37.3180, Support: Austronesian; Anthropological Linguistics, Language Acquisition, Typology: PhD, Universitat de Barcelona

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-3180. Mon Oct 05 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.3180, Support: Austronesian; Anthropological Linguistics, Language Acquisition, Typology: PhD, Universitat de Barcelona

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Date: 02-Oct-2026
From: Maria Bardají [mbardaji at ub.edu]
Subject: Austronesian; Anthropological Linguistics, Language Acquisition, Typology: PhD, Universitat de Barcelona


Institution/Organization: Universitat de Barcelona
Web Address: https://web.ub.edu/en/

Level: PhD

Duties: Research

Specialty Areas: Anthropological Linguistics; Language Acquisition;
Typology
Required Language(s): Austronesian (aust1307)

Description:

Four-year doctoral position at the University of Barcelona (expression
of interest)
As Principal Investigator of the project SymVoLiCs (“Symmetrical Voice
Languages in Contexts: An investigation of North and Central Sulawesi
Languages in Typological, Interactional and Acquisition Contexts”),
funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the
Spanish State Research Agency (subject to the publication of the
official funding decision), I invite expressions of interest from
prospective PhD students for a four-year doctoral position at the
University of Barcelona.
A distinctive feature of this position is the opportunity to conduct
linguistic fieldwork in Indonesia and contribute to the documentation
and description of understudied Austronesian languages.
Research Topic:
The successful candidate will pursue a PhD on a topic of their
interest related to one of the topics of the project; i.e.:
- Grammatical description of one or more languages of North and
Central Sulawesi. The project adopts a usage-based approach, in which
documentation corpora of spontaneous speech are collected and used as
primary data for language description, complemented by elicitation.
While the the project’s main focus is on morphosyntax, the specific
area of grammar investigated in the PhD project may be determined by
the candidate’s interest. A typological study of a particular
grammatical phenomenon is also possible, provided that North and
Central Sulawesi languages are included.
- Research on language acquisition and socialization of a western
Austronesian language, from either a (psycho)linguistic or a
sociolinguistic/anthropological perspective. The project has a special
interest in the acquisition of symmetrical voice languages as well as
in parental ethnotheories of language acquisition and socialization.
The precise dissertation topic will be determined in consultation with
the supervisor (Dr. Maria Bardají). The candidate will contribute to
building language documentation corpora and to a project-related study
that aligns with their PhD research (resulting in a co-authored
publication). Depending on the candidate's interests, the PhD position
also offers opportunities for linguistic fieldwork in Indonesia.
The PhD will be carried out at the Department of Catalan Philology and
General Linguistics of the University of Barcelona. The successful
candidate will enroll in the Doctoral Program in Cognitive Science and
Language.
Requirements:
- A strong background in linguistics - preferably in the area of
linguistic typology or language acquisition - or in anthropology
(demonstrated by a BA and MA/MSc in Linguistics / Anthropology).
- A Master’s degree by the application deadline (most likely
December). Applicants holding non-Spanish degrees may be required to
obtain official recognition (equivalency) of their qualifications in
accordance with Spanish regulations.
- Proficiency in spoken and written English.
- Knowledge of Indonesian is an asset.
- Candidates are required to prove knowledge of Catalan or Spanish, or
a strong commitment to learning one of these languages during the
first years of the PhD.
What the position offers:
- Training in language documentation, corpus creation, and linguistic
analysis.
- Opportunities for linguistic fieldwork in Indonesia.
- Collaboration with researchers working on typology and language
acquisition and socialization.
- Funding for research stays and international conferences.
Funding and employment conditions:
In accordance with the terms of the call (Article 14.3):
- Total funding allocated per predoctoral contract: €134,615.00
- Annual funding for the predoctoral contract: €31,100
- The gross salary will be determined in accordance with the
conditions specified in the official call for applications.
- Funding for the end-of-contract compensation payment: €3,215
- Funding for research stays and doctoral tuition fees: €7,000
Application Process:
The official call for predoctoral contracts has not yet been
published. For reference, last year's call is available here (in
Spanish):
https://www.aei.gob.es/convocatorias/buscador-convocatorias/proyectos-generacion-conocimiento-actuaciones-formacion-4
At this stage, we are inviting expressions of interest from
prospective applicants. Candidates interested in the position are
encouraged to send a CV and a brief motivation letter to Maria Bardají
at mbardaji at ub.edu. Those who express interest will be notified once
the official call is published.
Please feel free to circulate this announcement to anyone who may be
interested.
About the Project:
The PhD position is embedded in the project SymVoLiCs (“Symmetrical
Voice Languages in Contexts”), which investigates symmetrical voice
languages in North and Central Sulawesi from three complementary
perspectives: typology, discourse and acquisition. Particular
attention is given to the Totoli language, which serves as the primary
case study for the discourse and acquisition components of the
project. Depending on the candidate's interests, the PhD project may
extend this focus to another language of the region.

Email Address for Applications: mbardaji at ub.edu

Contact Information:
Dr. Maria Bardají
Contact Email: mbardaji at ub.edu



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