Support Announcement:

Level:	PhD
Duty:	Research
Linguistic Field(s):	Discourse Analysis Text/Corpus Linguistics
Language Specialty:	English French
Application Deadline:	01-Oct-2012
Supporting Institution:	University of Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve) Institute for Language and Communication
LL Issue:	23.2624
Posted:	06-Jun-2012
Support Description:	The Institute for Language and Communication at the Université catholique de Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium) has three PhD openings within the framework of the research project 'Fluency and disfluency markers. A multimodal contrastive perspective' conducted jointly by the CECL (Centre for English Corpus Linguistics), VALIBEL - Discours et Variation and CENTAL (Centre de traitement automatique du langage) in collaboration with the University of Namur (Namur Research College). The aim of the research project is to investigate markers of fluency and disfluency in spoken and sign language, focusing on three main modalities: first language discourse (French and English), (advanced) foreign language discourse (English), and sign language (Belgian French). Our central working hypothesis will be that fluency and disfluency markers are two faces of the same phenomenon. We will furthermore assume that their forms and functions vary systematically according to the language, speakers, and discourse genres at stake. The methodological approach will be that of corpus analysis (corpus-based and corpus-driven). The selected candidates will be engaged in a 4-year PhD project under the supervision of one or two of the six promoters of the research project in the following three areas: - PhD 1: Prosodic markers of fluency and disfluency in spoken French - PhD 2: Fluency and disfluency in English native and learner speech - PhD 3: Discourse markers as (dis)fluency markers in English and French speech Profile: - Master in linguistics or modern languages (major in linguistics), with honours - Native or near-native speaker of French (PhD 1) or English (PhD 2) and very good knowledge of both languages for PhD 3 - High level of academic English - Good knowledge of linguistic statistics or commitment to acquire it - Familiarity with corpus linguistic methods and tools - Dynamic and motivated - Capacity to work independently and as part of a team - Previous experience with the analysis of spoken language and/or discourse features is an asset We offer a motivating research environment with many opportunities for collaboration with other researchers working on the same project. The salary consists of a PhD grant including social security (+/- 1500 net/month). Additional information: Institute for Language and Communication: www.uclouvain.be/ilc (Dis)fluency project: http://www.uclouvain.be/415256.html Centre for English Corpus Linguistics: www.uclouvain.be/cecl CENTAL: www.uclouvain.be/cental Valibel - Discours & Variation: www.uclouvain.be/valibel
Application Mailing Address:	Prof Liesbeth Degand Insitute for Language and Communication Place B. Pascal 1; L3.03.33 Louvain-la-Neuve 1348 Belgium
Contact Information:	Prof Liesbeth Degand liesbeth.degand@uclouvain.be