Research in acoustic and articulatory phonetics

THE ECOLE NORMALE SUPÉRIEURE

Created in 1794, the École normale supérieure (ENS) is an institution of higher education and research that covers most scientific and literary disciplines. An élite institution that recruits the very best students in France and abroad, through competitive exams and preparatory classes, but also by selection based on applications and interviews, the ENS enjoys great international prestige due to the quality of its students and the reputation of its research centers, particularly in mathematics, physics, biology, cognitive sciences, philosophy, and the sciences of antiquity. The École normale supérieure has 37 joint research units.
The École normale supérieure is a member of PSL University


Department or service of the structure: Département d'Etudes Cognitives (DEC)

Rank: Postdoctoral researcher
Specialty Areas: Laboratory phonology, Prosody, Articulation


DESCRIPTION
The Département d'Etudes Cognitives (DEC) at Ecole Normale Supérieure is offering a two-year postdoctoral researcher position on a project on the effects of word-level prosodic prominence on articulatory and aerodynamic properties of speech sounds (PI: Maria Giavazzi).


TASKS
The postdoc's primary responsibility will be to conduct research in acoustic and articulatory phonetics, with a possible link to perceptual investigations. The French National Research Agency (ANR) grant DIA-SYN-PHON (PI: Maria Giavazzi) aims to understand the articulatory, acoustic and perceptual bases of prosodically conditioned phonological alternations, and to test the hypothesis that their typology emerges diachronically from the phonetic effects of prominence enhancement. A further component of the project also aims to understand whether and how these phonetic precursors are encoded in the synchronic grammar of the learner, but this axis lies outside the scope of this position. The project brings together a wide range of experimental methodologies, ranging from linguistic typology, speech perception, acoustic and articulatory phonetics, to speech motor control, artificial grammar learning and computational modeling. Connections between linguistics and other fields in cognitive science beyond - phonetics and laboratory phonology are welcome.

The position has a career development component: the selected applicant will be encouraged to develop their own research program using the time and resources of the lab, specifics to be discussed at the moment of hiring. While this is primarily a research position, it might also involve small organizational responsibilities. Regular participation in collective scientific activities (e.g. seminars and lab meetings) will be expected.


RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT
The postdoc will be affiliated to the Department of cognitive studies of the ENS (DEC). The postdoc will be integrated into the transversal team DEC Linguistics, which offers a rich interdisciplinary environment. The postdoc will work in tight collaboration with Anne Hermes at Laboratoire de Phonétique et Phonologie (LPP, Sorbonne Nouvelle), who will co-supervise the position together with Maria Giavazzi, and with Ioana Chitoran (CLILLAC-ARP, U. de Paris), Cécile Fougeron (LPP, Sorbonne Nouvelle) and Sharon Peperkamp (LSCP, DEC, ENS-PSL), the other collaborators on the project. The DEC and the LPP are both located in the 5th arrondissement in Paris, a few minutes walking distance apart. The postdoc will have access to the DEC behavioral platform at ENS and to the speech physiology platform of the LPP (Sorbonne Nouvelle), which is an EMA (AG501) device. A RespTrack device using Respiratory Inductance Plethysmography will be acquired.

PROFILE
Degree: PhD (or equivalent)
The successful applicant will have a strong background in speech production and in at least one of the following areas: (1) articulation (EMA, ultrasound), (2) speech aerodynamics (RespTrack…).
Previous experience with phonetic and articulatory aspects study of prosody will be considered a plus, but it’s not a requirement. The candidate should be able to contribute to the different phases of the project, in terms of corpus design, data collection and analysis, and paper write-up. Knowledge in MATLAB, Praat, Python, R, EMUWebApp (at least a subset of these) is required.

OTHER INFORMATION

Starting date: The position will preferably start on September 1, 2022. The applicant's PhD should have been defended and filed by the starting date.

Location: 29 rue d’Ulm, 75005 Paris, France

Working Conditions: 37.5 hours / per week; 49 days of vacation/time off per year. Teleworking possible (max. 2 days per week, subject to PI’s approval).

Duration: 24 months

Salary: The postdoctoral fellow will receive a monthly net salary ranging from 2100 to 2500 euros, depending on past experience. The position will be funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche Young researchers grant (JCJC) ‘The role of phonetic substance in prosodic conditioning: From diachrony to synchrony, and back’ (DIA-SYN-PHON; PI: Maria Giavazzi).

The ENS is an equal opportunity employer. We strongly encourage applications from all suitably-qualified candidates, irrespective of gender, disability, marital or parental status, ethnic or social origin, religion, belief, or sexual orientation.

APPLICATION DETAILS

The file must include:
- a CV
- a brief statement of research interests (up to 2 pages)
- a selection of published or unpublished papers or dissertation chapters (up to 2)

For full consideration, please send your application in a single email and include contact information for three references. All communication and materials should be addressed to the PI’s email indicated below.

Please include in the subject of your email the string [DIA-SYN-PHON-postdoc].

Email Address for applications: maria.giavazzi@gmail.com

Application deadline: June 1, 2022

Contact:
Maria Giavazzi, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Département d'études cognitives
Ecole Normale Supérieure
29 rue d'Ulm
75005 Paris
FRANCE

Download the PDF