28.2234, Support: Computational Linguistics; Language Emergence; Sign Languages: PhD, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-28-2234. Wed May 17 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.2234, Support: Computational Linguistics; Language Emergence; Sign Languages: PhD, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

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Date: Wed, 17 May 2017 10:09:00
From: Bart de Boer [bart at ai.vub.ac.be]
Subject: Computational Linguistics; Language Emergence; Sign Languages: PhD, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

 Institution/Organization: Vrije Universiteit Brussel 
Department: AI-lab 
Web Address: http://ai.vub.ac.be/ 

Level: PhD 

Duties: Research,Project Work
 
Specialty Areas: Computational Linguistics 
Language Emergence, Sign Languages 

Description:

PhD on modeling an emerging sign language

We are looking for a PhD student to work on modeling the emergence of sign
languages, with a focus on modeling the social dynamics underlying existing
signing communities. The project relies on specialist expertise of the Kata
Kolok signing community that has emerged in a Balinese village over the course
of several generations. The emergence of Kata Kolok, and the demographics of
the village have been closely studied by geneticists, anthropologists, and
linguists. A preliminary model has been built in Python, simulating this
emergence. The aim of the project is to investigate, using a combination of
linguistic field research and computational modeling which factors – cultural,
genetic, linguistic and others – determine the way language emerges. There
will be one PhD student in Nijmegen conducting primary field research on Kata
Kolok and one based in Brussels (as advertised here) to be involved in the
computational aspect of the project. Both positions are part of a FWO-NWO
funded collaboration of the Artificial Intelligence lab of the Vrije
Universiteit Brussel and the Center for Language Studies at Radboud University
Nijmegen and the advertised position is supervised by profs. Bart de Boer and
Connie de Vos.

Requirements:
- You have (or are about to complete) a master’s degree in artificial
intelligence, computer science, cognitive science, linguistics or a related
field.
- You have experience writing computer programs; knowledge of C++11 and
parallelization is an advantage.
- Interest and/or prior experience with research of language emergence.
- Prior experience with sign language (research) is an advantage

Conditions:
You apply for a four-year PhD scholarship, the exact amount of which depends
on your experience, but which is sufficient to live comfortably in Brussels.
There is also some additional money to visit conferences and for research
expenses. You will work in an international and interdisciplinary research
group. The group is part of the computer science department, but it
investigates questions about (the evolution of) cognition and language, using
a combination of experiment and computer modeling. You will be asked to do a
limited amount of teaching and supervision, but that will take up no more than
20% of your working time. As part of your PhD project, you will have the
possibility to spend a few months at a different institute. The envisaged
starting date is October 1st, 2017.

How to Apply:
Please send us a letter of motivation, a CV, a copy of your master’s thesis
(or in case you have not completed this, another sample of your writing), a
list of your grades and the contact information of two people who can provide
references. Please send these in pdf format to Bart de Boer:
bart at arti.vub.ac.be mentioning “Emergent Sign PhD” in the subject. For
inquiries, you can send a message to this same address, or phone +32 2 629
3755. 
 

Application Deadline: 15-Jul-2017 

Mailing Address for Applications:
	Attn: prof Bart de Boer 
	Pleinlaan 2 
	Vrije Universiteit Brussel, dienst ARTI 
	Brussels 1050 
	Belgium 
	
Web Address for Applications: https://ai.vub.ac.be/PhDKataKolok 

Contact Information: 
	prof Bart de Boer 
	bart at ai.vub.ac.be  


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