<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><p align="center" style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; text-align: center"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><b>LAST CALL</b></font></p><p align="center" style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; text-align: center"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"><b>NEW SUBMISSION DEADLINE : February 11th, 2008</b></font></p><p align="center" style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; text-align: center"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"> PLATFORMS FOR NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING </font></p><p align="center" style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; text-align: center"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">SPECIAL ISSUE OF « TRAITEMENT AUTOMATIQUE DES LANGUES » (TAL) JOURNAL</font></p><p align="center" style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"> </font></p><p align="center" style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; text-align: center"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">2008 Volume 49 Number 2 </font></p><p align="center" style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 12.0px 0.0px; text-align: center"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#001fe2" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #001fe2"><a href="http://www.atala.org/"><u>http://www.atala.org</u></a></font><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">/</font></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"> </font></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">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.</font></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"> </font></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">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.</font></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"> </font></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">1) Architectural issues</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Bringing together different modules raises many architectural and technical questions, centered around interoperability and data exchange, such as:</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">- interoperability between representation formats of corpora, linguistic resources, documents and annotations; possible standardisation;</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">- technical compatibility of heterogeneous algorithms and data: portability, availability, maintainability, etc;</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">- 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;</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">- multimodality and multilinguism;</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">- 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…);</font></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"> </font></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">2) Methodological issues</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">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:</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">- 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?</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">- 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?</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">- repeatability: how to ensure that an experiment, based on complex algorithms, can be reproduced? How to share and capitalize on operational models and resources?</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">- 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;</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">- evaluation of composite processes;</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">- theoretical productivity: by bringing together different “local” models can we study new linguistic phenomena, at a higher complexity level?</font></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"> </font></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">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.</font></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"> </font></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">THE JOURNAL</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">(see <a href="http://www.atala.org/"><font color="#2245b0" style="color: #2245b0">http://www.atala.org/</font></a>)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">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.</font></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"> </font></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">LANGUAGE</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Manuscripts may be submitted in English or French. French-speaking authors are requested to submit in French.</font></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"> </font></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">IMPORTANT DATES</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">- 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 color="#2245b0" style="color: #2245b0">tal-plateformes@info.unicaen.fr</font></a> (preferred but optional)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">- 11/02/2008 Deadline for submission</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">- 11/04/2008 Notification to authors</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">- 18/05/2008 Deadline for submission of revised version</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">- 09/06/2008 Final decision</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">- September 2008 Publication</font></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"> </font></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">PAPER SUBMISSION</font></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"> </font></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Contributions (25 pages maximum, PDF format) will be sent by e-mail at the address below:</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" color="#001fe2" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; color: #001fe2"><a href="mailto:tal-plateformes@info.unicaen.fr"><u>tal-plateformes@info.unicaen.fr</u><u></u></a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Style sheets are available for download at <a href="http://tal.e-revues.com/appel.jsp"><font color="#2245b0" style="color: #2245b0">http://tal.e-revues.com/appel.jsp</font></a></font></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"> </font></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">GUEST EDITORS</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Kalina BONTCHEVA (University of Sheffield, United Kingdom)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Patrice ENJALBERT (University of Caen, France)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Benoît HABERT (ENS LSH & ICAR, France)</font></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"> </font></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE</font></div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px"><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica"> </font></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Jason BALDRIDGE (University of Texas Austin, USA)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Frédérik BILHAUT (University of Caen, France)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Jean CARLETTA (University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Farid CERBAH (Dassault Aviation, France)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Javier COUTO (INCO, Uruguay)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Robert DALE (Macquarie University, Australia)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">François DAOUST (UQAM, Quebec, Canada)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Thierry DECLERCK (DFKI, Germany)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Serge HEIDEN (ENS-LSH & ICAR, France)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Nancy IDE (Vassar College, New-York, USA & LORIA/CNRS, France)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Michel JACOBSON (LACITO, France)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Diana MAYNARD (University of Sheffield, United Kingdom)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Jean-Luc MINEL (MoDyCo, CNRS, France)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Sylvaine NUGIER (EDF, France)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Sébastien PAUMIER (University of Marne-la-Vallée, France)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Etienne PETITJEAN (ATILF, France)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Thierry POIBEAU (LIPN-CNRS , France)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Laurent ROMARY (INRIA, France & MPG, Germany)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Vera Lucia STRUBE de LIMA (Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">Valentin TABLAN (University of Sheffield, United Kingdom)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">John TAIT (IRF, Austria)</font></div>
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