PhD Position: Philosophy of Language and Experimental Linguistics

1. Introduction

Are you fascinated by how we use language? Then join the new NWO research project ‘Commitments in Communication’ as a PhD candidate. You will aim to understand commitments in communication, combining linguistic experiments with theoretical communication analysis.

2. Job description

By speaking we undertake commitments, obligations to others to act in certain ways. We do this both by performing speech acts and by choosing certain vocabulary. Within linguistics, the notion of commitments has popped up in accounts of a wide range of phenomena (ranging from promises to rising declaratives, and from evidentiality markers to transparent free relatives). In our society, issues about commitment come up in the media and even in court rooms.

Despite the central place of commitment in both our language make-up and our society, a true understanding of how we undertake, attribute and avoid commitments through language use is lacking. This understanding is what this project aims to contribute to.

You will perform a series of experiments in which you measure the commitments that discourse participants undertake as interpreted by the participants in the experiment. This is measured using explicit and implicit judgments. For the latter, you will use, inter alia, physiological measures such as fEMG. Combined with theoretical discourse analysis (as used in the fields of semantics, pragmatics, philosophy of language, conversational analysis and dialogue modelling), the series of experiments will result in four journal papers, to be integrated into a dissertation.

You will participate in relevant conferences, workshops and seminars, and communicate your findings through publications in proceedings and peer-reviewed journals. In addition to your research, you will have a 12.5% teaching load. You will also have the opportunity to further develop your skill set by attending courses that are relevant for your project and general development.

Would you like to learn more about what it’s like to pursue a PhD at Radboud University? Visit the page about working as a PhD candidate. 

3. Profile

• You have a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy or Linguistics and you also hold a Master’s degree in either of these fields or are close to obtaining such a degree.
• You have a demonstrable affinity for semantic and pragmatic research.
• You have been trained in the use of physiological measures and in quantitative data analysis.
• You have very good written and verbal communication skills in Dutch and English. Knowledge of Dutch is a prerequisite since the experiments will be in Dutch.
• You are a highly motivated, critical, and creative thinker who wants to grow as a scientist.
• You are team-oriented, open to providing and receiving feedback, and keen to engage in scientific discussions.
• You are highly motivated to conduct interdisciplinary research and to present your work to different kinds of audiences.

4. We are

The Center for Cognition, Culture and Communication studies fundamental and applied questions at the intersection of cognition, culture and language. Its profile is strongly interdisciplinary, combining state-of-the-art philosophical theorising with recent scientific findings in psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence and cognitive neuroscience.

5. We offer

• We will give you a temporary employment contract (1.0 FTE) of 1.5 years, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, your contract will be extended by 2.5 years (4-year contract).     
• You will receive a starting salary of €3,059 gross per month based on a 38-hour working week, which will increase to €3,881 in the fourth year (salary scale P).
• We offer Dual Career Coaching. The Dual Career Coaching assists your partner via support, tools, and resources to improve their chances of independently finding employment in the Netherlands. 
• You will receive extra days off. With full-time employment, you can choose between 30 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the statutory 20. 

6. Practical information and applying

You can apply only via the button below. Address your letter of application to Corien Bary. In the application form, you will find which documents you need to include with your application. We look forward to receiving your application.

The first interviews will take place on 10 October 2025. Any second interview will take place on 17 October 2025. You will preferably start your employment on 1 January 2026.

We can imagine you're curious about our application procedure. It describes what you can expect during the application procedure and how we handle your personal data and internal and external candidates.