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<p>Name: Challenges for Computer-Assisted Language Comparison</p>
<p>What: Workshop at the 27th International Conference of Historical
Linguistics</p>
<p>When: 18. - 22. August 2025<br>
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<h3>ICHL Workshop on "Challenges for Computer-Assisted Language
Comparison"</h3>
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<p>
In contrast to purely computational approaches in historical
linguistics that try to do without human annotation,
computer-assisted language comparison aims to reconcile
computational and classical approaches in historical language
comparison by providing interactive workflows in which data
are passed back and forth between humans and machines (List
2017). Computational approaches are mostly employed to
preprocess linguistic data, while interfaces then allow
experts to refine and correct computational annotation.
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<p>
While some workflows and tools have been published that
illustrate the benefits of computer-assisted as opposed to
purely computer-based or purely manual approaches in
historical linguistics (Wu et al. 2020; Hill and List 2017;
Segerer and Flavier 2015; Starostin 2000), there remain many
tasks in historical linguistics where computational and
computer-assisted approaches are lacking so far. These
include, for example, semantic reconstruction (Urban 2015),
phonological reconstruction (Anttila 1972), and sound law
induction and the establishment of relative chronologies
(Fortson 2014).</p>
<h4>References</h4>
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<p>Anttila, Raimo. 1972. An Introduction to Historical and
Comparative Linguistics. New York: Macmillan.
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<p>Fortson, Benjamin W. 2014. “Relative Chronology.” In
Encyclopedia of Ancient Greek Language and Linguistics.
Volume 3, edited by Georgios K. Giannakis, 219–24. Leiden;
Boston: Brill.
</p>
<p>Hill, Nathan W., and Johann-Mattis List. 2017. “Challenges
of Annotation and Analysis in Computer-Assisted Language
Comparison: A Case Study on Burmish Languages.” Yearbook of
the Poznań Linguistic Meeting 3 (1): 47–76.
</p>
<p>—. 2017. Computer-Assisted Language Comparison. Reconciling
Computational and Classical Approaches in Historical
Linguistics [Research Project, 2017–2022]. Leipzig: Max
Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://doi.org/10.3030/715618">https://doi.org/10.3030/715618</a> </p>
<p>Segerer, Guillaume, and S. Flavier. 2015. “RefLex:
Reference Lexicon of Africa.” Paris; Lyon. 2015.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://reflex.cnrs.fr">http://reflex.cnrs.fr</a>.
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<p>Starostin, Sergej Anatolévič. 2000. The STARLING Database
Program. Moscow: Online ressource; RGGU.
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://starling.rinet.ru">http://starling.rinet.ru</a>.
</p>
<p>Urban, Matthias. 2015. “Lexical Semantic Change and
Semantic Reconstruction.” In The Routledge Handbook of
Historical Linguistics, edited by Claire Bowern and Bethwyn
Evans, 374–92. London; New York: Routledge.
</p>
<p>Wu, Mei-Shin, Nathanael E. Schweikhard, Timotheus A. Bodt,
Nathan W. Hill, and Johann-Mattis List. 2020.
“Computer-Assisted Language Comparison. State of the Art.”
Journal of Open Humanities Data 6 (2): 1–14.
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<p></p>
<p>Invited Contributions<br>
<br>
For the workshop that will — pending final evaluation — be
organized as part of the 27th International Conference on
Historical Linguistics in Santiago de Chile (18-22 August, 2025),
we invite contributions from both classical and computational
linguistics who present open problems and potential solutions in
historical language comparison that have so far not been addressed
sufficiently in computer-assisted approaches. Our hope is that we
find a good mix of contributions in which classical linguists
present problems that cannot be addressed by computational
approaches and illustrate how they solve them manually, while we
also hope for contributions by computational linguists who share
recently developed workflows that can be applied to data in
historical linguistics.<br>
<br>
Contribution Information<br>
<br>
Those interested in contributing to the workshop are kindly asked
to send an abstract to <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:ichl25@calclab.org">ichl25@calclab.org</a>, attaching the abstract
in the form of a DOCX document with an accompanying PDF, in
anonymized form, providing your name and affiliation in the email.
The deadline for this is September 30rd. We will then review the
contributions with an internal team of reviewers and inform all
who submitted an abstract about the outcome. In case of success,
the workshop will be held at the ICHL conference in Santiago de
Chile. When submitting your abstract in DOCX form, please make
sure that the abstract has no more than 800 words in length,
excluding references (see also the official ICHL requirements for
details at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://ichl27santiago.cl/about-us/">https://ichl27santiago.cl/about-us/</a>"). Abstracts can be
submitted in English and Spanish. You can find all the information
here: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://calclab.org/events/ichl27/">https://calclab.org/events/ichl27/</a><br>
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