LINGUIST List 13.2690

Fri Oct 18 2002

Jobs: Semantics: Assoc Prof, South Africa

Editor for this issue: Heather Taylor <heatherlinguistlist.org>

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  • donnelly, Semantics: Assoc Prof, U/Witwatersrand, Gauteng, South Africa

    Message 1: Semantics: Assoc Prof, U/Witwatersrand, Gauteng, South Africa

     Date: Wed, 16 Oct 2002 19:11:48 +0000
    From: donnelly <donnellylanguages.wits.ac.za>
    Subject: Semantics: Assoc Prof, U/Witwatersrand, Gauteng, South Africa


    University or Organization: University of the Witwatersrand Department: Linguistics Rank of Job: Associate Professor Specialty Areas: Computational Linguistics, Semantics, Syntax,

    Description: Linguistics at Wits seeks to appoint a full-time, tenure-track candidate at the level of Senior Lecturer (or Lecturer), in the following area(s):

    semantics / syntax / computational linguistics.

    The candidate should have completed the PhD degree, and should exhibit evidence of active linguistic research (optimally, related to Africa).

    Linguistics at Wits turns 40 years old in 2002. In four decades of apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa, the Wits research group in Linguistics has established itself internationally through ground-breaking data-intensive fieldwork from three language phyla: KhoeSan, Southern Bantu, Indo-European (including South African English varieties). The fieldwork pursued by a dozen researchers in this time has ranged widely over all major languages spoken in the southern African subcontinent.

    For this open post we are looking for a formally trained linguist whose skills cover one or more of the following areas: formal semantics, syntax and computational linguistics. The appointee will continue to develop research interests at the interface of the named theoretical fields, and impelled by complex (sometimes mystifying) data from Southeastern Bantu, Khoesan and Indo-European languages spoken in and around Johannesburg, the Gauteng Province and South Africa in its broadest linguistic profile.

    The Linguistics and African Languages departments have been centres of excellence for work on the phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics of !X��; other southern San, Zulu and other larger and smaller Nguni languages, including Xhosa and Phuthi; also Tswana, Lozi, Venda, Tsonga, South African English, until recently Afrikaans, and other south-eastern Bantu languages.

    Linguistics and African Languages were separate departments until 2001, but are now joined (with other language disciplines) in a School of Literature and Language Studies. As such, there are close and overlapping research interests. Students pursue studies in General Linguistics, or in African Linguistics.

    The Linguistics research programme that has emerged refines the longterm vision in a crucial way: the linguistic interconnectedness of the city precincts, townships and suburbs are to be surveyed in a wide-ranging, longterm dialectology research programme that will investigate all the arenas of linguistic territory unexplored by the national census. Wits linguists have faced up to the fact that very little of the linguistic diversity in the city and region is properly documented. We have committed ourselves to close this gap.

    The Linguistics Department at Wits University is uniquely positioned in the economic, geographic and linguistic heartland of South Africa, in the midst of communities speaking twenty or more regional languages, and dozens of others among immigrant populations from further afield in the continent. Yet the university is also within striking distance of monolingual African and English and Afrikaans rural speech communities radically different in social and linguistic composition from each other, and from the urban centre. Thus, the prospective candidate in the department will have at hand a wide range of accessible language consultants and research sites.

    Johannesburg is fortunate to be able to offer the comforts of a large, modern city, while retaining a distinctly African profile within the wider South African context. The Wits Linguistics teaching faculty is actively furthering its research and teaching mission in this African context.

    We seek a highly trained, motivated individual who will contribute significantly to the building of a robust South African Linguistics programme in Johannesburg at the start of the new century.

    (For a more elaborated version of this document, visit http://languages.wits.ac.za/linguistics) Address for Applications:

    Attn: Mrs Pumla Ngcobo Human Resources University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg, Gauteng 2050 South Africa Applications are due by 15-Nov-2002

    Contact Information: Dr Simon Donnelly. Email: donnellylinguistics.wits.ac.za Tel: +27 - 11 - 717-4186 Fax: +27 - 11 - 717-4199 Website: http://languages.wits.ac.za/linguistics