10 February 2013

Post-Doc position in semantics/pragmatics in Düsseldorf

The Cooperative Research Center (CRC) 991 'The Structures of Representation in Language, Science and Cognition', which is funded by the German Science Foundation at the Heinrich-Heine University, Dusseldorf seeks a postdoctoral researcher. The CRC brings together faculty and students from the departments of General Linguistics, Computational Linguistics, Philosophy, Romance and German Depts. The successful candidate will be expected to contribute to this interdisciplinary community.

The successful candidate will contribute to a research project whose goal is to better understand how compositional semantics interacts with discourse structure and discourse coherence. The focus of the project is context dependence of temporal expressions (e.g. tense, aspect, temporal adverbials) with the aim of proposing semantic constraints imposed by temporal expressions on anaphora resolution. Prior research on temporality and discourse dynamics is not required.

The appointment will be for two years, starting October 1, 2013, with the possibility of renewal for four more years thereafter (until 2019). Applicants must have completed their PhD degrees by the time of the appointment. The department welcomes international applications.

Applications should be sent in pdf format via email (subject line “Job application – Post Doc”) to: Daniel Altshuler (daltshul@gmail.com). Dossiers should include a CV, one representative publication, and a short letter summarizing: (a) your research activity and (b) why you would like to work on the context dependence of temporal expressions. Candidates should also arrange for three letters of reference to be sent directly to the email above. Applications should be received by April 1 for full consideration.
The Heinrich-Heine-University is an equal opportunity employer and encourages applications from women, minorities and handicapped applicants, who will be given preference in case of equal qualifications.

The availability of this position is subject to budgetary approval.