PhD position on children’s acquisition of plural and quantified noun phrases

The Cognitive Modelling Group of the Artificial Intelligence Department of the University of Groningen (The Netherlands) and the Linguistics Department at Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia) are looking for applicants for a four-year joint PhD position on a project on the L1 acquisition of plural and quantified noun phrases.

The successful applicant is committed to conducting independent and original scientific research, to report on this research in international publications and presentations, and to present the final results of the research in a PhD dissertation. The PhD student will participate in local, national and international training activities, including summer schools and conferences, to maximally develop his/her potential.

In Groningen, as a member of the Graduate School of Science, PhD candidates may participate in courses, seminars and summer schools. As a Higher Degree Research (HDR) student at Macquarie University, the PhD candidate will work closely with the project supervisors, participate and contribute to the Language Acquisition Lab, and become involved with the dynamic and interdisciplinary research environment at Macquarie.

In the research project, the applicant will investigate children’s language acquisition of linguistic expressions that can give rise to so-called homogeneity effects (i.e., where a description of a plural entity applies to the whole group) in non-homogeneous situations where not all members of the whole group have the predicated features. Consider the following:

(1) The circles are black.
(2) The circles aren’t black.

Because plural definites like the circles tend to be interpreted maximally, in a situation with six black circles, (1) is true, and (2) is false. But in a non-homogenous scenario, where only four of the six circles are black, neither (1) nor (2) seems to be clearly true or clearly false for most adults.
In addition to plural definite descriptions like the circles, homogeneity effects have also been associated with bare plurals (e.g. cats are furry), adjectives (e.g. the wall is black, when it is not all black), as well as statements with relative questions (e.g. Ann knows who came to the party). Empirically, the project investigates children’s interpretations of these linguistic expressions in non-homogeneous contexts. Theoretically, the project will develop an account of the developmental time course and the adult state.
The successful applicant will carry out experimental research with preschoolers and young children, primarily in Dutch and English, and use the results to develop a theoretical account of the acquisition path of these expressions in non-homogeneous contexts. They will need a background (or willingness to acquire a background) in semantics and L1 acquisition, and are enthusiastic about designing experiments to test predictions framed in the semantic literature. In addition to offline methods, which have been used so far in prior studies of homogeneity effects, the project will also provide training in online methods that can tell us more about how children (and adult controls) process these expressions in real time, including eye-tracking. At the completion of the project the candidate will have a solid background in acquisition, experimental research and theory development. More details about the project are available in a short proposal that can be found here.

The Artificial Intelligence Department of the University of Groningen and the Linguistics Department at Macquarie University are excellent research centers equipped to strongly support both the empirical and theoretical dimensions of the project. Both supporting institutions will provide substantial training in offline and online psycholinguistic methods, in addition to supporting the candidate with a rich environment for theoretical discussion and inquiry. The project will be further supported theoretically and practically by a sister PhD project investigating homogeneity effects in adults in cooperation with the University of Nantes.

This is a four-year position, where two years will be spent at each institution. After identifying a suitable candidate, it will be determined how exactly these years will be spread over the two institutions.
For more information about the supervisors (see list below) and their research groups, please find descriptions at the following links:

• Bernoulli Institute (Artificial Intelligence), University of Groningen
https://www.rug.nl/research/bernoulli/research/themes/computing-and-cognition/

• Department of Linguistics, Macquarie University
https://www.mq.edu.au/about/about-the-university/faculties-and-departments/medicine-and-health-sciences/departments-and-centres/department-of-linguistics

For an overview of the project, see:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hPFPUinR1oNIaun08CIcIiTQ8H_04SQj/view?usp=sharing