The Research Group for Diachronic and Diatopic linguistics (DiaLing) at Ghent University invites applications for a full-time 4-year position as doctoral researcher. The PhD student will be working on the project “Greetings from the past: on the use of interjections in foreign language textbooks from Early modern Flanders”. This project focuses on interjections in spoken 16th-century Dutch, contrasted with other Germanic and Romance languages. The semantic-pragmatic functions of interjections will be investigated based on multilingual textbooks (Colloquia, et dictionariolum, 1536-1700).
The aims of the project consist in:
- compiling a parallel corpus of multilingual textbooks
- providing a systematic and detailed semantic-pragmatic description of the interjections used in the Colloquia, starting with the Dutch version and contrasting it with French as well as other Germanic and Romance languages, for example German and Spanish
- contributing to a refinement of the semantic-pragmatic typology of interjections in Dutch, based on diachronic and European-comparative insights as well as contributing to the theoretical discussion on the semantic-pragmatic typology of interjections and their relationship with and differentiation from other grammatical categories such as particles
- identifying cases of language contact and, more specifically, semantic transfer in the case of collaboratively translated texts and thereby shedding light on the genesis and spread of interjections in multilingual contexts - identifying conversational routines and communicative practices in which the interjections are embedded; thereby getting a better understanding of aspects of linguistic and cultural knowledge that were regarded as relevant for communication in multilingual settings in Early modern times, more specifically in the Low Countries
Candidates are invited to apply (in English) by submitting two types of documents by e-mail to Prof. Ulrike Vogl by May 26th 2019.
More information on how to apply can be found on the official website of UGent.