As a postdoctoral researcher you will be responsible for cross-linguistic corpus-based research in the framework of the NWO project ‘Elementary Particles of Conversation’ led by Dr Mark Dingemanse. This project studies the metacommunicative resources that streamline social interaction and scaffold complex language. The corpus-based portion of the project uses conversational corpora from a diverse range of languages to investigate universal and language-specific aspects of little words like oh, huh?, m-hm: interactional tools that help us every moment to calibrate mutual understanding and distribute cognition in interaction. You will be expected to synthesise insights from fields like interactional linguistics, conversation analysis, and corpus linguistics, and you will have the opportunity to help shape an innovative research programme on the interactional foundations of language. 
A central goal is to develop methods for characterising and querying sequential patterns in conversational corpora for use in qualitative and quantitative research on human interaction. You will be primarily responsible for curating a collection of cross-linguistic corpora (some of which are already available in the project), organising data sessions, designing and testing a computer-aided data analysis pipeline, and writing publications. You will also contribute to the organisation of scientific meetings and public outreach related to the projects. You will work in close collaboration with the Principal Investigator and with other project members, both remotely and locally in Nijmegen.

Our group is based at the Centre for Language Studies (CLS), Radboud University (Nijmegen, Netherlands). Our research programme asks how language is shaped by and for interaction, using a combination of observation, experimentation and simulation. You will join a vibrant network of interaction researchers allied with the Multimodal Language and Cognition group (CLS & MPI) and the Communicative Alignment in Brain and Behaviour lab, providing a lively context for lab meetings, lectures and journal clubs. We will be happy to provide mentorship and collaboration opportunities to help you develop your skills as a researcher.

• A completed PhD degree in Linguistics, Cognitive Science, or a related field.
• Hands-on experience with work on language and social interaction (e.g. interactional linguistics, conversation analysis, corpus linguistics of conversational corpora, dialogue modelling).
• Experience with programming tools used in corpus linguistics (e.g. Praat, Python, R).
• Familiarity with methods and principles of open science for building reproducible workflows and sharing data.
• An excellent command of written and spoken English.

Radboud University is an equal opportunity employer, committed to building a culturally diverse intellectual community, and as such encourages applications from underrepresented and minoritised groups. We are interested to hear from highly motivated candidates even if they do not meet all the requirements. Do feel free to get in touch if you have any questions.

Fixed-term contract: 2 years.

• Employment: 0.8 - 1.0 FTE.
• A maximum gross monthly salary of € 5,127 based on a 38-hour working week (salary scale 11).
• The exact salary depends on the candidate's qualifications and amount of relevant professional experience.
• In addition to the salary: an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus.
• Duration of the contract: 2 years.
• Starting date is as soon as possible.
• You will be able to work remotely as long as Covid-related measures so require.
• You will be able to use our Dual Career and Family Care Services. Our Dual Career and Family Care Officer can assist you with family-related support, help your partner or spouse prepare for the local labour market, provide customized support in their search for employment  and help your family settle in Nijmegen.
• Have a look at our excellent employment conditions. They include a good work-life balance (among other things because of the excellent leave arrangements), opportunities for development and a great pension scheme.

Radboud University

We want to get the best out of science, others and ourselves. Why? Because this is what the world around us desperately needs. Leading research and education make an indispensable contribution to a healthy, free world with equal opportunities for all. This is what unites the more than 22,000 students and 5,000 employees at Radboud University. And this requires even more talent, collaboration and lifelong learning. You have a part to play!

Faculty of Arts

Nijmegen has been called the 'linguistics capital of the Netherlands' and boasts several renowned research centres in the areas of language, cognition and communication such as the Centre for Language Studies, the Donders Institute and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics. The mission of the Centre for Language Studies (the home base of our group) is to achieve a deeper understanding of human language by integrating research on the cognitive and social processes underlying language systems, language processing, language use, and language development. 
The Faculty of Arts employs over 500 academic and support staff in the fields of history and art, languages and cultures, linguistics and communication. Research is embedded in two faculty research institutes: the Centre for Language Studies and the Radboud Institute for Culture & History (RICH). The faculty currently enrols some 2,400 students in three departments: the department of History, Art History and Classics, the department of Modern Languages and Cultures, and the department of Language and Communication.