Offer
UCLouvain is hiring a Fulltime PhD position in French-Dutch linguistics (Morphology)
Job Id : 38457 Internal and external job posting until...
For Institute for Language and Communication of the Social sciences and humanities sector
Main campus : Louvain-la-Neuve
Four‑year doctoral fellowship (initial 2‑year contract renewable once)
100% full-time
Starting date : October 1st, 2026
The successful candidate will work on a research project in the field of evaluative morphology of contemporary French and Dutch, carried out under supervision of Kristel Van Goethem (UCLouvain) and Muriel Norde (Humboldt University Berlin).
The PhD researcher at UCLouvain will work in close collaboration with a postdoctoral researcher in Berlin within the joint research project “The life cycle of extravagance and conventionalization. Pleonastic evaluative constructions across languages and time”, funded by the Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).
A brief summary of this project (in English and French) is available below.
Required qualifications and skills
* Master in Linguistics or Master in Languages and Literature
* Experience in synchronic corpus linguistics and statistical analysis
* Requested languages (native or near-native level): Dutch + French + academic English
Application process
If you are interested in applying for this position, please submit a curriculum vitae and a letter of motivation before 22 June 2026 to the project’s academic coordinator at: kristel.vangoethem@uclouvain.be.
Do not hesitate to contact us at this email address before that date if you have any further questions.
Shortlisted applicants will be invited for an interview, which may take place online, presumably during the week starting 29 June 2026.
Project summary
The life cycle of extravagance and conventionalization. Pleonastic evaluative constructions across languages and time
Human language is a delicate balance between communicative functions, such as clarity and efficiency, and social functions, such as expressing emotion, identity, or group membership. Speakers frequently use playful or hyperbolic expressions in order to be noticed, pushing the limits of what is still grammatically acceptable to their interlocutors. This communicative strategy is termed extravagance and is a possible trigger for language variation and change. Interestingly, extravagant expressions follow a life cycle of their own: initially, they may be seen as bordering on the unacceptable, but their expressive force may diminish over time until they become conventionalized, so that the need for a fresh extravagant expression arises anew.
This ongoing cycle of extravagance and conventionalization is the focus of the proposed project. As a case study, we concentrate on constructions with multiple expression of evaluative meaning, termed "pleonastic evaluative constructions". Examples include (informal) English pleonastic superlatives like the most kindest person, Dutch pleonastic diminutives like dit kleine minivijvertje (this small mini-pond-DIM) or French pleonastic intensification like méga ultra topissime content (mega ultra top-SUP happy). Such expressions are widespread across languages but have not been systematically studied.
In order to understand their usage and change in two language groups (Germanic and Romance), the proposed project explores (i) which pleonastic evaluative constructions are found in authentic language use and to what extent they are constrained by typological factors, and (ii) how pleonastic constructions evolve over time.
Adopting a constructionist approach to language variation and change and using data from synchronic and diachronic corpora, the project offers an integrated, comprehensive approach to the delicate balance between extravagance and conventionalization.
Please don't apply online. If you are interested in applying for this position, please submit a curriculum vitae and a letter of motivation before 22 June 2026 to the project’s academic coordinator at kristel.vangoethem@uclouvain.be.
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