Offre de doctorat : Université de Gand, Belgique,
Description:
Language evolution consists of sequences of changes. Certain sequences have been identified as grammaticalization paths, whereby the distributional span increases and the morphophonological independence decreases [Lehmann, 2015, Hopper, 1991, Hopper and Traugott, 2003]. Such changes have furthermore been identified with an extension of scope [Roberts and Roussou, 2003, van Gelderen, 2011, Hengeveld, 2017, van Gelderen, 2023], which under generative approaches such as Roberts and Roussou’s and Van Gelderen’s is equated with height in hierarchical syntactic structure, and may correlate with changes in the macro-typological character of languages, such as headedness or syntheticity/analyticity.
Do the grammaticalization paths involve discreet stages, with reanalysis defined on morphemes which have clearly distinct synchronic analogues, or a continuous cline, with reanalysis operating on a set of micro-features, which have to accumulate before the result becomes comparable to a morpheme synchronically distinct from the initial morpheme? Are the stages of the same or different temporal length or, alternatively, is the cline linear or does it accelerate at certain points? Does the stage duration/cline slope correlate with typological frequencies of the relevant patterns [Hawkins, 1990]? Can the grammaticalization stages be related to macro-syntactic phenomena, such as harmonic or disharmonic headedness, and analyticity/syntheticity?
The current project envisages a corpus-based approach to these questions. Using a selection of diachronic treebanks (PROIEL and/or Penn-style treebanks), adding further annotations, the project will develop metrics, inspired by, but going beyond, [Szmrecsanyi, 2009, Szmrecsanyi, 2016, Correia Saavedra, 2019] for quantifying grammaticity, explicitly taking into account degree of functionality (measured in terms of number of identified changes from an initial stage) and uncertainty (compatibility with more than one analysis) in transitory stages, as well as headedness/directionality (leveraging UD-annotations) and analyticity/syntheticity (measured in terms of e.g. number of functional morphemes per number of words in the corpus, morpheme-to-word ratio, and function-to-morpheme ratio). Using these metrics and annotations, we hope to pave the way to metrics-based modeling of the role of grammaticalization with respect to intra-linguistic phenomena, as well as to cross-linguistic comparisons of grammaticalization sequences.
We are looking for a Ph.D. candidate to carry out this research on a four-year bursary grant (1 + 3 years subject to positive evaluation after the first year) at Ghent University (Department of Linguistics, research group ∆iaLing). The project will be embedded within the research group ∆iaLing at Ghent University, and will be carried out in cooperation with the project “Tracing macro-cyclical change through micro-cycles in Early Modern Chinese” (PI: A. Breitbarth, CIs: C. Anderl and L. Badan) and “Modeling causes of language change and conservatism” (PI: A. Simonenko).
Required qualifications:
• A Master’s degree in Linguistics, Mathematics or Computer Science with a strong demonstrated interest in Linguistics
• Familiarity with a Generative Grammar framework
• Experience in corpus-based quantitative research
• Familiarity with statistical methods in linguistics and willingness to learn more
• Training in older IE languages (the eventual choice of treebanks will depend on the candidate’s background) is a plus
Candidates are invited to send an application package involving:
• 1) a cover letter
• 2) a CV
• 3) a writing sample
to alexandra.simonenko@ugent.be by March 3, 2025. In addition, please arrange for two letters of recommendation to be sent directly to alexandra.simonenko@ugent.be.
References
[Correia Saavedra, 2019] Correia Saavedra, D. (2019). Measurements of Grammaticalization: Developing a quantitative index for the study of grammatical change. PhD thesis, Neuchâtel/Antwerp.
[Hawkins, 1990] Hawkins, J. (1990). Seeking motives for change in typological variation. In William Croft, Keith Denning, S. K., editor, Studies in typology and diachrony: Papers presented to Joseph H. Greenberg on his 75th birthday, pages 95–128. John Benjamins, Amsterdam.
[Hengeveld, 2017] Hengeveld, K. (2017). A hierarchical approach to grammaticalization. In Hengeveld, K., Narrog, H., and Olbertz, H., editors, The Grammaticalization of Tense, Aspect, Modality and Evidentiality: A Functional Perspective, pages 13–38. De Gruyter Mouton, Berlin/Boston.
[Hopper, 1991] Hopper, P. J. (1991). On Some Principles of Grammaticalization. In Traugott, E. C. and Heine, B., editors, Approaches to Grammaticalization, pages 17–35. Benjamins, Amsterdam/Philadelphia.
[Hopper and Traugott, 2003] Hopper, P. J. and Traugott, E. C. (2003). Grammaticalization. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
[Lehmann, 2015] Lehmann, C. ([1982] 2015). Thoughts on grammaticalization. Language Science Press, Berlin.
[Roberts and Roussou, 2003] Roberts, I. and Roussou, A. (2003). Syntactic change. A minimalist approach to grammaticalization. Cambridge University Press.
[Szmrecsanyi, 2009] Szmrecsanyi, B. (2009). Typological parameters of intralingual variability: Grammatical analyticity versus syntheticity in varieties of english. Language Variation and Change, 21:319–353.
[Szmrecsanyi, 2016] Szmrecsanyi, B. (2016). An analytic-synthetic spiral in the history of english. In van Gelderen, E., editor, Cyclical Change Continued, pages 93–112. Benjamins.
[van Gelderen, 2011] van Gelderen, E. (2011). The Linguistic Cycle. Oxford University Press.
[van Gelderen, 2023] van Gelderen, E. (2023). The linguistic cycle. Economy and renewal in historical linguistics. Routledge.
Application Deadline: 03-Mar-2025
Email Address for Applications: alexandra.simonenko@ugent.be
Contact Information:
Prof. Alexandra Simonenko