Ph.D. / postdoc openings

[Veerle Van Geenhoven]

Ph.D. / postdoc openings - MPI for Psycholinguistics

The Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics has one postdoc and three
Ph.D. positions available for research in the field of first or second
language acquisition. The postdoc will participate in the Scope Project and
the Ph.D.s will participate in either the Scope Project or the Argument
Structure Project. (These projects are described below.) All positions will
be for three years and will begin as soon as possible but no later than
October 1, 1999.

Applicants for the postdoctoral position in the Scope Project should have a
completed PhD degree in linguistics, psychology, or a related field, and an
interest in (theoretical and/or cross-linguistic) semantic and syntactic
aspects of language acquisition. Applications should include a curriculum
vitae, a sample of written work, a description of previous related studies
and research, names and addresses of 4 referees, and a statement of planned
research in the Scope Project. Payment for this position is regulated
according to the scale of the Max Planck Society (net approx. 4000 - 4300
Hfl).

Applicants for the Ph.D. positions in either the Scope Project or the
Argument Structure Project should have a completed Master's degree or
equivalent in linguistics, psychology, or a related field, and an interest
in syntactic and semantic aspects of language acquisition. Applications
should include a curriculum vitae, a description of previous related
studies and research, a sample of written work, names and addresses of 4
referees, and a characterization of plans or interests for the Ph.D.
research. The Ph.D. candidates must also already have or be prepared to
find a suitable university affiliation. Payment for these positions is
regulated according to the scale of the Max Planck Society (net approx 2200
- 2500 Hfl).

Please send applications via regular mail for arrival by April 1, 1999, to:

Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Klein
Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics
Postbus 310
6500 AH Nijmegen
The Netherlands

E-mail inquiries concerning the positions may be made to Prof. Dr. Wolfgang
Klein at:

klein at mpi.nl


Project descriptions:

The Scope Project studies how children and second language learners develop
the skills to analyze the semantic and syntactic composition of sentences,
skills needed for the interpretation of the linguistic input they are
exposed to. The project primarily considers the acquisition of those
elements in a sentence that take scope over other elements, since scoping
elements appear to be central clues in building the structure of a sentence
and in guiding its semantic interpretation. The phenomena considered for
investigation are the scope properties of temporal adverbials and
finiteness, the scope behaviour of focus particles, and scope-related
aspects of the interpretation of nominal expressions. The project is
cross-linguistic in perspective, and investigates the extent to which both
syntactic and semantic aspects of scope relations are language-universal
versus language-independent. In addition to contributing to an
understanding of how children interpret configurations containing scoping
elements, the project's results are expected to provide a clearer picture
of scope phenomena in adult language and to serve as a basis for new
insights into theoretical matters related to scope phenomena in natural
language.

The Argument Structure Project includes participants from both the Language
Acquisition and the Language and Cognition departments of the Institute.
Its goal is to learn more about which aspects of argument structure and,
more generally, event representation are universal versus variable, and
which may be innate as opposed to learned. The project is cross-linguistic
in orientation. Ph.D. candidates should be interested in investigating
topics such as the acquisition of predicate semantics, the syntactic
realization of arguments, argument ellipsis, or linguistic "event
packaging". Preference may be given to applicants working on the
acquisition of lesser-known languages.