15.1771, Calls: Semantics/Italy; Computational Ling/Finland

Thu Jun 10 15:50:10 UTC 2004

LINGUIST List:  Vol-15-1771. Thu Jun 10 2004. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 15.1771, Calls: Semantics/Italy; Computational Ling/Finland

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1)
Date:  Thu, 3 Jun 2004 12:15:00 +0200
From:  "Jos Lehmann" <joslehmann at www.ip.rm.cnr.it>
Subject:  Workshop on the Potential of Cognitive Semantics for Ontologies

2)
Date:  Thu, 10 Jun 2004 11:28:48 -0400 (EDT)
From:  Stefan Werner <stefan.werner at joensuu.fi>
Subject:  15th Nordic Conference of Computational Linguistics

-------------------------------- Message 1 -------------------------------

Date:  Thu, 3 Jun 2004 12:15:00 +0200
From:  "Jos Lehmann" <joslehmann at www.ip.rm.cnr.it>
Subject:  Workshop on the Potential of Cognitive Semantics for Ontologies

Workshop on the Potential of Cognitive Semantics for Ontologies

Torino, Italy, November 3rd, 2004

http://fois2004.di.unito.it/workshops.html

Held in conjunction with FOIS 2004, the International Conference on
Formal Ontologies in Information Systems

Featured Speakers

  a.. Peter Gärdenfors, Lund University Cognitive Science,
http://www.lucs.lu.se/People/Peter.Gardenfors/
  b.. Joseph Goguen, University of California at San Diego, Computer
Science and Engineering, http://www.cs.ucsd.edu/users/goguen/

Workshop Theme

What do ontologies, as used in the semantic web and elsewhere, have to
do with meaning? In particular, where do their predicates get their
meanings? Semantics, no matter what formalisms are applied to it, is
ultimately a cognitive phenomenon: it refers to the meaning that
symbols have for human beings. It is determined by individual and
cultural factors, involving a human mind aware of the conventions of a
language community. Yet, the mental interpretation processes are not
accessible and the conventions of information communities are rarely
meaningful to agents in other communities. Ontology engineers
therefore face the problem of capturing enough of the cognitive as
well as the social contexts of information. However, information
system ontologies typically consist of networks or hierarchies of
concepts to which symbols can refer. Their axiomatizations are either
self-referential or point to more abstract, rather than more
meaningful symbols. So, how do the ontologies become meaningful?

Cognitive semantics, in its various flavors, is asking similar
questions for natural languages and symbol systems in general. It
studies, among other issues, what the embodied nature of language can
tell us about how we construct meanings, or what its socially situated
nature says about the constraints on language use. Cognitive
scientists have developed innovative and powerful notions that are
potentially useful for ontologies. Among them are:

  a.. image schemas
  b.. prototypes and radial categories
  c.. basic level concepts
  d.. primes and universals
  e.. language games
  f.. metaphors and metonymies
  g.. idealized cognitive models
  h.. mental spaces and conceptual blendings
  i.. conceptual spaces
  j.. frame semantics
  k.. affordances
  l.. conceptual similarity measures.

So far, there is only sparse work on information system ontologies
that takes any of these notions seriously, and even less that
formalizes and applies them fruitfully. This workshop will take stock
of such approaches and establish a research agenda for ontology design
inspired and informed by cognitive semantics. It will bring together
researchers in information system or natural language semantics w ith
a formal or cognitive background or both.

Position Papers

Anybody with an interest in the questions raised above is invited to
submit a position paper. Participation at the workshop is open to all
position paper authors who also register for the FOIS
conference. Extended abstracts of 800 - 1500 words should be sent by
Email to kuhn at uni-muenster.de on or before August 31, 2004. They will
be made available on the workshop web site, unless their authors
instruct us otherwise. Authors will be notified by September 15, 2004
whether their position papers have been selected for presentation
during the workshop. Authors are invited to submit revised versions of
their position papers to a post-workshop review process, leading to a
book or journal special issue on research directions to make
ontologies more meaningful.

Organizers

Werner Kuhn, Martin Raubal, Florian Probst, Krzysztof Janowicz

Muenster Semantic Interoperability Lab (MUSIL)

Institute for Geoinformatics, University of Muenster, Germany

http://musil.uni-muenster.de/

Further information

An introduction to the workshop topic with recommendations for further
reading is posted at
http://musil.uni-muenster.de/documents/WhyCogLingv1.pdf. It may be
updated occasionally.

All workshop communication will be by Email and through the workshop
web site at

http://fois2004.di.unito.it/workshops.html.

Do not hesitate to contact kuhn at uni-muenster.de with any questions
about the workshop.

-------------------------------- Message 2 -------------------------------

Date:  Thu, 10 Jun 2004 11:28:48 -0400 (EDT)
From:  Stefan Werner <stefan.werner at joensuu.fi>
Subject:  15th Nordic Conference of Computational Linguistics

15th Nordic Conference of Computational Linguistics
Short Title: NODALIDA 2005

Joensuu, Finland
20-May-2005 - 21-May-2005

Contact Name: Stefan Werner
Conference Email: nodalida2005 at joensuu.fi

Linguistic Subfield: Computational Linguistics, Phonetics

Call Deadline: 31-Jan-2005

Meeting Description:

15th Nordic Conference of Computational Linguistics

Call for Papers:

NODALIDA 2005
Joensuu, Finland, May 20-21, 2005
First call for participation

NODALIDA 2005, the 15th Nordic Conference of Computational
Linguistics, will be held at the University of Joensuu, on Friday and
Saturday, May 20-21, 2005. In addition, Thursday and Sunday are
reserved for possible satellite events like student sessions.

The conference is open for all branches of computational linguistics
and all linguistially relevant topics in language and speech
technology. If you have suggestions for workshops or special sections,
please contact nodalida2005 at joensuu.fi by December 1.

The time allotted to each paper is 30 minutes (including discussion).
Participants who wish to present a paper are requested to submit an
abstract no later than January 31, 2005.

Abstracts should be written in English, and be no longer than 1000
words. Please submit your abstract by e-mail to

              nodalida2005 at joensuu.fi

in the form of plain text and in the body of the e-mail.  (The
HTML-tags ''p'' and ''em'' may be used to indicate new paragraphs and
emphasis.)

Participants will be notified about acceptance by February 28, 2005.

The deadline for registration and payment for all participants is
March 31, 2005. Detailed information on registration, participation
fee, etc. will be sent out in November.

Welcome!

On behalf of the Organizing Committee
Stefan Werner

Language Technology
University of Joensuu
P.O. Box 111
FI-80101 Joensuu
Tel. +358-2514334
Fax  +358-2514211
stefan.werner at joensuu.fi

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