Post-Doctoral Research Assistant Anglo-Norman Dictionary Project (medieval French)
- Ort: Aberystwyth (Wales)
- Arbeitszeit: Vollzeit
- Bezahlung/Besoldungsklasse: £22,332 - £33,780
- Disziplinen: Sprachwissenschaft
- Sprachen: Französisch
- Frist: 02.07.08
Post-Doctoral Research Assistant with Anglo-Norman Dictionary Project at Department of European Languages, University of Wales Aberystwyth.
Post-Doctoral Research Assistant for Anglo Norman Dictionary Project
Department of European Languages
£22,332 - £33,780 (Fixed term contract 49 months)
A Post-Doctoral Research Assistant is required to work on the revision of the Anglo-Norman Dictionary (I-M) from 1 September 2008 for four years, until 30 September 2012. This post is funded by a Major Research Grant from the AHRC. The project already employs Dr Geert De Wilde (since 2003). It is anticipated that the PDRA engaged on this project will have a Ph.D in a relevant subject (probably medieval French, English or History) and (ideally) a high level of computer literacy; the editorial work entails use of an XML editing software package which has been tailored to the specific needs of the dictionary.
For further information please contact Professor Trotter, dtt@aber.ac.uk or 01970 622551.
Ref: EL.08.02
Closing date: 2 July 2008
NOTE: Please put the post reference on the front of your envelope and on your application form.
Completed Applications Forms should be signed and returned to the Operations Team by fax or post. E-mail attachments will not be accepted.
Bilingual Institution which operates a Welsh Language scheme.
Committed to Equal Opportunities.
Operations Team: vacancies@aber.ac.uk / Tel: 01970 622101 / Fax: 01970 622975
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Further Particulars (Yn Saesneg yn Unig)
Post-Doctoral Research Assistant for AHRC Project
Revision of the Anglo-Norman Dictionary, I-M
The project is part of a long-term, comprehensive revision of the Anglo-Norman Dictionary (London: MHRA, 1977-1992; = AND1). The current phase is the complete overhaul of I-M. The project, which is producing an online, freely-accessible dictionary, started in 2003, with the revision of F-H, directed by Professor David Trotter with two PDRAs, Dr Virginie Derrien (who is now leaving for personal reasons) and Dr Geert De Wilde (who remains with the project). The revision is funded by the AHRC until 2012; at the time of writing (June 2008), the new version of I is close to completion.
Both linguistically and technologically, the project is at the forefront of research and the person appointed will be exposed to cutting-edge computerization methods (designed by Professor Michael Beddow, the project’s Technical Consultant) and will be brought into contact with major lexicographical and lexicological research in French as well as in other medieval languages. One of the AND’s key contributions to knowledge has been radically to expand the coverage of medieval French into these non-literary domains and thus to present (in the second half of AND1 and in AND2) a much more comprehensive picture of medieval language than many traditional, literature-based dictionaries.
In addition, the AND and outside the project, its editors, have been at the forefront of attempts to present the multilingual reality of medieval British society. In these respects, then, it is at once a vital part of the exploration of Britain in the Middle Ages, and a British counterpart to important research projects in France and Germany which are concerned with linguistic variation, dialectology, language contact, and non-literary language. Collectively, these projects will transform our understanding of the history of this period of French.
The technology underlying the AND revision, a pioneering use of XML, is already visible in the online version (www.anglo-norman.net).
The post thus represents an opportunity to be involved in, and part of, exciting international developments in medieval French scholarship, as well as in a major dictionary project with a significant and innovative IT component.
The PDRA engaged on this project will need a Ph.D. in a relevant subject (probably medieval French, English or History) and (ideally) a high level of computer literacy.
Research Context
The research context of the project may be described from two different but linked perspectives.
Firstly, the position of AND2 (and for that matter, of AND1) in respect of other lexicographical projects concerning medieval French, Middle English, medieval Latin, and other Romance languages. The AND2 editors have close connections to all the relevant projects elsewhere (OED, FEW, DMLBS, DEAF, TLF …) and there will be scope to visit some or all of these projects during the next few years (exchange visits are funded by AHRC).
The second context for AND2 is the linguistic context of Anglo-Norman itself. The role and nature of AND2 are both a product and an expression of the relationship of Anglo-Norman to the languages around it. The relationship with medieval French is complex. The relationship with modern English, as much as 50% of whose vocabulary comes from Anglo-Norman, is equally important. A proper account of the lexis of Anglo-Norman is essential to the history of both English and French, and one of the primary functions of AND2 (as of AND1 before it) is to document and demonstrate the extent to which Anglo-Norman is an essential bridge between the two languages concerned. The AND is in contact, too, with research groups studying such phenomena in York, Birmingham, and elsewhere.
