12 July: fyi -- phd funding (discourse), Belgium
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The Institute for Language & Communication of the University of
Louvain (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium) offers a PhD position on the
topic: Emerging discourse markers in the right periphery. The
successful candidate will be hosted by the Research Center Valibel-
Discours & Variation (www.uclouvain.be/valibel) and work in close
collaboration with researchers involved in projects on the
grammaticalization of discourse markers. The aim of the PhD-project
is to investigate to what extent the right periphery of the utterance
favours the emergence of new discourse meanings, especially in the
area of discourse markers. The right periphery represents the end of a
message at a moment in time where the message itself exists and is
manifest to both speaker and hearer. Therefore the right periphery is
the natural place to comment on a message or to express expectations
pertaining to it towards the hearer.
Recent work (e.g. Degand & Fagard in press) has shown that the
occurrence of discourse markers in the right periphery is a fairly
recent phenomenon and that the migration of discourse markers from
initial and medial position goes hand in hand with semantic
change. From a synchronic point of view, markers appearing at the
right of their host unit of discourse are exceptional (cf. Fraser
1999); however if they do appear in this position, they tend to have
an interpersonal function (cf. Brinton 1996), rather than an
information-structuring one. They serve to confirm shared assumptions,
check or express understanding, request confirmation, express
deference or are used for face-saving (cf. Brinton 1996: 37).
Right-peripheral constructions reflect or invite attitudes towards the
message or the situation rather than contributing to the message
itself. This hypothesis seems to be confirmed by certain patterns of
language change, since the right periphery seems to be involved in the
rise of modal constructions such as modal particles. The first aim of
the PhD-project is thus to discover whether one can establish a
?discourse marker paradigm? on the right periphery in speech and/or
writing in synchrony. The second aim of the project is to discover
whether such a potential discourse marker paradigm can be explained in
diachronic terms. Following Traugott (1982: 256) we will assume that
?[i]f there occurs a meaning-shift which, in the process of
grammaticalization, entails shifts from one functional-semantic
component to another, then such a shift is more likely to be from
propositional through textual to expressive than in reverse
direction.?. Language of investigation will be French, preferably in
contrast to one or more other languages.
Profile: MA in Linguistics, (near) native command of French, very
good knowledge of English, acquaintance with grammaticalization theory,
acquaintance with corpus analyses, knowledge of French in
diachrony
Starting date: A soon as possible from October 1st 2010
on
Duration of the project: 2 years, renewable once, monthly
allowance: +/- 1500 EUR (including social security)
Application: Send complete CV and a research proposal compatible
with the general theme (2-3 pages) before September 7th
2010 to:
Prof. Liesbeth Degand
Institute for Language and Communication
Universit? catholique de Louvain
Place B. Pascal 1
1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
Belgium
liesbeth.degand@uclouvain.be
Liesbeth Degand
Institute for Language and Communication (IL&C)
VALIBEL - Discours et Variation
Universit? catholique de Louvain
Place B. Pascal, 1
B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
liesbeth.degand@uclouvain.be
http://www.uclouvain.be/304220.html
T. +32 10 474982
F. +32 10 474942
bur. C.464
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