The School of English and Languages is seeking to appoint a post-doctoral Research Fellow for a three-year Arts and Humanities Research Council funded project “Seri verbs: multiple complexities”. The project investigators are Matthew Baerman (Surrey), Carolyn O’Meara (National Autonomous University of Mexico) and Patricia Cabredo Hofherr (Centre national de la recherche scientifique, France).

The project involves the study of Seri, a language isolate spoken by approximately 900 people on the Sonoran coast in Mexico. In particular, we will be investigating the verbal system, which is noteworthy for two reasons. First, it is characterized by an extraordinary degree of morphological complexity: by our estimate, there are over 500 morphologically distinct inflection classes. Second, the categories underlying this system are themselves typologically interesting, involving the parallel marking of subject and event number whose interaction we seek to clarify. This project thus offers the opportunity to explore the relationship between complex morphology and a rich system of morphosyntactic and semantic properties.

The successful candidate should have experience in language description, and the elicitation and analysis of spoken language data, and be willing to engage in fieldwork in Mexico (which will also require a command of Spanish). A background in morphology, typology or semantics would be a plus. Candidates must have the ability to work independently while functioning as part of a research team. The position is available from 01 February 2017.

Information about the Surrey Morphology Group and their current research projects is available at http://www.smg.surrey.ac.uk/.

Applications should be submitted using the online form at the application website (https://jobs.surrey.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx?ref=071416). Informal enquiries may be made to Dr Matthew Baerman (m.baerman@surrey.ac.uk).