Project source-data
The material being used to produce AND2 is:
(a) Collas fichier (c. 1m items) assembled by the late J.P. Collas, the personal property of Professor W. Rothwell; E Shanks, Dictionary of Law French (unpublished typescript, Cambridge University Library); miscellaneous gleanings assembled by the editors, in electronic and paper format. Appropriate sections of this material will be moved to Aberystwyth.
(b) Some 200 published texts not used for the relevant section of the compilation of AND1 (see above): the majority of these are accessible on the AND premises, or in the university library or in the National Library of Wales.
(c) Electronic databases of digitised texts, some of which are accessible on the Anglo- Norman Hub Web site (www.anglo-norman.net), some of which are held on disk by the editors: total c. 9 million words. Concordancing software allows the editors to comb the material for new lexical items and, especially, collocations and phrases, in which AND2 is now uniquely rich among cognate dictionaries.
The role of the Post-Doctoral Research Assistant
The PDRA will receive from Professor Trotter an initial grounding in lexicographical methodology as applied to the AND. He or she will also be trained in relevant techniques of corpus analysis and computerised lexicography. The work will consist of working through each set of data indicated above, extracting quotations, and compiling dossiers of quotations to be added to (in many cases, completely to transform) the AND1 entries. These dossiers will comprise material extracted from electronic sources as well as from printed and handwritten material and will be stored in a central document management system accessible to all members of the project team. Compilation and publication of entries will be via a bespoke document management system and an XML editing package.
The project is housed in the Department of European Languages, which is responsible for teaching and research in French, German, Italian and Spanish. There are twelve academic staff, a large number of part-time staff (including some postgraduate students/tutors), and approximately 200 FTE students. The Department is also responsible for the Language Resource Centre, which is housed in the same building and overseen by a technician. Departmental research activity has for many years included a significant historical French language dimension, with the presence of both Professor Glanville Price and Professor Trotter (since 1993) and the university Library holdings are exceptionally good in this area. In addition, the university benefits from the proximity of the National Library of Wales (a copyright library).
The following articles, written since the inception of the AHRC-funded revision, contain further information on the AND:
Scholarly Context of the Dictionary and its Revision
D.A. Trotter, ‘L'avenir de la lexicographie anglo-normande: vers une refonte de l'Anglo-Norman- Dictionary?’, first published in Revue de Linguistique Romane, 64 (2000), 391-405.
Technical Background
M. Beddow, ‘What is XML and what use is it? Some answers from a Humanities perspective’. Written in 2000 for a mainly undergraduate audience, this piece predates the Anglo-Norman Hub project. An introduction for readers who want to know some of the basic features and possibilities of XML in a Humanities context.
M. Beddow, ‘Digitising the Anglo-Norman Dictionary’. Background paper prepared for a meeting of (mainly Old French) lexicographers hosted by the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences in June 2001, when the AND digitisation had only recently begun.
BEDDOW, M. (2006), ‘L’Anglo-Norman Dictionary: présentation technique’, in: D.A. Trotter (ed.), Actes du XXIVe Congrès International de Linguistique et de Philologie Romanes (Tübingen, Niemeyer), I, 305–310.
ROTHWELL, A.J. / TROTTER, D.A. (2006), ‘L’Anglo-Norman Dictionary: une présentation’, in: D.A. Trotter (ed.), Actes du XXIVe Congrès International de Linguistique et de Philologie Romanes (Tübingen, Niemeyer), II, 413–421.
Trotter, D.A. (2007), ‘Habeas corpus ad testificandum: l’Anglo-Norman Dictionary et son corpus’, in Pierre Kunstmann & Achim Stein (eds.), Le Nouveau Corpus d'Amsterdam. Actes de l’atelier de Lauterbad, 23-26 février 2006 (Stuttgart: Steiner), 153-157.
— (2008) ‘Words, words, words ... but what exactly is a “word” in Anglo-Norman?, in C. Harvey (ed.), Essays in Honour of Brian Merrilees: « Queil boen professeur, mult enseinné, queil boen collegue » : Mélanges offerts à Brian Merrilees, Florilegium 24 (2007), 109-123.
Person Specification
Essential
First degree in French, History or English, with significant exposure to and training in French.
Ph.D in probably French, English (language), History.
Knowledge of the history of French.
Computer-literate and capable of acquiring further computer skills.
High level of attention to detail.
Desirable
Knowledge of other languages, especially modern German, Middle English, Latin.
Lexicographical, indexing, or editing experience.
Job Specification
Duties will include:
Preparation of Dictionary entries from fiches, print editions, and electronic sources.
Presentation of work to national/international conferences.
Organization of Dictionary research materials (print, fiches, and electronic).
Liaison with other elements of the AND project and with other dictionary projects in Britain and abroad.
Liaison with individual scholars and libraries in Britain and abroad.
Publiziert von: Kai Nonnenmacher