35.2744, Jobs: English; Norwegian Bokmål; Philosophy of Language, Pragmatics: Researcher/Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Oslo

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-35-2744. Mon Oct 07 2024. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 35.2744, Jobs: English; Norwegian Bokmål; Philosophy of Language, Pragmatics: Researcher/Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Oslo

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Date: 05-Oct-2024
From: Nicholas Allott [n.e.allott at ilos.uio.no]
Subject: English; Norwegian Bokmål; Philosophy of Language, Pragmatics: Researcher/Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Oslo


University or Organization: University of Oslo
Department: IFIKK
Job Location: Oslo, Norway
Web Address: https://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/english/
Job Title: Researcher/Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Job Rank: Post Doc

Specialty Areas: Philosophy of Language; Pragmatics

Required Language(s): English (eng)
                      Norwegian Bokmål (nob)

Description:

A position as Researcher/Postdoctoral Research Fellow (SKO1109/SKO
1352) is available at the Department of Philosophy, Classics, History
of Art and Ideas, University of Oslo.

The position is associated with the project “How do we understand
machines that talk to us? Communication with large language models
(LLMs)”, funded by the University of Oslo. The research fellow will be
responsible for conducting experimental research on the pragmatics of
human-LLM interaction. The candidate is expected to present a research
project closely connected to the main project.
Many scholars rely on Gricean inferentialism (Grice 1957, 1967) as a
fundamental aspect of human communication. According to this
perspective, understanding verbal utterances, whether spoken or
written, involves making inferences to determine the speaker's
intended meaning.

This process requires integrating contextual information and
background knowledge with the syntactic structure obtained from
parsing sentences. However, this raises a perplexing question: How can
we effectively engage in conversational exchanges with individuals who
lack communicative intentions, such as LLMs?

By combining both theoretical and experimental research, we aim to
answer several key questions:

Are our assumptions about how communication works correct for our
interaction with language models?
Is a unified account possible of the interpretation of human and LLM
utterances or are they understood in fundamentally different ways?
How do children perceive their interactions with LLMs?
The successful candidate will be based at the Department of
Philosophy, Classics, History of Art and Ideas which has a lively
environment for research into language, communication and the mind,
with recent and current ERC and Research Council of Norway projects on
experimental pragmatics and philosophy of language, including DEVCOM (
https://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/english/research/projects/devcom/ ) and
New Models of Knowledge Communication ( https://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/en
glish/research/projects/new-models-of-knowledge-communication/ ).

We also host the Pragmatics: Theory & Experiments research group
(https://www.hf.uio.no/ifikk/english/research/groups/pragmatics/),
which brings together researchers from across the University of Oslo
and other universities across south east Norway, and we have close
links with research groups in the linguistics and modern languages
departments at the University of Oslo, including Clinical Linguistics
and Language Acquisition
(https://www.hf.uio.no/iln/english/research/groups/clinical-ling/ )
and Figurative Communication (https://www.hf.uio.no/ilos/english/resea
rch/groups/figurative-communication/ ).

The position is available for a period of 3 years.

There is a 10 % component of the postdoctoral position which is
devoted to teaching and administrative duties. Applicants who are or
have previously been employed as a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at
the University of Oslo cannot be hired in another postdoctoral
position at the university. Such candidates are eligible for a
position as Researcher. In that case the percentage of teaching and
administrative duties is not applicable.

The successful candidate is expected to become part of the research
environment/network of the department and contribute to its
development. The main purpose of postdoctoral research fellowships is
to qualify researchers for work in higher academic positions within
their disciplines.

Apply via Jobbnorge, via link on this page:
https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/265907/postdoctoral-res
earch-fellow-researcher-how-do-we-understand-machines-that-talk-to-us

Application Deadline: 01-Nov-2024
Mailing Address for Applications:
Web Address for Applications: https://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jo
bs/job/265907/postdoctoral-research-fellow-researcher-how-do-we-unders
tand-machines-that-talk-to-us
Contact Information:
        Dr Nicholas Allott
        Email: n.e.allott at ilos.uio.no



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