PhD position

University of Konstanz
Konstanz
Germany
1. April 2016
In the Faculty of Humanities the Linguistics Department has within the newly installed Research Unit „Questions at the Interfaces“ a

Doctoral Research Position in Linguistics
(Salary scale 13 TV-L / 65\%)
available. It is funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.

Applicants are invited for a three-year doctoral position within the Research Unit "Questions at the Interfaces", funded by the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) at the University of Konstanz. The Research Unit (RU) runs from 1 April 2016 till 31 March 2019 and is dedicated to investigating question formation and question meaning, with a particular emphasis on non-canonical questions. This RU combines expertise from theoretical, computational and experimental linguistics as well as visual analytics to study how different components of grammar interface with one another to signal a particular meaning. See http://ling.uni-konstanz.de/pages/home/qi for more information.

The linguistic department at the University of Konstanz provides a lively and internationally well-connected research environment. The RU offers PhD students the opportunity to discuss their topics with fellow students who work on similar issues. We also have funding for PhD students to attend international workshops and conferences.

The successful candidate is expected to work within the project P3 "Alternative Question" and undertake research towards a Ph. D. in linguistics. The position is available as of 1 April 2016. A later starting date is negotiable.

Subproject description: A wealth of surface strategies is used cross-linguistically to produce an alternative question: prosody (placement and type of accent in e.g. German and English), syntax (word order in Hindi and Korean), morpho-syntax (case marking in Korean, Q-particles in Turkish and Sinhala) and the lexicon (choice of lexical disjunction e.g. in Basque). But, despite their different realization, surface cues often reflect recurrent underlying patterns. Project P3 investigates what meaning each recurrent pattern contributes and how different components of the grammar interface and contribute to the semantic composition of alternative questions.
For more details, visit: http://ling.uni-konstanz.de/pages/home/qi/main/P3.html

Requirements:
Applicants should have an M.A. degree (or equivalent) in linguistics and should specialize in formal semantics. Knowledge of pragmatics, prosody and/or other areas interfacing with semantics is very welcome. Experience in cross-linguistic work and/or acquaintance with some of the languages studied (Hindi, Korean, Turkish, Sinhala, Basque) is a plus.

Application:
Applicants should send a short cover letter including reference number 2016/027, a full CV and one sample publication or paper to Maribel Romero at the following email address: maribel.romero@uni-konstanz.de. Please write "PhD Position P3" as subject of your email.