At the Department of Linguistics at Ghent University, five one-year Postdoctoral Research Fellowships are vacant within the ERC starting grant project EVALISA: "The Evolution of Case, Alignment and Argument Structure in Indo-European" (http://www.evalisa.ugent.be), led by Research Associate Professor Jóhanna Barðdal. The positions are within Historical-Comparative Linguistics with a specialization in one or more of the following languages: Hittite, Tocharian, Old Irish, Classical Armenian and Old Albanian. The positions are vacant from April 1st, 2014, or as soon as possible thereafter. An earlier appointment may also be discussed.

The positions entail 100% research within the EVALISA project, demanding qualifications within historical-comparative Indo-European linguistics; the candidates shall work on one or more of the five specializations: Hittite, Tocharian, Old Irish, Classical Armenian and Old Albanian. The ideal candidates will have competence within more than one of these languages, with one postdoctoral year intended for research within each language. The successful candidate shall work on predicates selecting for non-canonical case marking of the subject or the subject-like argument, their semantics and syntax, including further harvesting of relevant data. The candidates shall, together with other team members, build a joint electronic database, and write and contribute records to it. There will be a special focus on syntactic research and syntactic reconstruction. Knowledge of cognitive theories of syntax and Construction Grammar is essential. Experience from the field of case theory and computational methods is an advantage.

A full-time Postdoctoral Position comes with a net monthly salary of around 2,000–2,250 EUR p/month, depending on previous work experience. The successful candidate will also benefit from a yearly travel allowance, for presenting work at conferences etc., of up to 5,000 euros.

Candidates will be expected to publish at least two peer-reviewed papers per year. They are expected to show good collegiality, be willing to contribute to joint research, such as joint research papers, to participate in all project related activities (workshops, reading groups, etc.), and to provide support for more junior members of the team.

Applicants should speak and write fluent English.

Applications should be sent to Jóhanna Barðdal at the application email address below, no later than January 15th, 2014, and should include a CV, contact and personal details, three (3) academic publications, a letter of motivation, and the contact details of two referees (names, affiliations and phone numbers or e-mail addresses). The successful applicants will be expected to relocate to Ghent University and conform to the regulations that apply to the positions at all times. A research plan will be worked out by the successful candidates and the project leader together, before employment begins, and will accompany the work contract.

Additional information about the positions is available by application to Jóhanna Barðdal at johanna.barddal at ugent.be