23.2132, Jobs: Comp Ling; Text/Corpus Ling: PhD or Postdoc Researcher, MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology

Thu May 3 14:37:10 UTC 2012

LINGUIST List: Vol-23-2132. Thu May 03 2012. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 23.2132, Jobs: Comp Ling; Text/Corpus Ling: PhD or Postdoc Researcher, MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology

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Date: Thu, 03 May 2012 10:36:19
From: Frank Seifart [frank_seifart at eva.mpg.de]
Subject: Computational Linguistics; Text/Corpus Linguistics: PhD or Postdoc Researcher, MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

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University or Organization: MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology 
Department: Department of Linguistics
Job Location: Leipzig, Germany 
Web Address: http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/
Job Rank: PhD or Postdoc Researcher  

Specialty Areas: Computational Linguistics; Text/Corpus Linguistics 

Description:

Please note: Deadline extended and rank modified of a previous 
announcement for a Ph.D. position 
(http://linguistlist.org/issues/23/23-1826.html).

At the Department of Linguistics of the Max Planck Institute for 
Evolutionary Anthropology a half time position for a researcher at the 
PhD or PostDoc level (pay scale EGr. 13TV-L, 50%) is available for 3 
years beginning in June 2012 or later. The position is part of the 
project "The relative frequencies of nouns, pronouns, and verbs 
cross-linguistically", funded by the Volkswagen Foundation's DoBeS 
program (http://www.mpi.nl/dobes). 

The project investigates the relative frequencies of nouns, pronouns, 
and verbs in spoken language corpora of seven languages (for 
details, see http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/research/relative-frequencies.php). 

The main research questions are: 
-  How exactly and why do languages vary in the overall relative 
frequencies of noun, pronoun, and verb tokens employed in 
discourse? 
-  How exactly and why do the relative frequencies of nouns, 
pronouns, and verbs vary as narrative texts unfold?

The candidate should have a background in computational 
linguistics, ideally in corpus-linguistic methods. The candidate 
should have a demonstrable interest in typological linguistics, and 
ideally have had some formal training in this area. Prior 
acquaintance with a scripting language is required. Prior 
acquaintance with R (http://www.r-project.org) and Unicode would be 
advantages.

Candiates at the Ph.D. level will be given the opportunity to work on a 
Ph.D. thesis related to this project. The Ph.D. thesis should ideally 
include a discussion of the methodological issues involved in this 
project, and a detailed investigation of a research question to be 
determined together with the candidate.

The duties of the candidate are to further develop and apply routines 
to process and analyze the multilingual corpora used in this project. 
This includes:
-  Importing annotated texts files into R;
-  Developing methods to detect systematic errors in tagging and 
create consistent tagging;
-  Developing scripts for frequency analyses and other statistical 
analyses in R;
-  Developing creative visualizations of results for presentations and 
publications.

The candidate will receive training and continued supervision 
throughout the project in the computational methods and in the 
linguistic issues involved. Project work will be supported by two 
student assistants.

Applicants should already have an MA in Linguistics, Computer 
Science, or an equivalent qualification by the start of their 
appointment. Applicants at the Ph.D. level have the possibility of 
obtaining their doctoral degree through the University of Leipzig 
(http://www.uni-leipzig.de).

Good knowledge of English is required.

Applicants are requested to send a C.V. and a statement of research 
interests (2-3 pages) to the address given below or by e-mail. 
Applicants should provide the names of two referees in their 
application and arrange for them to send letters of reference directly 
to Dr. Frank Seifart. E-mail applications, preferably as one single pdf-
document, are welcome.

Application deadline: Until filled. We will start reviewing applications 
on May 20.

The position is available from as soon as June 2012, but a later 
starting date is possible.

Application Deadline: 20-May-2012 (Open until filled)
Mailing Address for Applications:
	Dr. Frank Seifart 
	Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology 
	Deutscher Platz 6 
	Leipzig 04103 
	Germany  
Email Address for Applications: frank_seifart at eva.mpg.de 
Contact Information:
	Dr. Frank Seifart 
	Email: frank_seifart at eva.mpg.de 

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