Research Opportunities

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Revision as of 11:25, 28 April 2010

Research Exchange

This page serves as a research exchange for faculty and graduate students in linguistics who are seeking research assistance and undergraduates who are looking for opportunities to take part in research.

Posts concerning research assistance should include:

• Title of the project
• Specific tasks/duties you would like done
• Any specific skills or abilities that are required
• Time commitment expected (ex. 3 hours per week, a total of 40 hours over the course of the summer, up to 20 hours total, etc.)
• Start date
• Compensation information (Uncompensated, experience only? UROP? Course credit? Work-study? Hourly rate?)
• Contact information
• Status of the project as "open" or "closed"

Once the project is finished or you have enough help, please mark the position as closed or delete the posting.

Open Research Positions

Semantics & Baseball (OPEN, Prof. Ezra Keshet): Looking for students to help transcribe radio broadcasts of baseball games in order to examine how this language encodes the action going on in the game. Time commitment can vary from 1 game (4-5 hours' work) up to as many games as you want, starting in early May. Work is uncompensated, but credit opportunities are possible. Email me at ekeshet@umich.edu if you are interested.

Database of Phonetic Symbols (OPEN, Terry Szymanski): I'm looking for volunteers to enter data into an electronic database of phonetic symbols in current or past use by linguists. This database will have applications in language-processing software and could help improve optical character recognition of scanned linguistic texts. Work as much or as little as you like. No compensation: email tdszyman@umich.edu

Acquisition of Phonological Variation (OPEN, Andries Coetzee): I'm looking for a student to help me: (i) to compile a bibliography on the acquisition of variable phonological processes, (ii) to summarize important findings about this topic. I have some journal articles with which we can start. The student will read these articles, and summarize the most important findings of the research. The student will then follow-up on the the references cited in the articles in order to compile a comprehensive bibliography on the topic. Some experience with phonology/phonetics required -- at least Ling 111, preferably more. Work as much or as little as you like, but at least a few hours a week is minimally necessary. No compensation, but credit opportunities are possible. Start early May, or as soon as possible. Email me at coetzee@umich.edu.

Discourse Prosody (OPEN, Joseph Tyler): Looking for a volunteer to help measure prosodic features (e.g. amplitude, speech rate) in spoken recordings. You would be working with Praat and a Praat script I have written to automatically collect new prosodic measures to correlate with the discourse structure of a news article. The goal of the project is to see what prosodic measures speakers use that indicate the large-scale structure of spoken language. Experience with Praat preferred. Time commitment is flexible, although initial tasks may take 5 hours. No compensation. Email me at jctyler@umich.edu if you are interested.

Media materials for Linguistics (OPEN, Robin Queen): Looking for 1-2 students interested in finding, clipping and archiving media materials to be used in Linguistics classes, particularly LING370: Language and Discrimination and LING375: Language and the Mass Media. Students should have a good sense of popular culture and be reasonably proficient with technology. You will be trained in how to do the clipping and archiving. Students who have taken either LING370 and/or LING375 are preferred. Must be in Ann Arbor and able to make a minimum commitment of 30 hours total over the course of the summer. Hours can be spread as you wish, though a few hours each week most weeks are preferred. Compensation ($10 per hour for up to 50 hours of work) or course credit available. Contact me at rqueen@umich.edu.