Dear colleagues,
please feel free to share this announcement with interested
students.
One PhD position (TVL-13, 65%) for work at the interface between
prosodic structure and formal/computational LFG grammars at the
University of Konstanz, Germany
Application Deadline: 31.1.2022
Start of the project: April 2022
We are looking for a PhD student to work with us on the joint
DFG/AHRC-project "Prosodic structure at the interface between
language and speech" awarded to Tina Bögel (University of Konstanz)
and Alice Turk (University of Edinburgh).
Both language redundancy and prosodic structure affect
characteristics of speech related to acoustic salience and
intelligibility. The idea that prosodic structure is the interface
between grammar and speech led to proposals that speakers plan the
prosodic structure of an utterance in order to make less predictable
parts of speech more intelligible via its effects on acoustic
saliency. The goals of this project are 1) to test the hypothesis
that prosodic structure is the interface between language and
speech, and 2) to implement this interface in a (computational)
LFG-grammar in order to test and evaluate our architectural
assumptions.
The PhD student's project will relate to the integration of language
redundancy effects into the LFG modules (e.g., to determine an
appropriate representation of bigram frequencies and their effects
in the lexicon, syntactic structure, and prosodic structure, and to
implement them accordingly into a computational LFG grammar). The
PhD student will also assist in the design and execution of several
speech production experiments in close collaboration with all
members of the project.
Your profile:
- A very good MA-degree in a relevant field
- good English language skills
- basic knowledge in phonetics and statistics
- general knowledge of syntax
It is a plus if you have any of these skills:
- knowledge of Lexical Functional Grammar (or even its computational
implementation)
- experience with speech production/perception experiments
- rule-based computational or programming skills
We do not expect you to be the perfect match, but we expect you to
acquire the necessary skills within a year (with support from us and
classes offered at the Department of Linguistics at the University
of Konstanz) and to be open towards different subfields within
linguistics.
We offer:
- a pleasant and supportive working environment
- support for contributions to conferences and general publications
- an integration into a very research-oriented department with
colleagues from various subfields of linguistics
- the possibility of obtaining a PhD
Please send your application as one pdf to Tina.Boegel@uni-konstanz.de
including
- your CV
- your BA/MA certificates
- a motivational letter
- and two referees who we could contact
The University of Konstanz is committed to ensuring an environment
that provides equal opportunities and promotes diversity as well as
a good balance between university and family life. As an equal
opportunity employer, we strive to increase the number of women
working in the field advertised (https://www.uni-konstanz.de/en/equalopportunities/equal-opportunity/).
Persons with disabilities are explicitly encouraged to apply. They
will be given preference if appropriately qualified (contact + 49
7531 88–4016).
--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Tina Bögel
FB Sprachwissenschaft
Universität Konstanz
https://ling.sprachwiss.uni-konstanz.de/pages/home/boegel/
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++