[Lingtyp] PhD Studentship in West Nilotic Morphosyntax at the Surrey Morphology Group

[Matthew Baerman]

PhD studentship in West Nilotic Morphosyntax

The Surrey Morphology Group at the University of Surrey is inviting applications for a PhD studentship that offers four years of funding and extensive associated resources. The topic is the comparative morphosyntax of the West Nilotic languages, and forms part of the European Research Council-funded project 'NILOMORPH: The evolution of suprasegmental morphology in West Nilotic'. NILOMORPH sets out to explain how linguistic evolution took a highly unexpected turn in the West Nilotic languages of East Africa. Some languages within this group have evolved systems of non-concatenative morphology in which multiple grammatical categories are expressed simultaneously within a single syllable, through specifications of tone, phonation, vowel length and vowel quality. Comparative evidence suggests that this evolved from a more conventional system of affixal morphology. The aim of NILOMORPH is to investigate this evolution, employing a combination of field linguistics, acoustic analysis, experimental linguistics, computational simulation, typology, and the historical-comparative method. The project is based jointly at the University of Surrey, the University of Edinburgh and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), with partners in North America (University of Oregon, Wayne State University, University of New Mexico, and University of Toronto).

The PhD position is focused on the comparative morphosyntax of the West Nilotic languages. The reconstruction of West Nilotic morphological evolution naturally presupposes an understanding of its grammatical system and its evolution, which includes a number of typologically striking and poorly understood categories. These include an 'Austronesian-type' voice system in a number of languages (Van Urk 2015, Andersen 2015, Remijsen, Ismael, Ayoker 2025) and a 'marked nominative' case system that shows great variation across the family. The PhD candidate will have the opportunity to collaborate with members of the project team who are engaged in descriptive work in West Nilotic languages (primarily Dinka, Nuer, Reel, Shilluk, Thuri, and Burun varieties), as well as conduct independent fieldwork.

The position is based at the University of Surrey, within the Surrey Morphology Group (SMG). In addition to the collaborative activities within the NILOMORPH project, the successful candidate will benefit from the research environment of the SMG, a world leading centre for research on morphological theory, typology and description.


Award

The award is open to both UK and international candidates, and covers tuition fees and a maintenance stipend at the standard UKRI rate for up to four years of PhD study. In addition, the award offers funds for conference attendance, and the possibility to conduct independent fieldwork.


Eligibility

The award is open to both UK and overseas students. Applicants are expected to hold a minimum of a upper second-class (2:1) UK degree (or international equivalent) and an MA in Linguistics or related field in which linguistics is central. In exceptional cases, students with an excellent first degree will be considered without the need for an MA.


Criteria

The successful candidates will be selected on the basis of the following criteria:

  1.  Excellent overall performance at undergraduate level;
  2.  Expertise in morphological and syntactic description and analysis
  3.  Ability to meet the English language entry requirements for the PhD Linguistics;
  4.  Optionally, familiarity with the study of West Nilotic languages.

The expected to start date will be in January or April 2027.

The deadline for applications is 25 October 2026. Candidates are asked to apply via the University of Surrey platform (address below), and in addition to send a CV along with a one-page statement of interest to Alison Stubley <a.stubley at surrey.ac.uk>.

The address for applications is: <https://sits.surrey.ac.uk/live/sits.urd/run/siw_ipp_lgn.login?process=siw_ipp_app&code1=RPA80Q0004D&code2=0042>. Additional information about the PhD program in Linguistics is available at <https://www.surrey.ac.uk/postgraduate/linguistics-phd>.

If you have any questions, please write to Matthew Baerman <m.baerman at surrey.ac.uk>.


Matthew Baerman, FBA MAE
Surrey Morphology Group
University of Surrey
Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH
United Kingdom

m.baerman at surrey.ac.uk<mailto:m.baerman at surrey.ac.uk> | smg.surrey.ac.uk<http://smg.surrey.ac.uk/>
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