Netherlands : Ph.D. Student on the subject Plural as value of Cushitic gender: a psycholinguistic study (10-120)

The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL) is the research institute of linguistics at the Faculty of Humanities, Leiden University. LUCL coordinates the research of about 60 permanent faculty, 50 PhD students and 30 post-docs. It runs the internationally-oriented two-year Research MA programme “Structure and variation in the languages of the world” and organises numerous conferences, workshops and other scientific events every year.

LUCL has a position for a:

Ph.D. Student on the subject ‘Plural as value of Cushitic gender: a psycholinguistic study’, (f/m)(38 hours a week), Sept 2010 – Aug 2014
Vacancy number: 10-120

Project description

This project is about a psycholinguistic study of grammatical gender processing in Cushitic languages. The gender systems of Cushitic languages in East Africa have the intriguing property that the third value of gender (beside masculine and feminine) is plural. The world’s leading typologist of gender, Greville Corbett, analyzed these systems as two-valued and the third value as part of the number category (see Corbett & Hayward, 1987; Corbett, 1991, 2005, 2006). In contrast, Mous (2008) argued that Corbett’s analysis cannot hold because gender and number are two independent agreement systems and adjectives show agreement for both categories independently. Thus, if the third category of gender is taken to be plural, a situation can arise in which adjectives show conflicting values for number in agreement with one and the same head noun.

The current project aims at providing experimental, psycholinguistic evidence to shed more light on the processing of grammatical gender in Cushitic languages and support either Corbett’s or Mous’ theoretical hypotheses.

Requirements

• MA in linguistics, psycholinguistics or a related area such as cognitive/experimental psychology or cognitive science;

• preferably theoretical knowledge about grammatical processing in Cushitic languages;

• and/or hands-on experience in psycholinguistics;

• experience with E-prime-software (for experimental design/set-up) is an advantage;

• (basic) knowledge of statistics (incl. SPSS) for data analysis is also an advantage;

• solid competence in English (oral and written);

• candidate must be willing and able to carry out experiments in Ethiopia;

• preferably competence in Amharic as well as practical and social knowledge of Ethiopia.

Conditions of employment

The successful candidate will be appointed for a period of 18 months, with an extension of 30 months after positive evaluation of capabilities and compatibility. The gross monthly salary will be in accordance with the Collective Agreement of Dutch Universities for academic personnel, and will range from € 2.042 gross per month in the first year, gradually rising to € 2.612 in the final year.

Information

More information on this position can be obtained from Prof.Dr. Maarten Mous, email: m.mous@hum.leidenuniv.nl, or Prof. Dr. Niels Schiller, email: n.o.schiller@hum.leidenuniv.nl.

Application

Applicants should submit an application before 29 June 2010. Applications should be sent to vacatureslucl@hum.leidenuniv.nl.

In order to apply, the applicant must submit the following:

• a curriculum vitae;

• a statement of interest (no more than 250 words), briefly detailing background, research aspirations and interests;

• names and email contact details of two referees.

Further Information

Application Deadline : 29 June 2010

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Posted on 2010-06-22 12:26:46

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