Institution/Organization: University of Tübingen

Level: PhD

Duties: Research

Specialty Areas: General Linguistics; Language Acquisition; Pragmatics

Description:

The DFG-funded project in the newly established Collaborative Research Center (SFB 1718) “Common ground”, hosted by the University of Tübingen, is inviting applications for 2 PhD positions in Linguistics (75%, TV-L 13 scale, approximately €3.400 per month before taxes and obligatory insurances). The positions are associated with project C4 “Understanding irony through the theory of common ground”.

Project start: October 01, 2025.
Project end: June 30, 2029.

The project combines experimental, developmental, and computational approaches to the study of irony. We will investigate how children acquire the ability to understand ironic utterances and how this understanding can be modeled with the tools of probabilistic pragmatics (e.g. RSA).

Project description:
The ability to interpret ironic utterances is a linguistic skill that develops relatively late in the process of language acquisition and appears brittle under cognitive deficit. This project aims to investigate how speakers understand ironic utterances and how this ability develops in ontogeny. The project’s theory part is specifically devoted to developing a probabilistic model of how irony production and comprehension depend on the state of common ground. We plan to compare the echoic and pretense theories of irony comprehension, as well as their more recent development as a computational countersignaling theory of irony. On the empirical side, the project will contribute developmental data from typically developing children and adults.
Ph.D. project 1 will focus on the acquisition of irony in German-speaking children.
Ph.D. project 2 is devoted to developing a computational model of irony.

What we offer:
The Ph.D. candidate will gain experience in:
- Designing psycholinguistic experiments
- Computational modeling
- Data processing and analysis
- Presenting the results of their work at national and international conferences
- Preparing research manuscripts for publication
The Collaborative Research Center further offers a vibrant linguistic environment, where doctoral students will benefit from jointly organized colloquia, team meetings, and informal events.

Requirements:
- A M.A. or equivalent degree in linguistics, cognitive science, or related disciplines
- Solid background in formal linguistics (semantics and pragmatics)
- Lab experience with psycholinguistic or psychology experiments (for Ph.D. project 1)
- Fluency in English (writing and speaking)
- Fluency in German (for Ph.D. project 1)
- Interest in computational modeling of pragmatic reasoning
Not necessary but highly welcome
- Familiarity with experimental design and analysis in R
- Programming skills (JavaScript, CSS, HTML) or willingness to acquire them
The university seeks to raise the number of women in research and teaching and therefore urges qualified women academics to apply for these positions. Equally qualified applicants with disabilities will be given preference.

Dr. Asya Achimova
[email protected]
https://asya-achimova.github.io/

Application package:
- A maximally two-page cover letter stating your research interests and motivation for this specific project. Please indicate which of the Ph.D. positions you are applying for.
- An academic CV containing the email addresses of two referees
- An academic writing sample in English (e.g. M.A. thesis)

Please send your application as a single file to
Dr. Asya Achimova ([email protected])
Application deadline: July 20, 2025. Short-listed candidates will be invited for a Zoom-interview in the first week of August

Application Deadline: 20-Jul-2025

Mailing Address for Applications:
Germany
Email Address for Applications: [email protected]

Contact Information:
Asya Achimova