<span style>CALL FOR PAPERS for a special issue of the journal LANGUAGE AND COGNITIVE PROCESSES</span><br style><br style><span style>PRODUCTION OF REFERRING EXPRESSIONS: MODELS AND EMPIRICAL DATA</span><br style><br style>
<span style>Deadline for submissions: 1 March 2012</span><br style><br style><span style>We invite substantial, original, and unpublished submissions for a special issue of Language and Cognitive Processes on psychologically informed modelling of reference production and experimental work that tests these models. Contributions may focus on computational, experimental, or theoretical approaches to reference. Papers should not exceed 10,000 words (but may be substantially shorter).</span><br style>
<br style><span style>Editors for this special issue are Roger van Gompel (University of Dundee, UK), Emiel Krahmer (Tilburg University, The Netherlands), Albert Gatt (University of Malta, Malta), and Kees van Deemter (University of Aberdeen, UK). If prospective authors have any questions, they should contact the editors at </span><a href="mailto:r.p.g.vangompel@dundee.ac.uk" style>r.p.g.vangompel@dundee.ac.uk</a><span style><</span><span style>mailto:</span><a href="mailto:r.p.g.vangompel@dundee.ac.uk" style>r.p.g.vangompel@dundee.ac.uk</a><span style>></span><br style>
<br style><span style>Introduction of the topic: Following on the CogSci workshop on the same theme (the PRE-CogSci 2011 workshop,</span><a href="http://pre2011.uvt.nl/" target="_blank" style>http://pre2011.uvt.nl/</a><span style>) we are pleased to launch this open Call for Papers for Language and Cognitive Processes. Participants at the PRE-CogSci workshop are invited to submit, but this call is in no way restricted to them. Submission procedures are specified below.</span><br style>
<br style><span style>About the journal: Language and Cognitive Processes provides an international forum for the publication of theoretical and experimental research into the mental processes and representations involved in language use. The journal emphasises the importance of an interdisciplinary approach to the study of language. Apart from research in experimental and developmental psychology, Language and Cognitive Processes publishes work derived from linguistics, philosophy, cognitive neuropsychology, cognitive neuroscience and computational modelling.</span><br style>
<br style><span style>Background about the topic: One of the most important aspects of communication is its ability to refer to objects and concepts, and there have been an increasing number of psycholinguistic studies investigating how people refer. This research has focused on issues such as audience design, alignment, ambiguity avoidance, acquisition/development, and factors that determine the choice of different anaphoric forms. However, what is currently lacking are precise, psychologically plausible models of how people produce referring expressions; current theories of reference production tend to be descriptive rather than quantitative accounts. The interest in developing psychologically plausible computational models is clearly increasing, but the extent to which existing computational models (as developed, for instance, in computational linguistics) are really plausible is still a matter of debate. Some recent attempts have been made at developing models with the explicit aim of being a model of human reference production, but many issues await further study. This special LCP issue on reference aims to bring together research that focuses on psychologically informed modelling of reference production and experimental work that directly test these models.</span><br style>
<br style><span style>We would like to encourage submissions on models and experimental work on topics such as:</span><br style><span style>- Reference production in general models of cognitive architecture</span><br style>
<span style>- Discussion of computational reference production algorithms as models of human reference production</span><br style><span style>- contextual factors in reference production</span><br style><span style>- selecting the semantic/conceptual content of referring expressions</span><br style>
<span style>- realization of referring expressions: word order, prosody</span><br style><span style>- reference production in interactive settings, audience design, common ground and alignment</span><br style><span style>- choice of different types of referring expressions (e.g., pronouns and descriptions)</span><br style>
<span style>- acquisition of reference</span><br style><span style>- complex reference (e.g., plural, quantified, and vague/imprecise referring expressions)</span><br style><span style>- indefinite noun phrases</span><br style>
<span style>- gestures and reference</span><br style><span style>- visual scene perception and its influence on the production of referring expressions</span><br style><span style>- social factors in reference</span><br style>
<span style>- experimental evaluation methods</span><br style><br style><span style>Manuscript submission:</span><br style><span style>=========================</span><br style><span style>All papers should be submitted through LCP’s online submission system, ScholarOne Manuscripts - </span><a href="http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/plcp" target="_blank" style>http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/plcp</a><span style>.</span><br style>
<br style><span style>To ensure that the manuscript is correctly managed, authors should select 'Production of referring expressions' as the 'Manuscript Type' and one of the special issue editors as the preferred editor from the pull-down list in part 1.</span><br style>
<br style><span style>At part 5: ‘Details and Comments’ they should tick the ‘yes’ box to the question ‘is the manuscript a candidate for a special issue?’ and give the name of the special issue (Production of referring expressions: Models and empirical data) in the associated free text box.</span><br style>
<br style><span style>Authors are reminded that the instructions for the formatting of their paper should be consulted before completing the online submission. Full instructions can be found on the publisher’s website at </span><a href="http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/plcpauth.asp" target="_blank" style>http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/authors/plcpauth.asp</a><span style>.</span><br style>
<br style><span style>Deadline for submissions is 1 March 2012.</span> <br clear="all"><div><br></div><br><div>-----------------------------------------------------------------</div>
<div>Albert Gatt</div>
<div>Institute of Linguistics</div>
<div>Centre for Communication Technology Rm 402B</div>
<div>University of Malta</div>
<div>Tal-Qroqq Msida MSD2080</div>
<div>Malta</div>
<div> </div>
<div>tel: (+356) 2340 2150<br></div>
<div><a href="http://staff.um.edu.mt/albert.gatt/" target="_blank">http://staff.um.edu.mt/albert.gatt/</a></div><br>