[Lingtyp] Areal Morphology: Open PhD Position, U Zurich

[Balthasar Bickel]

Open PhD position, Areal Morphology 

The Special Interest Group (SIG) Areal Morphology within the University Research Priority Program (URPP) Language and Space at the University of Zurich (www.spur.uzh.ch) invites applications for a PhD position.

The URPP focuses on communication as linked to physical, social and perceptual space, through research on dialect/language contact as well as on interactional situations. The URPP approaches relations between language and space with cutting-edge technology, combining insights from dialectology with language typology and interactional linguistics. Particular emphasis is placed on crossing traditional subdisciplinary boundaries and the URPP combines research in computational linguistics, geographic information science, comparative linguistics, Romance studies, German studies, Slavic studies, English studies, and Sinology.

The successful candidate will work in close cooperation with the core members of the SIG (Professors Behr, Bickel, Loporcaro and Widmer) and other URPP members on a re-assessment of morphological variables in language contact and area formation. Many advances that have been made in morphological and phonological theory and typology, and in recent work on clitics, word domains or the morphology/syntax distinction, have not yet been fully exploited to gain a deeper insight into areal linguistics, where most work still tends to operate with traditional notions of "analytic" vs "synthetic" or "isolating" vs "agglutinating" morphology. The dissertation is expected to target a specific regional case study, reflecting the candidate's expertise and interest, not necessarily tied to the areal profiles of the SIG members. 

Applicants are required to have completed a Master's program with substantial training in typologically-informed theories of morphology and phonology. (At least passive knowledge of German or a readiness to acquire such knowledge is a welcome additional asset.)

Applications should reach us by November 16, and include a CV (including a list of publications, if any), transcript of records and/or a list of courses taken, names and e-mail addresses of two potential referees,  as well as a draft proposal on how the candidate intends to approach the project (max. 1 page). Please send these documents as a single PDF file to the URPP Head of Administration, Dr. Agnes Kolmer at agnes.kolmer at uzh.ch, with subject reference "Areal Morphology". 

For questions relating to the position, kindly contact Dr. Kolmer. For questions relating to the PhD program in linguistics at the University of Zurich, please visit http://www.linguistics-phd.uzh.ch/index_en.html or contact the Program Coordinator, Dr. Sascha Voellmin at sascha.voellmin at uzh.ch