Overview
Through this call, we aim to establish a multidisciplinary team of researchers with complementary skills in corpus linguistics, digital linguistics, computational linguistics and NLP, working together towards the goals of the three projects as well as advancing research in their respective fields.
The team will be integrated within the TurkuNLP research environment and the researchers will therefore be able to utilize and further develop the datasets and methodological approaches already established within TurkuNLP. However, the specific approaches and research questions will depend on the candidates’ profiles and interests. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
Modeling and analyzing language use across varieties such as registers (genres) in massively multilingual web-scale data, using multilingual deep learning methodology, LLMs and corpus linguistic statistical methods
Analyzing the variation of language use (registers, genres) across factors such as language, country, geographic region and level of language contact? What types of characteristics are shared, and which are not? How does the set of web registers and their characteristics vary and why? What are the mechanisms driving this variation?
Modeling attitudes, ideologies and ideas in web-scale data? How are they repeated within and across different registers, languages, countries and geographic regions? What are the mechanisms driving this repetition?
Developing NLP methods for advanced semantic analysis and labeling of multilingual web data, such as:
Metadata-informed LLM training based on parameters such as register, ideology, language, culture.
Data-driven similarity and information gap analyses on large-scale, massively multilingual web data to identify cross-lingual similarities (e.g. topical and register coverage), and detect missing or underrepresented information across languages.
Efficient, controlled multilingual embedding models for large-scale similarity comparison, especially targeting to explicitly capture different aspects of similarity, such as topical similarity, stylistic similarity, language-related similarity, or their combination.
Theoretical and practical advances for web language use
Geolocating web language use: developing methods to identify and analyze geographic variation in web registers (comparing language with geography)
Developing more efficient and theoretically motivated ways to model linguistic variation
Developing new models of register variation that move beyond categorical models toward continuous representations of situational and linguistic variation
Exploring and comparing theoretical approaches to register: e.g., investigating how Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) could be integrated with corpus-driven register analysis. Examining whether SFL’s theoretically motivated parameters (field, tenor, mode) yield more principled or cross-linguistically valid register distinctions than other corpus-linguistic approaches.
Additionally, the candidate is expected to participate in the supervision of junior researchers and planning of funding proposals.
Company:
University of Turku
Qualifications:
The project goals span both linguistics and NLP, and candidates with various backgrounds in, e.g., corpus linguistics, computer science, or related fields are encouraged to apply. We hope you have
An appropriate doctoral degree
Programming skills (python / R, command-line Unix environments (CSC))
Knowledge of computational methods in NLP and/or corpus linguistics (such as deep learning, Huggingface, processing very large datasets, statistical modeling)
Depending on your profile, familiarity with register studies, corpus linguistics, and/or machine learning methods in NLP
Ability to work independently while also taking responsibility for the research group’s activities
An understanding of multidisciplinary research
We primarily seek to recruit a Postdoctoral Researcher. However, in exceptional cases, applicants who have completed almost all doctoral studies required for a PhD in a relevant field may also be considered. In such cases, the job title at the start of the employment will be Project Researcher and salary will be in the beginning on average 3100–3300 euros/month, depending on previous experience and skills. A person selected for the post of Project researcher is required to have a higher university degree.
We seek highly motivated, enthusiastic and hard-working candidates. The applicants must show good interpersonal skills and be willing to work in close collaboration with the project PI and other members of the international and multidisciplinary Human Diversity team, as well as have the ability to work independently.
We value equality and diversity in our work community and encourage qualified applicants, regardless of background, to apply for our open positions.
Educational level:
Ph. D.
About University of Turku
University of Turku is a school in Turku.
