Job Location: Ghent, Belgium
Web Address: https://www.ugent.be/lw/taalkunde/en
Job Title: Postdoctoral Fellowship in formal diachronic semantics/pragmatics
Job Rank: Post Doc

Specialty Areas: Historical Linguistics; Semantics

Specialty Language(s): West Germanic

Description:

The job involves formal semantic and pragmatic modeling of Information Structure-related phenomena from a diachronic perspective. Information Structure-related phenomena are to be understood broadly, including but not limited to pragmatic reflexes of syntactic movements, semantics&pragmatics of pronouns, determiners, and quantifiers. The selection of phenomena to be investigated depends on the candidate's background and will be discussed and determined during the hiring interview and at the time of hire.

This full-fime postdoctoral position is offered within the context of the ERC-funded project CAUSALITY (https://research.flw.ugent.be/en/projects/causality). The goal of the project is to investigate causes of language change and conservativity using formal theoretical modeling, computational simulations, and empirical data from historical treebanks of West Germanic languages. The position starts no later than August 2025 and is offered for one year, extendable for one more year following a positive evaluation.

Job requirements:
- A thesis-based doctorate in theoretical or computational linguistics.
- A strong background in formal semantics/pragmatics as witnessed by term papers/dissertation/publications.
- Experience in statistical analysis of linguistic data, including experience with R.
- Interest in language variation and change.
- Experience using Game Theory to model natural language use is an asset, but not a prerequisite.

Application Deadline: 01-Jun-2025
Email Address for Applications: [email protected]
Web Address for Applications: https://www.ugent.be/en/work/scientific/postdoctoral-fellow-1
Application Instructions:
An application package involving the following documents is to be sent to Alexandra Simonenko ([email protected]) by June 1, 2025.

- CV
- PhD transcripts
- a motivation letter
- 2 writing samples

In addition, candidates should arrange for 2 reference letters to be sent by the referees directly to the contact e-mail address by the application deadline.
Contact Information:
Alexandra Simonenko
Email: [email protected]