About the Project
The aim of this project is to build a cutting-edge but psychologically plausible computational model of children’s language acquisition and development, focussing on either syntax or morphology. This project will require a background in both (a) linguistics/psycholinguistics/psychology, preferably with some expertise in child language development, and (b) computer programming (experience with modern large language models would be an advantage, but at a minimum you should be confident with Python and R).
Fluency in one or more languages other than English (particularly highly-inflected languages) would be an advantage. The project would be suitable for an overseas PhD student (self-funded or funded by the government of the student’s home country) or possibly for a UK-based student applying for funding via the North West Doctoral Training College.
Entry Requirements
Candidates are expected to hold (or be about to obtain) a minimum upper second class honours degree (or equivalent) in a related area/subject. Candidates with previous laboratory experience are particularly encouraged to apply.
How To Apply
For information on how to apply for this project, please visit the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health Doctoral Academy website (https://www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/study/research/apply/). Informal enquiries may be made directly to the primary supervisor. On the online application form select the appropriate subject title.
For international students, we also offer a unique 4 year PhD programme that gives you the opportunity to undertake an accredited Teaching Certificate whilst carrying out an independent research project across a range of biological, medical and health sciences.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Equality, diversity and inclusion is fundamental to the success of The University of Manchester, and is at the heart of all of our activities. The full Equality, diversity and inclusion statement can be found on the website https://www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/study/research/apply/equality-diversity-inclusion/”
References
Pimental, T., Ryskina, M., Mielke, Wu, S., Chodroff, E., Leonard, B...Ambridge, B. & Vylomova, E. (2021). SIGMORPHON 2021 Shared task on morphological reinflection: Generalization across languages. In Proceedings of the 18th SIGMORPHON workshop on computational research in phonetics, phonology, and morphology.Association for Computational Linguistics (pp. 229-259). DOI: 10.18653/v1/2021.sigmorphon-1.25 [open access]
Ambridge, B. (2021). A Computational Simulation of Children’s Language Acquisition. In D. Gromann, G. Sérasset, T. Declerck, J. P. McCrae, J. Gracia, J. Bosque-Gil, … B. Heinisch (Επιμ.), 3rd Conference on Language, Data and Knowledge (LDK 2021) (σσ. 4:1-4:3). https://drops.dagstuhl.de/opus/volltexte/2021/14540/
Engelmann, F., Granlund, S., Kolak, J., Zreder, M., Ambridge, B., Pine, J.M., Theakston, A.L., & Lieven, E.V.M. (2019). How the input shapes the acquisition of verb morphology: Elicited production and computational modelling in two highly inflected languages. Cognitive Psychology, 110 30-69 [open access]
Ambridge, B., Doherty, L., Maitreyee, R., Tatsumi, T., Zicherman, S., Mateo-Pedro, P., Kawakami, A., Bidgood, A., Pye, C., Narasimhan, B., Arnon, I., Bekman, D., Efrati, A., Pixabaj, S.F.C, Peliz, M.M., & Mendoza, M.J, Samanta, S., Campbell, S., McCauley, S., Berman, R., Sharma, D.M., Nair, R.B. & Fukumura, K (submitted). Testing a computational model of causative overgeneralizations: Child judgment and production data from English, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese and Kiche, Open Research Europe, 1(1) https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.13008.1