PhD student in historical sociolinguistics

Last application date: May 26, 2019 23:59

Department: LW06 - Department of Linguistics

Contract: Limited duration

Degree: Master's degree

Occupancy rate: 100%

Vacancy Type: Research staff

Job description

The Research Group for Diachronic and Diatopic linguistics (DiaLing) at Ghent University invites applications for a full-time 4-year position as doctoral researcher. The PhD student will be working on the project “Greetings from the past: on the use of interjections in foreign language textbooks from Early modern Flanders”. This project focuses on interjections in spoken 16th-century Dutch, contrasted with other Germanic and Romance languages. The semantic-pragmatic functions of interjections will be investigated based on multilingual textbooks (Colloquia, et dictionariolum, 1536-1700).

The aims of the project consist in

• compiling a parallel corpus of multilingual textbooks
•  providing a systematic and detailed semantic-pragmatic description of the interjections used in the Colloquia, starting with the Dutch version and contrasting it with French as well as other Germanic and Romance languages, for example German and Spanish
•  contributing to a refinement of the semantic-pragmatic typology of interjections in Dutch, based on diachronic and European-comparative insights as well as contributing to the theoretical discussion on the semantic-pragmatic typology of interjections and their relationship with and differentiation from other grammatical categories such as particles
•  identifying cases of language contact and, more specifically, semantic transfer in the case of collaboratively translated texts and thereby shedding light on the genesis and spread of interjections in multilingual contexts - identifying conversational routines and communicative practices in which the interjections are embedded; thereby getting a better understanding of aspects of linguistic and cultural knowledge that were regarded as relevant for communication in multilingual settings in Early modern times, more specifically in the Low Countries

Profile of the candidate

YOUR PROFILE

•  Master’s degree in Linguistics (candidates due to obtain their degree in autumn 2019 are welcome to apply), specialising in historical linguistics, corpus linguistics or sociolinguistics
•  Good knowledge of Dutch
•  Linguistic expertise in one or more of the following languages is an asset: French, German, Spanish or English
•  Good academic skills in English
•  Good social and communicative skills
•  Capacity for autonomous research

 

YOUR TASKS

•  Collaborating on the compilation of a multilingual parallel corpus of 16th-century textbooks
•  Writing a PhD-thesis on the basis of the project
•  Preparing individual and joint publications for national and international scientific journals
•  Presenting research at national and international conferences

 

WE OFFER

We offer a 4-year full-time PhD position at Ghent University (Research Group DiaLing & Department of Linguistics/Dutch Linguistics). Starting date is 1/10/2019 (or earlier).

How to apply

Candidates are invited to apply (in English) by submitting two types of documents by e-mail to Prof. Ulrike Vogl (ulrike.vogl@ugent.be) by May 26th 2019:

1) a single pdf-document with:

•  a cover letter, outlining your background, experience and motivation for this position
•  an extensive CV
•  copies of education certificates, and a transcript of records of the MA (or equivalent)
•  contact information (e-mail) of two academic referees

2) one written piece of work (e.g. BA-thesis, MA-thesis, a paper/manuscript submitted for a publication or a PhD exposé)

On the basis of these documents, candidates will be selected for an interview (if necessary, interviews can be held via Skype if the applicants live abroad). The interviews are expected to take place in June 2019.

You are welcome to contact Prof. Ulrike Vogl if you have any further questions (ulrike.vogl@ugent.be). Please send your application by email by May 26th, 2019 to Prof. Dr. Ulrike Vogl: ulrike.vogl@ugent.be.

Bron: Universiteit Gent