Postdoctoral Position in Linguistics (Prosodic Phrasing and Discourse Comprehension), Université catholique de Louvain

The Institute for Language & Communication of the Université catholique de Louvain (Belgium) is currently seeking a postdoctoral researcher to perform corpus analysis and experimental research on the role of prosody in discourse comprehension. The successful candidate will work under the supervision of Prof. Anne Catherine Simon and will join the project “PhraDiCo: Prosodic phrasing for discourse comprehension. Perception of prosodic boundaries and their contribution to the construal of discourse coherence”. He/she will be employed on a fixed-term contract for 24 months.

Project Description

[PhraDiCo] Prosodic phrasing for discourse comprehension. Perception of prosodic boundaries and their contribution to the construal of discourse coherence. Prosodic phrasing is central to language comprehension and discourse coherence. Spoken language is highly transitory and dynamic. Speech is processed in real-time, as the hearer allocates his attention to each incoming unit and integrates it into a coherent whole. Speech is chunked into prosodic units which are presumably used as basic units of discourse processing. During its first phase, this project aims to explore how ordinary listeners (as opposed to trained experts) perceive prosodic boundaries in spoken language. What is the relationship between the prosodic cues (pauses, lengthening, melodic discontinuity etc.) and the perceived strength of prosodic boundaries? To what extent does the syntactic structure contribute to the perception of prosodic boundaries? Are naïve listeners consistent in their appreciation of boundary strength on word boundaries? Once those questions have been sufficiently tackled, we will focus on analysing the contribution of prosodic boundaries to discourse coherence: relational coherence, which seeks to establish discourse relations between discourse “building blocks”, and referential coherence, i.e. the identification of large-scale discourse topics. Four perceptual experiments have been designed to investigate (i) the acoustic and linguistic factors involved in the perception of prosodic boundary strength; (ii) the influence of speaking styles variability (speech rate, pitch register) on prosodic boundary perception; (iii) the contribution of prosodic units to the construal of discourse relations and (iv) to the identification of large-scale discourse topics.

The project is undertaken by the research centre “Valibel – Discours & Variation” (Discourse & Variation, www.uclouvain.be/valibel) and is funded by F.S.R. – FNRS (www.frs-fnrs.be).

Job Description

• Discursive and prosodic analysis of speech data (transcription, alignment and annotation).

• Design of experimental procedures and preparation of speech samples for perceptual experiments.

• Organisation of on-line and off-line speech perception experiments (recruitment of participants, technical and practical aspects of execution etc.).

• (Statistical) Analysis of the experimental results using databases and specialised tools.

The appointed researcher will work in close collaboration with the project’s supervisor and another postdoctoral researcher. He/she will participate in research leading to scientific publications.

Qualifications

• PhD in Linguistics (discourse analysis, experimental linguistics, cognitive approach to discourse comprehension, syntax-prosody interface) obtained not more than 6 years before the starting date.

• Experience in discourse annotation (topic-focus, discourse relations), in experimental research (perceptual studies), and/or in prosodic analysis.

• Expertise in statistical methods for analysing linguistic data is desirable.

• Knowledge of the Praat software is an asset.

• Native-like command of French and good command of academic English.

Place of employment: Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium (30 km south of Brussels). With 21000 students and 5000-member staff, the University of Louvain is the largest university of the Brussels and Wallonia regions of Belgium.

Contract length: 24 months.

Contract term: Full-time

Starting date: July 2016

Deadline for applications: 5 June 2016

Applications (motivation letter, detailed CV, 1-3 recommendation letters and 3 relevant publications), should be sent in electronic format to Prof. Anne Catherine Simon (anne-catherine.simon@uclouvain.be).