Doctoral contract M/F

Job Description

Thesis Subject

The PhD dissertation will be part of the ANR project DramaRef (ANR-24-CE54-3970) “Reference at Play in Ancient Greek Drama,” which aims at identifying the factors determining the choice of the different demonstrative lexemes of Ancient Greek, based on the corpus of 5th and 4th centuries BCE drama. This project, combining linguistic and dramaturgic approaches, is organized in 7 work packages:
1. Referent tracking in discourse (Camille DENIZOT)
2. Reference, information structure, word order and prosody (Nicolas BERTRAND)
3. Deictic reinforcement (David GOLDSTEIN)
4. Reference to abstract objects (Richard FAURE)
5. Indirect and unfaithful anaphora (Hélène PERDICOYIANNI-PALEOLOGOU)
6. Dramaturgy of deixis and anaphora (Pascale BRILLET-DUBOIS, Caroline PLICHON)
7. Diachrony (Liana TRONCI)
One the major achievements of the project will be an annotated database with all the demonstrative (deictic and anaphoric) markers of the corpus. The PhD student will develop a transversal research project pertaining to work packages 2 and 6, under the co-supervision of Nicolas BERTRAND (Université Côte d'Azur) and Pascale BRILLET-DUBOIS (Université Lumière Lyon 2), on one of the two following themes: 1. Building the scenic space through linguistic means in Euripides' plays or 2. Pointing to absence through linguistic means. They will also contribute to annotating the database, which will enhance their research. They will present a research project on one of those two topics in an online interview with both co-supervisers on June 15 or 16, 2026.
NB. While the text of the dissertation can be written in English, the defense will be in French.

Your Work Environment

The PhD student will work within UMR 7320 Bases, Corpus, Langage. This research lab studies language from an interdisciplinary approach. It brings together more than sixty specialists from complementary fields, such as formal linguistics, discourse linguistics, corpus linguistics, cognitive psychology, neurolinguistics, learning and acquisition of language, and dialectology. The PhD student will be part of the team “Pragmatique des textes et des discours” which focuses on an enunciative and pragmatic approach of language, especially through corpus studies on various discourse types (literary/non/literary), different languages (French, Russian, Ancient Greek) and periods (from Medieval to contemporary French). In line with the lab's policy, the members of the team combine theoretical and empirical approaches to linguistics. Currently, while pursuing their own specific research, they are involved in a collective endeavor on the pragmatics of word order.
Moreover, the PhD student will be an integral part of the team of researchers of the ANR project DramaRef, who will propose collaborations, discussions and meetings. BCL will provide the PhD student with a desk in a room shared with other PhD students, while the ANR funding will provide them with a laptop and contribute to their travel expenses, if pertaining to their PhD dissertation.

Compensation and benefits

Compensation

2300 € gross monthly

Annual leave and RTT

44 jours

Remote Working practice and compensation

Pratique et indemnisation du TT

Transport

Prise en charge à 75% du coût et forfait mobilité durable jusqu’à 300€

About the offer

About the CNRS

The CNRS is a major player in fundamental research on a global scale. The CNRS is the only French organization active in all scientific fields. Its unique position as a multi-specialist allows it to bring together different disciplines to address the most important challenges of the contemporary world, in connection with the actors of change.

CNRS

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