莱比锡大学（Universität Leipzig）位于德国东部萨克森州的莱比锡，创立于1409年，德国U15大学联盟成员，欧洲最古老的大学之一，也是现今德国管辖地区内历史第二悠久的大学，仅次于海德堡大学（1386年），略高于罗斯托克大学（1419年）。另两所创建曾早于莱比锡大学的大学是科隆大学（1388年— 1798年，1919年重建）和埃尔福特大学（1392年—1816年，1994年重建）都曾关闭后又重开。1953年至1991年间，莱比锡大学曾名为“莱比锡卡尔·马克思大学”。

Department: Linguistics
Web Address: https://igra.philol.uni-leipzig.de/en/homepage

Level: PhD

Institution/Organization: Leipzig University

Duties: Research

Specialty Areas: Linguistic Theories; Morphology; Phonology; Syntax

Prof Greg Kobele
gkobele@uni-leipzig.de

Description:

The University of Leipzig, Germany, offers full funding for 4 PhD candidates who wish to obtain a PhD in any area of Syntax, Morphology and/or Phonology and their interfaces (including experimental and computational perspectives on the same). These 4 PhD positions will be part of the graduate program ''Interaction of Grammatical Building Blocks'' (IGRA), funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).
Each PhD position is funded for 3 years, with social benefits (payscale: 0.65 TVL-E13), and will consist of a combination of course-work (with courses taught both by our faculty and by internationally renowned guest scholars from elsewhere) and independent research. Students also have the opportunity to conduct extended research stays at leading linguistic institutions abroad, and access to travel money for conferences and summer schools.

The central research focus of IGRA is on the phonology, morphology, and syntax of natural languages. Recent developments in grammatical theory have accumulated an impressive body of knowledge about the representations of linguistic expressions of varying complexity, and about the grammatical building blocks (rules, operations, constraints, schemata, extralinguistic factors) that restrict their distributions. In addition, there are some plausible hypotheses as to how these building blocks interact with one another. However, what is so far lacking is a comprehensive and systematic investigation of the possible interactions of grammatical building blocks from different theoretical perspectives, on the basis of detailed empirical studies of phonological, morphological, and syntactic phenomena from an array of typologically diverse languages. It is the primary goal of the graduate programme to address this gap.

The dissertations carried out under this program will pursue empirical research based on different grammatical models (and potentially also on combinations thereof), among them Minimalism, Optimality Theory, Rule-Based Phonology, Distributed Morphology, Lexical Decomposition Grammar, Construction Grammar, Framework-Free Grammatical Theory, Minimalist Morphology, Paradigm-Function Morphology. The program thus offers PhD candidates the unique opportunity of conducting linguistic research in an academically rigorous environment that is not pre-biased toward one or another theoretical framework but offers exposure to a diverse range of theoretical perspectives.
Detailed information about the research programme, including a list of the programm's faculty and a list of potential dissertation topics, can be found on the IGRA website.
The language of instruction is English. Applicants should have an M.A. in Linguistics or related fields, with degree in hand latest by April 1, 2020.
Starting date: April 1, 2020.

Applications should contain the following supporting documents:
- Statement of purpose (1-2 pages) that clarifies the research interests of the applicant, in particular detailing how these would fit in with the broader research goals of the PhD programme; this can be in English or German
- Representative sample of research work (e.g. an advanced seminar paper or M.A. thesis): in English or German
- Two letters of recommendation
- Curriculum Vitae (CV)
- Copy of M.A. degree (to be handed in latest by April 1, 2020, if not already available by Jan. 19, 2020)

All supporting documents for the application should be emailed electronically as a single pdf file (the M.A. degree to be scanned in) to Prof. Greg Kobele (subject line: igra; email address given below).

The recommendation letters should be emailed directly to this address by the referees.

Applications Deadline: 19-Jan-2020

Mailing Address for Applications:
        Attn: Prof Greg Kobele
        Beethovenstrasse 15
        Leipzig 04107
        Germany

Contact Information:
        Prof Greg Kobele
        gkobele@uni-leipzig.de