Ph.D. Fellowships in Russian/Classical Linguistics

[Jóhanna Barðdal]

The Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies at the
University of Bergen, Norway, has two vacancies for PhD Research Fellows in
1) Russian Linguistics 2) Classical Linguistics in the project:

Indo-European Case and Argument Structure in a Typological Perspective

Project Summary:
It has been categorically assumed within both synchronic and diachronic
linguistics that oblique or non-nominative subjects are a modern phenomenon
in the Indo-European languages where they are attested and that they have
developed from objects, although the exact nature of this development
remains both unexplored and unaccounted for. A more radical view was
recently suggested in Eythórsson & Barðdal (2005) where it is argued that
subject-like obliques already behaved syntactically as subjects in Old
Germanic. This raises the question whether this syntactic peculiarity of
these Germanic languages should be regarded as an archaism inherited from
Proto-Indo-European or as an (independent) innovation in the Germanic
languages. In order to settle this question, a proper investigation will be
carried out of non-canonically case-marked argument structures in the
Indo-European languages, including the following: a) the semantics and
predicate structure of oblique-subject predicates across the Indo-European
languages, b) the syntactic behavior of the subject-like oblique in the
archaic/early Indo-European languages, c) the distribution and functional
status of oblique anti-causative intransitives in Icelandic, German and
Russian in particular, and West-Indo-European in general, d) the
etymological origin, emergence and development of oblique-subject
predicates across the Indo-European languages, and e) the semantic basis of
object case marking in the early Indo-European languages. The project will
be carried out within the framework of Construction Grammar where
sentence-level constructions are assumed to be form-meaning
correspondences, exactly like words. The tools of Construction Grammar
together with the comparative method will make it possible to reconstruct
case and argument structures for the proto-language, and hence complement
previous reconstruction models of the relationships between the daughter
languages, which are mostly based on comparative diachronic phonology and
morphology.

Further information about the project is available at
http://www.hf.uib.no/i/lili/SLF/ans/barddal/IECASTP.pdf

Applicants must hold a relevant master's degree, or equivalent. The
master's degree must be completed by the application deadline. The research
fellow must take part in the University's approved PhD programme leading to
the degree within a time limit of 3 years. Hence, applicants must meet the
formal admission requirements for the PhD programme. In total, the
fellowship period is 4 years.

Starting salaries at salary level 43 (code 1017) on the government salary
scale (NOK 325 800 per year, corresponding to 60,700 US dollars according
to the present currency), following ordinary meriting regulations. (Wage
levels 43/47). Additional information on the position is obtainable from
Jóhanna Barðdal (johanna.barddal at uib.no).

The following documents must be enclosed with the application,
otherwise it will not be evaluated:

1. A one-page statement of research intentions within the project
2. A three-page summary of your master's thesis
3. All diplomas achieved in higher education from university/college
(scanned versions)
4. List of academic publications

For further application info:
http://www.jobbnorge.no/visstilling2.aspx?stillid=42187?=EN
http://www.jobbnorge.no/visstilling2.aspx?stillid=42186?=EN

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Jóhanna Barðdal
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Coordinator of the Ph.D. Research School in Linguistics and Philology
Department of Linguistic, Literary and Aesthetic Studies
University of Bergen
P.O. box 7805
NO-5020 Bergen
Norway
johanna.barddal at uib.no

Phone +47-55582438 (work)
Phone +47-55201117 (home)
Fax   +47-55589354 (work)

http://www.hf.uib.no/i/lili/SLF/ans/barddal