The Collaborative Research Center "Information Density and Linguistic Encoding" (SFB 1102; www.sfb1102.uni-saarland.de) at Saarland University is pleased to invite applications for a PhD opening (65% TV-L E13) related to the area of experimental pragmatics, see project description below.
The positions are available to start as soon as possible, until June 2022.
Application deadline: 11 Dec 2018
PhD position in project A3
The position is situated in a project comprising three PhD positions. The overall goal of the project is to improve automatic text comprehension and production methods, by connecting information provided by a linguistic utterance to world knowledge (and more specifically, in the context of this project, knowledge about prototypical event sequences, also known as "scripts").
The experimental part of the project will investigate what events experimental subjects infer from a story, and which events can be left out without making the story seem incoherent. Furthermore, we aim to investigate under which circumstances the mention of redundant utterances elicits pragmatic inferences.
A central modelling goal of the PhD project is to build a rational speech act (RSA) model which scales to such real-world contexts. In order to achieve this, we will build upon our wide-coverage models of script knowledge, which are available from the first phase of the project, and will be further developed by the other PhD students on A3.
The focus of this PhD project will hence be on experimental pragmatics and computational modelling using the rational speech act theory: what inferences are triggered by uttering redundant (inferable) materials? How can we distinguish redundant materials that trigger inferences from those that don’t? Do inferences triggered by redundant material cause processing difficulty, and how can we measure this processing difficulty? What consequences does this have for computational models of pragmatics?
Candidates for this position should have completed an MSc degree in psycholinguistics, linguistics, computational linguistics, or a related discipline. Experience in experimental methodology and statistical analysis is expected. Background knowledge and interest in pragmatics is desired.
For questions on more project details, please contact Vera Demberg at vera@coli.uni-saarland.de. Applications should also be sent to this address.
The project is part of the Collaborative Research Center 1102, which includes 16 research projects in the areas of computational linguistics, psycholinguistics, and theoretical linguistics. The CRC’s research projects jointly address the hypothesis that language variation and language use can be better understood in terms of a speaker’s desire to rationally distribute information across the linguistic signal. More specifically, a wide range of linguistic, psycholinguistic and computational methods will be brought to bear in explaining the multitude of choices speakers make when they encode their messages – from the choice of words, structuring of syntactic elements, and arranging sentences in discourse.
Note that while the position requires an MSc, we are happy to receive applications by people who have not yet finished their MSc by the time of application, but will have submitted their thesis by the starting date or shortly thereafter. Applicants are requested to submit their application, together with an academic CV, a list of academic publications, copies of academic degree certificates and two potential references.
Saarland University offers a lively academic environment which emphasizes interdisciplinary research between computational linguistics, computer science, and cognitive sciences. In the CRC 1102, we entertain active collaborative links with the Department of Computer Science, the Max Planck Institute for Informatics, the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems and the German Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI).
Saarland University is an equal opportunity employer. Applications of women are strongly encouraged; applications of disabled persons will be given preferential treatment to those of other candidates with equal qualifications.