30.2597, Support: English; French; Computational Linguistics: PhD, CNRS

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-2597. Mon Jul 01 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.2597, Support: English; French; Computational Linguistics: PhD, CNRS

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Date: Mon, 01 Jul 2019 15:26:52
From: Nabil Hathout [Nabil.Hathout at univ-tlse2.fr]
Subject: English; French; Computational Linguistics: PhD, CNRS, France

 Institution/Organization: CNRS 
Department: CLLE 
Web Address: https://clle.univ-tlse2.fr/ 

Level: PhD 

Duties: Research
 
Specialty Areas: Computational Linguistics 
 
Required Language(s): English (eng)
                      French (fra) 

Description:

PhD position: Acquisition of linguistic phenomena by means of neural
embeddings
GENERAL INFORMATION
Reference : UMR5263-ANNCAM-012
Workplace : TOULOUSE
Date of publication : Tuesday, June 18, 2019
Scientific Responsible name : Nabil HATHOUT and Tim VAN DE CRUYS
Type of Contract : PhD Student contract / Thesis offer
Contract Period : 36 months
Start date of the thesis : 1 October 2019
Proportion of work : Full time
Remuneration : 2 135,00 € gross monthly

Description of the Thesis Topic:
Neural embeddings, used to construct semantic representations for words as
well as sentences, have become ubiquitous in the field of natural language
processing. Although their use leads to very good performance in a wide range
of tasks, they present difficulties related to their opacity. In particular,
much uncertainty remains about their ability to capture linguistic knowledge.
The goal of this PhD studentship will be to investigate the ability of neural
embeddings to acquire specific linguistic phenomena.

The first of these phenomena concerns the selection preferences of verbal
predicates. Most verbs have a preference for arguments that belong to
particular semantic classes. Theoretically, sentence embeddings implicitly
model these preferences, as well as the semantic features of the predicate and
its arguments. On the other hand, it remains unclear whether they are able to
correctly model more irregular cases, where the verb selects for a
semantically atypical argument. The thesis will include a thorough study of
the interaction of the verb with its arguments during the construction of
sentence embeddings: how does the representation of the verb contextualize
itself in the presence of its arguments, and vice versa?

Related to the first phenomenon, we will study the extent to which phrase
embeddings are able to capture subcategorization frames. In a given context, a
verb selects a subcategorization framework that depends on its syntactic and
semantic properties, as well as those of the context. Again, sentence
embeddings theoretically capture this information, but are they also able to
identify irregular arguments? The study will examine the behavior of sentence
embeddings in contexts where the arguments either do or do not conform to the
verb subcategorization frame.

Work Context:
The candidate will jointly carry out their research at the CLLE laboratory
(CARTEL team) and the IRIT laboratory (Melodi team) at the University of
Toulouse. CLLE develops NLP methods and tools for linguistics, while IRIT is a
computer laboratory internationally recognized for its research on artificial
intelligence and natural language processing; IRIT is also one of the founding
laboratories of ANITI (3IA), the artificial intelligence institute of
Toulouse.

Funding:
The thesis will be funded for a period of 3 years. The monthly remuneration is
2135 euros gross (1715 euros net).

Profile:
- Master's degree in NLP or computer science;
- Strong knowledge of NLP and machine learning;
- Strong programming skills (Python);
- Good command of English and French;
- Good writing and oral presentation skills.

Application:
Applications must be filed on the application link provided below.

Inquiries:
Feel free to contact Nabil Hathout (nabil.hathout at univ-tlse2.fr) or Tim Van de
Cruys (tim.vandecruys at irit.fr) to have more information.

Additional Information:
Keywords: neural embeddings; compositionality; contextual models;
subcategorization frames.

The PHD will be co-directed by Nabil Hathout (CNRS, CLLE) and Tim Van de Cruys
(CNRS, IRIT).
 

Application Deadline: 27-Nov-2019 

Mailing Address for Applications:
	Attn: Nabil Hathout 
	CLLE/ERSS. Maison de la recherche 
	Université de Toulouse Jean-Jaurès 
	Toulouse 31058 
	France 
	
Web Address for Applications: https://emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Doctorant/UMR5263-ANNCAM-012/Default.aspx?lang=EN 

Contact Information: 
	Nabil Hathout 
	Nabil.Hathout at univ-tlse2.fr  


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