Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för lingvistik och filologi

Research and teaching at the Department of linguistics and philology covers approx. twenty different languages and linguistic subjects as well as computational linguistics. These include many of the important languages and cultures in the Middle East, to which can be added Hindi, Swahili, Chinese, Ancient Greek and Latin. Comparative Indo-European linguistics and general linguistics are also part of the department.

Doctoral studies extend over a 4-year period during which the PhD-student will receive a salary as an employee of the department. Doctoral students are expected to engage in full-time study and research, and contribute to and participate in the department’s activities. Teaching and/or administrative tasks may be involved up to a maximum of 20%, which is carried out against an appropriate prolongation of the contract.

Project description: This project will explore multilingual grammar extraction from descriptive grammars for the languages of the world. Traditionally, researchers often study the diversity of world’s languages by reading and comparing grammatical descriptions manually. Nowadays, a large amount of linguistic descriptions and books are easily available in digital formats, far exceeding the reading capability of a human researcher. Text technology, i.e. computer-based text management in natural language, is now powerful enough to potentially be used to harvest facts at different levels of detail within a given domain (in this case, information on world languages). In this project we want to utilize a collection of 10,000 digitized grammatical descriptions covering over four thousand languages in order to significantly expand the ability to make major language comparisons. For this purpose, the project will develop methodologies to enable computers to read grammatical descriptions and automatically extract information ("linguistic facts"). We are to explore and develop a notion of "language profile", which is a structured digital collection and representation of a language encapsulating all available knowledge about a language extracted from various sources. The project involves collaboration with Gothenburg University as well as with Leiden University and CNRS/Paris via the related DReaM project. The project is funded by the Marcus and Amalia Wallenberg foundation (MaW 2017.0105, http://stp.lingfil.uu.se/~harald/maw.html).

Qualifications: We are seeking a candidate with a strong background in computational linguistics and/or diversity linguistics. To qualify for a doctoral position a candidate should hold a master’s degree in General Linguistics or Computational Linguistics or equivalent.

Application: The application should contain:

•    A letter of intent describing your research interests and motivation for PhD studies (maximum one page)

•    A CV containing (i) a description of your education in linguistics/computational linguistics and other relevant areas including a transcript of finished courses and their grades/dates, (ii) a list of any academic publications, (iii) professional experience relevant to academic research (maximum four pages)

•    A copy of your MA thesis (or equivalent)

•    A tentative research proposal which (i) states a research question which falls within the project aims described above, (ii) describes the methodology and work plan, and (iii) contextualises the expected results in relation to the state of the art. The actual dissertation project of the successful candidate will be worked out in collaboration with the supervisor and project team. (four pages including references)

•    Other documents which the applicant would like to adduce.

The application may be written in English or Swedish.

Information about the PhD programme at the department can be found at the following website: http://www.lingfil.uu.se/admissions/doctoral-studies/

Rules governing Ph.D candidates are set out in the Higher Education Ordinance

Chapter 5, § 1-7 and in Uppsala university´s rules and guidelines http://regler.uu.se/Rules_and_regulations_in_English/

and http://www.sprakvet.uu.se/Forskning/Forskarutbildning

Uppsala University strives to be an inclusive workplace that promotes equal opportunities and attracts qualified candidates who can contribute to the University’s excellence and diversity. We welcome applications from all sections of the community and from people of all backgrounds.

Salary: According to local agreement for PhD students and teaching assistants. The current starting salary is 26100 SEK/month.
 
Starting date: 1 September 2018 or as per agreement.

Type of position: Full time position.

For further information about the position please contact
Dr Harald Hammarström (harald.hammarstrom@lingfil.uu.se)
Director of graduate studies ProfessorChrister Henriksén (Christer.Henriksen@lingfil.uu.se), phone + 46 (0)18 471 6845
Senior faculty administrator Lars Hagborg (Lars.Hagborg@uadm.uu.se), phone +46 (0)18 471 1907

Please submit your application by 20 May 2018, UFV-PA 2018/1306.

Are you considering moving to Sweden to work at Uppsala University? If so, you will find a lot of information about working and living in Sweden at www.uu.se/joinus. You are also welcome to contact International Faculty and Staff Services at ifss@uadm.uu.se.

Type of employment Temporary position
Contract type Full time
Salary Fixed salary
Number of positions 1
Full-time equivalent 100 %
City Uppsala
County Uppsala län
Country Sweden
Reference number UFV-PA 2018/1306
Union representative
  • Ellena Papaioannou, Seko, 018-471 3315
  • Suzanne Borén Andersson, TCO/ST, 018-471 6251
  • Per Sundman, Saco-rådet, 018-471 1485
Published 02.May.2018
Last application date 20.May.2018 11:59 PM CEST

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