26.5567, Support: General Linguistics; Linguistic Theories; Morphology; Semantics; Syntax; Typology, PhD / Germany

Tue Dec 15 16:54:21 UTC 2015

LINGUIST List: Vol-26-5567. Tue Dec 15 2015. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 26.5567, Support: General Linguistics; Linguistic Theories; Morphology; Semantics; Syntax; Typology, PhD / Germany

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Date: Tue, 15 Dec 2015 11:54:11
From: Sandhya Sundaresan [sandhya.sundaresan at uni-leipzig.de]
Subject: General Linguistics; Linguistic Theories; Morphology; Semantics; Syntax; Typology, PhD, University of Leipzig/University of Göttingen, Germany

 Institution/Organization: University of Leipzig/University of Göttingen 
Department: Departments of Linguistics/English Philology 
Web Address: http://www.sandhyasundaresan.com/#!blank/a27za 

Level: PhD 

Duties: Research,Project Work

Specialty Areas: General Linguistics; Linguistic Theories; Morphology; Semantics; Syntax; Typology 

Description:

Support for two 3-year PhD positions (with social benefits, payscale: 0.65 TVL-E13) is offered as part of the project ''Anaphora vs. Agreement: investigating the Anaphor Agreement Effect'', funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG Project SU 835/1; ZE 1040/3). Starting date: April 1, 2016. The project will be jointly conducted at the Universities of Leipzig (PI: Sandhya Sundaresan) and Göttingen (PI: Hedde Zeijlstra). Each PhD student will be primarily affiliated with one university and will be expected to conduct research, culminating in a dissertation under the PI at that university. However, there will be frequent interactions, including scheduled monthly meetings, between the Göttingen-Leipzig project teams, allowing ample opportunities for collaboration and teamwork. The PhD student in the Leipzig group will be an affiliated member of the graduate program (Graduiertenkolleg) ''Interaction of Grammatical Building Blocks (IGRA)'' (http://igra.philol.uni-leipzig.de), and ben
 efit from the courses and research activities of IGRA. The Göttingen PhD student will participate in “Linguistics in Göttingen (LinG)” (https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/44659.html) and be affiliated with the “Graduate School of Humanities Göttingen” (https://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/44659.html). Travel funding for academic conferences is also available. 

The central research focus is the ''Anaphor Agreement Effect (AAE)'' -- the observation that anaphors may not trigger phi-covarying verbal agreement. Languages employ a variety of parametrized strategies to avoid an AAE violation: e.g. completely barring anaphors from agreement-triggering positions (e.g. English); having default (e.g. Italian, Albanian) or ''special'' agreement (e.g. Swahili, Chichewa) triggered under the anaphor; or having the agreement be triggered by a different element (e.g. Tamil). A fundamental goal is to investigate how robust the AAE really is crosslinguistically and what its formal underpinnings are. To the extent that the AAE captures a restriction on the interaction between anaphora and phi-agreement, we also intend to exploit it to shed valuable insight into these broader phenomena. The PhD students will be centrally involved in establishing a database of 30 languages: cataloging their empirical behaviour with respect to the AAE, researching their typolog
 ical connections, and developing theoretical models to account for these patterns (with an emphasis on anaphora in the Leipzig branch and on agreement in the Göttingen one). Project consultants: Mark Baker (Rutgers), Marjo van Koppen (Utrecht), David Pesetsky (MIT), Ken Safir (Rutgers), Barbara Stiebels (Leipzig), and Ellen Woolford (UMass). Detailed project description: http://www.sandhyasundaresan.com/#!blank/a27za

Applicants should have an excellent background in formal, generative linguistics: in particular, syntax, semantics, and morphology. Knowledge of linguistic typology and experience working with databases a plus (but not required). Students from international backgrounds, women, and members of minority groups are particularly encouraged to apply. The language of interaction is English.

Application documents:

- Statement of purpose (2-3 pages) clarifying research interests, particularly how they would fit with the project (in English)
- Writing sample (M.A. thesis or equivalent): in English/German
- Names of two referees
- Curriculum Vitae
- Copy of M.A. degree (to be handed in latest by April 1, 2016)

We will try to accommodate preferences for Leipzig vs. Göttingen where possible. 

All supporting documents should be emailed as PDFs (the M.A. degree to be scanned in) to: anagreeffect at gmail.com (Subject Line: DFG AAE <Family name>), by Jan. 31, 2016. 

Application Deadline: 31-Jan-2016 

Mailing Address for Applications:
	Attn: Dr. Sandhya Sundaresan 
	Institut für Linguistik, Universität Leipzig 
	Beethovenstrasse 15 
	Leipzig Sachsen 04107 
	Germany 

Contact Information: 
	Dr. Sandhya Sundaresan 
	anagreeffect at gmail.com  

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