29.1917, Support: Arawakan; Indo-European; Tupi; Computational Linguistics; Historical Linguistics; Typology: PhD, Uppsala University

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-29-1917. Mon May 07 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.1917, Support:  Arawakan; Indo-European; Tupi; Computational Linguistics; Historical Linguistics; Typology: PhD, Uppsala University

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Date: Mon, 07 May 2018 12:26:42
From: Harald Hammarström [harald at bombo.se]
Subject: Arawakan; Indo-European; Tupi; Computational Linguistics; Historical Linguistics; Typology: PhD, Uppsala University, Sweden

 Institution/Organization: Uppsala University 
Department:  

Level: PhD 

Duties: Research
 
Specialty Areas: Computational Linguistics; Historical Linguistics; Typology 
 

                      Arawakan 
                      Indo-European 
                      Tupi 

Description:

PhD position in Linguistics (Quantitative Diversity Linguistics)
Doctoral studies extend over a 4-year period during which the PhD-student
receives a salary as an employee. Doctoral students are expected to engage in
full-time study and research, and contribute to the department’s activities.
Teaching and/or administrative tasks may be involved up to a maximum of 20%,
carried out against an appropriate prolongation of the contract.

Project description: 
The project aims to explore the possibilities of dating ancestral stages of
language families by a systematic and careful study of the stability and
replacement patterns of different types of linguistic data. Toward this aim,
the project has chosen to look at the language families Indo-European
(Eurasia) as well as Arawakan and Tupí (South America). The ability to date
ancestral linguistic stages would be a revolutionary step forward for
understanding language and population history, parallel to carbon-14 dating in
archaeology. Even a less precise method than carbon-14 would be a significant
achievement for linking ancestral linguistic stages to other disciplines such
as archaeology, genetics and geoclimatology. Classic glottochronology, which
assumes a constant rate of lexical replacement, has long been discredited.
However, even if lexical replacement rates are not constant, they are also not
totally random. Moreover, other aspects of language may show tighter
regularity than lexicon since lexicon is amenable to conscious manipulation;
indeed, word taboo is one of the reasons for accelerated lexical replacement,
but so far there has been little research into grammatical chronology, which
is an important aim of this project. Now, however, the time is ripe for a
systematic investigation into linguistic dating. Far more data is available,
and large linguistic databases have become practical to use. Similarly,
methodological advances, often imported from biology, presently allow for a
more thorough exploitation of the data. The project involves collaboration
with Lund University. The project is funded by the Marcus and Amalia
Wallenberg foundation (MaW 2017.0050).

Qualifications: 
We are seeking a candidate with a strong background in linguistic typology,
comparative-historical linguistics and/or quantitative linguistics, who is
highly motivated and interested in quantitative diversity linguistics. To
qualify for a doctoral position a candidate should hold a master’s degree in
Linguistics or Computational Linguistics or equivalent.

The application should contain:
- A letter of intent describing your research interests and motivation for PhD
studies (maximum one page)
- A CV containing (i) a description of your education in
linguistics/computational linguistics and other relevant areas including a
transcript of finished courses and their grades/dates, (ii) a list of any
academic publications, (iii) professional experience relevant to academic
research (maximum four pages)
- A copy of your MA thesis (or equivalent)
- A tentative research proposal which (i) states a research question which
falls within the project aims described above, (ii) describes the methodology
and work plan, and (iii) contextualises the expected results in relation to
the state of the art. The actual dissertation project of the successful
candidate will be worked out in collaboration with the supervisor and project
team. (four pages including references)
- Other documents which the applicant would like to adduce.

Salary: 
According to local agreement for PhD students. The current starting salary is
26100 SEK/month.
Starting date: 1 September 2018 or as per agreement.
Application due 20 May 2018, UFV-PA 2018/1305.
 

Application Deadline: 20-May-2018 

Web Address for Applications: https://bit.ly/2K3e2Mz 

Contact Information: 
	Harald Hammarström 
	harald.hammarstrom at lingfil.uu.se  


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