Applications are invited for a fully funded four-year PhD fellowship in descriptive and contrastive linguistics (English-French) starting October or November 2018 at the Department of Linguistics of the University of Leuven.
The PhD is part of a larger collaborative project entitled ”Beyond the clause: Encoding and inference in clause combining”, funded by the Research Council of the University of Leuven. The team coordinating the project consists of Bert Cornillie, Kristin Davidse, Elwys De Stefani and Jean-Christophe Verstraete. The supervisors of this PhD are Kristin Davidse and Karen Lahousse (University of Leuven) and Gerard O’Grady (University of Cardiff).
The aim of this doctoral project is to compare clefts and their monoclausal counterparts (so-called “reduced clefts”) in English and French. The literature on clefts has tended to focus on the relation with their declefted alternate, often viewing different introducers such as ”it’s”/”c’est”, ”there’s”/”il y a” or ”I’ve”/”j’ai” as largely devoid of meaning. The starting hypothesis of this project is that it is actually clefts and simple specificational clauses (with corresponding introducers) that most resemble each other. The project is designed in terms of the contrasts cleft vs. reduced cleft and English vs. French. The phenomena to be analysed include morphosyntax, semantics-pragmatics, prosody, information structure and discourse functions. More information about the project can be requested by e-mail.
Applicants are expected to have the following qualifications and attitudes:
– An MA in linguistics (or related disciplines), with academic distinction;
– Expertise and (near-)native competence in English and French;
– Willingness to undertake instrumental study of prosody;
– A good background in the domains of linguistics relevant to the topic;
– Strong analytical skills and the motivation to pursue descriptively innovative work in linguistics;
– A cooperative attitude and the capacity to actively participate in the project activities (e.g. data sessions) and in events of the research units involved in the project (including their seminar series);
– The ability to present research results at international conferences, and to publish in peer-reviewed journals.
Motivated candidates meeting these criteria are invited to apply online according to the instructions given at the Application Link below and to include:
– A cover letter,
– A CV,
– The names of up to three referees,
– A sample piece of academic writing.
The deadline for applications is 1 July 2018.
Interviews will be held with shortlisted candidates on 9-10 July (in person or online for overseas applicants). A decision will be communicated by mid-July.
The fellow will receive a salary of approximately 2000 EUR/month (after taxes) for a period of four years and all regular provisions for PhD fellows at the University of Leuven. In addition, s/he will be allocated office space and a laptop, and receive funding for research activities such as attending conferences abroad and organising workshops and conferences in Leuven or elsewhere.
The successful candidate may be asked to provide (limited) assistance with teaching, student supervision and data management. S/he will join a dynamic research team (faculty members, postdoctoral fellows and PhD students).
For more information, you can contact the coordinator of this subproject, Kristin Davidse (see contact information below).
Applications Deadline: 01-Jul-2018
Web Address for Applications: http://www.kuleuven.be/personeel/jobsite/jobs/54675461
Contact Information:
Kristin Davidse
kristin.davidse@kuleuven.be
Phone:+32 16 32 48 11
