<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><P align="center" style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; ">CALL FOR PAPERS</P><P align="center" style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; "> PLATFORMS FOR NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING </P><P align="center" style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; ">SPECIAL ISSUE OF « TRAITEMENT AUTOMATIQUE DES LANGUES » (TAL) JOURNAL</P><P align="center" style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </P><P align="center" style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; ">2008 Volume 49 Number 2 </P><P align="center" style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; ">Deadline for submission: 28th January 2007 </P><P align="center" style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 12px; margin-left: 0px; "><A href="http://www.atala.org/">http://www.atala.org</A>/</P><P style="text-align: auto;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "> </P><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Research in NLP increasingly requires sophisticated software architectures. Because there is no agreed “integrated” model of language processing, researchers often produce ad hoc and application-specific solutions, while NLP platforms help by bringing components together and making them interoperable. Due to the complex nature of NLP applications — and language itself — one needs to mix in the same process different models, resources and algorithms, leading to important problems of interoperability and data exchange. Moreover, the increasing complexity of linguistic models implies sophisticated formalisation tools, and the development of experimental studies on large corpora also brings strong constraints on the software environments.</DIV><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"> </P><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">These various characteristics and requirements raise many questions which will be the focus of the present special issue on platforms for language processing. Two interrelated and complementary aspects are relevant: an architectural and a methodological one.</DIV><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"> </P><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">1) Architectural issues</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Bringing together different modules raises many architectural and technical questions, centered around interoperability and data exchange, such as:</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- interoperability between representation formats of corpora, linguistic resources, documents and annotations; possible standardisation;</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- technical compatibility of heterogeneous algorithms and data: portability, availability, maintainability, etc;</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- graphical user interfaces supporting computer scientists and/or linguists to assemble sets of “components” and to visualise and debug the results of their application to corpora;</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- multimodality and multilinguism;</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- software execution models: pipeline, agent-based architectures, distributed web services, etc; techniques for limiting errors from propagating into subsequent modules; efficiency comparisons of the various kinds of architectures; scalability (massive data, simultaneous on-line users…);</DIV><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"> </P><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">2) Methodological issues</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">The scientific approach which consists in projecting a certain linguistic model – or a set of models — on the same data or corpora also raises interesting questions:</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- formalisation: which formalisms are appropriate for the various levels of linguistic analysis? How can they be made interoperable? What should be considered first: the expressivity of a formalism or the complexity of the associated algorithms?</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- descriptive power: how can we ensure the declarative nature of NLP processes, from linguistic rules to the specification of process chaining? Is it possible to have a convergence of descriptive and prescriptive models?</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- repeatability: how to ensure that an experiment, based on complex algorithms, can be reproduced? How to share and capitalize on operational models and resources?</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- modularity: how to make a complex process independent of the choice of a particular component for a particular task? Reuse and adaptation of resources and components; support for multiple annotations;</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- evaluation of composite processes;</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- theoretical productivity: by bringing together different “local” models can we study new linguistic phenomena, at a higher complexity level?</DIV><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"> </P><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Presentation of concrete experiments embedding NLP platforms into application-oriented software systems (human-machine interfaces, information retrieval and extraction, terminology/ontology constitution, automated translation…) is warmly encouraged. Description of specific NLP platforms is also welcome, and authors should then clearly explain the underlying principles and hypotheses, in order to contribute to the general discussion.</DIV><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"> </P><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">THE JOURNAL</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">(see <A href="http://www.atala.org/"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#001FE2">http://www.atala.org/</FONT></A>)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">The journal TAL (Traitement Automatique des Langues) is an international journal published since 1960 by ATALA (Association pour le Traitement Automatique des Langues) with the support of the CNRS. It is now becoming available in electronic form, with print on demand. The reading and selection process remain unchanged.</DIV><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"> </P><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">LANGUAGE</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Manuscripts may be submitted in English or French. French-speaking authors are requested to submit in French.</DIV><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"> </P><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">IMPORTANT DATES</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- as soon as possible : send an email including the title, authors and a ten lines abstract, to <A href="mailto:tal-plateformes@info.unicaen.fr"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#001FE2">tal-plateformes@info.unicaen.fr</FONT></A> (preferred but optional)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- 28/01/2008 Deadline for submission</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- 11/04/2008 Notification to authors</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- 18/05/2008 Deadline for submission of revised version</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- 09/06/2008 Final decision</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">- September 2008 Publication</DIV><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"> </P><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">PAPER SUBMISSION</DIV><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"> </P><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Contributions (25 pages maximum, PDF format) will be sent by e-mail at the address below:</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><A href="mailto:tal-plateformes@info.unicaen.fr">tal-plateformes@info.unicaen.fr</A></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Style sheets are available for download at <A href="http://tal.e-revues.com/appel.jsp"><FONT class="Apple-style-span" color="#001FE2">http://tal.e-revues.com/appel.jsp</FONT></A></DIV><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"> </P><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">GUEST EDITORS</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Kalina BONTCHEVA (University of Sheffield, United Kingdom)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Patrice ENJALBERT (University of Caen, France)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Benoît HABERT (ENS LSH & ICAR, France)</DIV><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"> </P><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE</DIV><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"> </P><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Jason BALDRIDGE (University of Texas Austin, USA)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Frédérik BILHAUT (University of Caen, France)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Jean CARLETTA (University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Farid CERBAH (Dassault Aviation, France)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Javier COUTO (INCO, Uruguay)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Robert DALE (Macquarie University, Australia)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">François DAOUST (UQAM, Quebec, Canada)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Thierry DECLERCK (DFKI, Germany)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Serge HEIDEN (ENS-LSH & ICAR, France)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Nancy IDE (Vassar College, New-York, USA & LORIA/CNRS, France)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Michel JACOBSON (LACITO, France)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Diana MAYNARD (University of Sheffield, United Kingdom)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Jean-Luc MINEL (MoDyCo, CNRS, France)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Sylvaine NUGIER (EDF, France)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Sébastien PAUMIER (University of Marne-la-Vallée, France)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Etienne PETITJEAN (ATILF, France)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Thierry POIBEAU (LIPN-CNRS , France)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Laurent ROMARY (INRIA, France & MPG, Germany)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Vera Lucia STRUBE de LIMA (Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil)</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Valentin TABLAN (University of Sheffield, United Kingdom)</DIV><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"> </P><P style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"> </P></BODY></HTML>