[Lingtyp] PhD position at U Zurich Comparative Linguistics

[Balthasar Bickel]

PhD position available in linguistics (Department of Comparative Linguistics, University of Zurich)

Description:
Word order is said to be highly prone to change, from both internal (i.e. reanalysis, pragmatics) and external (i.e. areal and contact) influence. In Indo-European languages, we find languages and sub-branches with predominant V1 structures (e.g. Insular Celtic, Modern Welsh), V1 maintenance (e.g. Modern Irish), and V1 loss (e.g. Modern Breton), while other languages are claimed to be verb final or verb medial. However, in corpora the amount of configurations that deviate from the presumed basic configuration is astoningishly high and needs to be taken into account when exploring word order distribution and/or evolution. In close collaboration with two ongoing projects at the department (one on verb-initial structures in Austroasiatic and one on phylogenetic models of word order patterns), the succesful candidate will carry out corpus-based research on the evolution of verb-initial orders in Indo-European. The dissertation will be supervised by Paul Widmer and Balthasar Bickel. Apart from extracting data from, and, where necessary, developing corpora, he/she will also perform computational phylogenetic analyses.

Funding and expected outcomes:
Funding for the position is limited to three years, salary is according to the Swiss National Science Foundation pay scale. The successful applicant is expected to complete his/her PhD dissertation at the University of Zurich within this timeframe. The PhD will preferrably be cumulative, consisting of four papers (published or accepted by a relevant international journal). The exact topics of the papers will be determined in accordance with the applicant's background and preferences, and papers may be co-authored with the supervisors and/or other team members, but they must contain original and independent contributions by the PhD candidate.

Requirements:
The candidate must hold a Master’s degree in linguistics received at latest by the time he/she takes up his/her position. Top candidates will have excellent results from their Master's degree courses/thesis and a focus on or interest in corpus linguistics, computational linguistics. Knowledge of historical linguistics and ancient Indo-European languages is clearly an asset.

Estimated start date: March 2018.

Application:
Applications with a cover letter, CV, and a transcript of BA/MA studies should be sent in electronic form to Paul Widmer (paul.widmer at uzh.ch <mailto:paul.widmer at uzh.ch>)  by January 15, 2018. Two letters of reference should be sent directly by independent referees to the same e-mail address. For more details, please contact paul.widmer at uzh.ch <mailto:paul.widmer at uzh.ch>.


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