional nature.


 Starting date: A soon as possible from November 1st
Duration of the project: 1 year, monthly allowance: +/- 2000 EUR (tax-free
including social security)

Application
Applications including letter, curriculum vitae, brief research proposal
(max. 3 pages), 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:
Prof. Liesbeth Degand
Insitute for Language and Communication
Université catholique de Louvain
Place B. Pascal 1
1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Belgium

Application Deadline: 1 November 2010 (Open until filled)