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Sociolinguistics/ Educational Studies - University of Luxembourg

Job description

PhD student required to work on a project looking at language use and identity negotiation within the Portuguese community in Luxembourg, using qualitative (ethnographic/ socio-cultural/ sociolinguistic) research methodologies.

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Candidates must hold a degree (or equivalent) in linguistics, educational studies or a related field. Excellent knowledge of Portuguese and English, good knowledge of French desirable.
50% appointment, for a period of 2 years with possible extension to 4 years.

How to apply

If interested, please send a curriculum vitae to: Prof. Jean-Jacques Weber, jean-jacques.weberuni.lu. Further information about the position can be obtained from the same email address. Applications will be considered until the post is filled.

GOA project UGent: Meaning in between structure and the lexicon

Job description

A PhD-research position ( doctoraatsbursaal ) is available at the English Department of Ghent University for a period of 2 years with possible extension to 4 years in case of a positive evaluation. The postholder will be expected to write a PhD on an aspect of the syntax-semantics interface in the English language in the field of verb complementation patterns. The position is to be situated within the framework of a larger contrastive research project on the syntax/semantics interface and the meaning in between structure and the lexicon in Dutch, French and English. In addition to writing a PhD on a specific subtopic in English, the postholder is also expected to present project-related output in contrastive linguistics and/or engage in more general theoretical discussions of the syntax/semantic interface in general. A summary of the main objectives of this larger project is provided below.

Aim of the project

The main objective of the project is to provide an empirically grounded account of the respective contributions of the lexical and structural components to the overall meaning of Dutch, French and English clauses, thus contributing to the development of a typological theory of the relationship between meaning, structure and the lexicon in the world's languages.

Synchronic component

For obvious reasons, we shall focus on the verbal lexicon and verb patterns (i.e. clause-level constructions such as monotransitive, ditransitive, etc). The meanings of both the main verb and the clause structure are not (strictly) referential, but relational in nature: both express a relationship between the referential elements of the clause. Hence, they may be regarded as "rival" formal means of expression par excellence and so constitute a natural area of investigation for the submitted project. One field where the competition and interaction between verbs and structural patterns becomes evident is that of structure alternations i.e. the phenomenon where a single lexical item can be combined with several morphosyntactic structures, as illustrated in (1) below:

(1)      a. They believed that he was ill.
           b. They believed him to be ill.
           c  They believed him ill.

The standard view of several modern approaches to the syntax/semantics-interface - including Cognitive Grammar and Construction Grammar - is that the meaning of the verb believe remains the same in (1a-c) and that the subtle differences in meaning between the three sentences should be attributed to the semantic import of the alternate syntactic constructions.
Elucidating those subtle meaning distinctions, however, is an altogether different matter: though alternation patterns have definitely not been understudied, there is still no consensus about the exact nature of the semantic differences between the various alternation patterns. A thorough analysis of a large number of contextualized corpus-based examples will enable us to formulate an empirically grounded picture of those meaning distinctions, and to compare them to the situation in the other languages.

Diachronic component

The synchronic analysis will be supplemented with a diachronic component. It is an interesting question whether or not languages evolve towards greater typological consistency, with similar meanings being expressed by similar formal means of expression. In the course of their evolution, each of the three languages under investigation has been subject to shifts in the relationship between the lexical and structural components. In investigating transitions of this kind, the project will link up with existing research on grammaticalization (i.e., the process of language change in which lexical elements are gradually transformed into elements of structure), which is undoubtedly one of the major issues in contemporary historical linguistics.

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Candidates must hold a university degree (or equivalent) in English and have written their M.A. thesis (in English) on a subject in English linguistics

How to apply

Send a curriculum vitae to:
Prof. Dr. Anne-Marie Vandenbergen
English Department
Ghent University
Rozier 44
9000 Ghent.

Or email your cv to: annemarie.vandenbergenugent.be

Further queries can be sent to the same email address. Applications will be considered until the post is filled.

19C print culture - UGent

Applications are invited for a PhD studentship at Ghent University on a research project which starts 15 March 2007 and is due to end in September 2010. The successful applicant will be expected to write a Ph.D. thesis on an aspect of Victorian print culture.

Eligibility:

Interested candidates should send their c.v. promptly to Prof Marysa Demoor (marysa.demoorugent.be). Further queries can be sent to the same email address. Applications will be considered until the post is filled.