LINGUIST List 24.5281
Wed Dec 18 2013
Support: Morphology, Phonology, Typology/Germany
Editor for this issue: Uliana Kazagasheva
<ulianalinguistlist.org>
Date: 17-Dec-2013
From: Jochen Trommer <jtrommer
uni-leipzig.de>
Subject: PhD Student, Leipzig University, Germany
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Department: Department of Linguistics
Web Address:
http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~asw/
Level: PhD
Institution/Organization: Leipzig University
Duties: Research,Project Work
Specialty Areas: Morphology; Phonology; Typology
Description:
The research project 'Featural Affixes: The Morphology of Phonological Features' (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) offers full three-year funding for a PhD student for carrying out research in the project. The position (German salary grade: half-time 13 TV-L/2) starts April 1, 2014 (or later), and will be associated to the newly approved graduate program 'Interaction of Grammatical Building Blocks' (IGRA) (
http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~igra). Applicants must have an MA or equivalent in hand by April 1, 2014, and are expected to carry out research for their dissertation in the project. The successful applicant should have expertise in a significant subset of the following areas: Current phonological theories (e.g., Optimality Theory), theoretical morphology (e.g., Distributed Morphology or Word-and-Paradigm approaches), crosslinguistic typology, and the representation of linguistic data in database systems. Students from international backgrounds are particularly encouraged to apply.
Project description: Featural affixes are affixes which express morphosyntactic categories by adding phonological features to segments of a base word (cf. German Bruder 'brother'/Brueder 'brothers', where plural morphology consists exclusively in vocalic fronting, i.e. the affixation of the phonological feature [-back] on the stressed vowel). Although they are among the most frequent and widespread types of morphology crosslinguistically, our theoretical understanding of featural affixes is limited by two substantial problems: (i) Systematic research on the topic has been limited almost exclusively to their phonological properties, hence we know little about featural affixes as morphological objects, and (ii) the empirical foundation of research on featural affixes is based on an extremely small sample of languages, and relies in crucial respects on empirically flawed data. This project addresses both problems by a detailed empirical and theoretical study on the morphology of featural affixes in four central areas: their linearization, cooccurrence, allomorphy, and their syncretism in the languages of the world.
More information is available at:
http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~featuralaffixes/.
Applications via email are strongly encouraged. Applicants should send a CV, two letters of recommendation, and a representative sample of their research work (e.g. an advanced seminar paper or M.A. thesis) as pdf files to Jochen Trommer (jtrommer
uni-leipzig.de).
Applications Deadline: 15-Jan-2014
Mailing Address for Applications:
Attn: Dr. Jochen Trommer
Beethovenstrasse 15
Leipzig 04107
Germany
Contact Information:
Jochen Trommer
jtrommer
uni-leipzig.de
Page Updated: 18-Dec-2013