17.1116, Calls: Semantics/Spain;Computational Ling/USA

Thu Apr 13 15:56:44 UTC 2006

LINGUIST List: Vol-17-1116. Thu Apr 13 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.1116, Calls: Semantics/Spain;Computational Ling/USA

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1)
Date: 10-Apr-2006
From: Louise McNally < louise.mcnally at upf.edu >
Subject: Sinn und Bedeutung 11 

2)
Date: 10-Apr-2006
From: Leo Obrst < lobrst at mitre.org >
Subject: International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems 

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 11:55:15
From: Louise McNally < louise.mcnally at upf.edu >
Subject: Sinn und Bedeutung 11 

Full Title: Sinn und Bedeutung 11 
Short Title: SuB 11 

Date: 21-Sep-2006 - 23-Sep-2006
Location: Barcelona, Spain 
Contact Person: Louise McNally
Meeting Email: sub11 at upf.edu
Web Site: http://www.upf.edu/sub11 

Linguistic Field(s): Philosophy of Language; Pragmatics; Semantics 

Call Deadline: 30-Apr-2006 

Meeting Description:

The 11th Sinn und Bedeutung Conference, the annual meeting of the Gesellschaft für Semantik, will be held September 21-23, 2006, at the Departament de Traducció i Filologia, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. 

FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS

Abstracts are invited on any topic related to natural language semantics, pragmatics, the syntax-semantics interface, psycholinguistic studies related to meaning, and the philosophy of language. Presentations will be 45 minutes in length, including 10 minutes for discussion.

Invited speakers:
Gennaro Chierchia
Cathrine Fabricius-Hansen
Utpal Lahiri
Maria Isabel Romero

Submission guidelines:

One person can submit at most one abstract as a sole author and one as co-author. SuB 11 will not accept abstracts that at the time of the deadline have been published or accepted for publication.

Abstracts should be at most 2 pages in length, including references, using a 12 pt. font with 2,5 cm margins on all sides. Abstracts should be in form of a pdf file and should be submitted via the web interface accessible at http://www.upf.edu/sub11. 

Deadline for abstracts: April 30, 2006.

-------------------------Message 2 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 11:55:22
From: Leo Obrst < lobrst at mitre.org >
Subject: International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems 

Full Title: International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems 
Short Title: FOIS 2006 

Date: 09-Nov-2006 - 11-Nov-2006
Location: Baltimore, MD, USA 
Contact Person: Leo Obrst
Meeting Email: lobrst at mitre.org
Web Site: http://www.formalontology.org/ 

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science; Computational Linguistics; Philosophy of Language; Pragmatics; Semantics; Text/Corpus Linguistics 

Call Deadline: 01-May-2006 

Meeting Description:

Since ancient times, ontology, the analysis and categorisation of what exists, has been fundamental to philosophical enquiry. But, until recently, ontology has been seen as an abstract, purely theoretical discipline, far removed from the practical applications of science. However, with the increasing use of sophisticated computerised information systems, solving problems of an ontological nature is now the key to the effective use of technologies supporting a wide range of human activities. The ship of Theseus and the tail of Tibbles the cat are no longer merely amusing puzzles. We employ databases and software applications to deal with everything from ships and ship building to anatomy and amputations. When we design a computer to take stock of a ship yard or check that all goes well at the veterinary hospital, we need to ensure that our system operates in a consistent and reliable way even when manipulating information that involves subtle issues of semantics and identity. So, whereas ontologists may once have shied away from practical problems, now the practicalities of achieving cohesion in an information-based society demand that attention must be paid to ontology. 

Researchers in such areas as artificial intelligence, formal and computational linguistics, biomedical informatics, conceptual modeling, knowledge engineering and information retrieval have come to realise that a solid foundation for their research calls for serious work in ontology, understood as a general theory of the types of entities and relations that make up their respective domains of inquiry. In all these areas, attention is now being focused on the content of information rather than on just the formats and languages used to represent information. The clearest example of this development is provided by the many initiatives growing up around the project of the Semantic Web. And, as the need for integrating research in these different fields arises, so does the realisation that strong principles for building well-founded ontologies might provide significant advantages over ad hoc, case-based solutions. The tools of formal ontology address precisely these needs, but a real effort is required in order to apply such philosophical tools to the domain of information systems. Reciprocally, research in the information sciences raises specific ontological questions which call for further philosophical investigations. 

The purpose of FOIS is to provide a forum for genuine interdisciplinary exchange in the spirit of a unified effort towards solving the problems of ontology, with an eye to both theoretical issues and concrete applications. 

Program Chairs
Brandon Bennett (University of Leeds, UK) brandon at comp.leeds.ac.uk 
Christiane Fellbaum (Princeton University, USA and Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Germany) fellbaum at clarity.princeton.edu 

Conference Chair
Nicola Guarino (ISTC-CNR, Trento, Italy) guarino at loa-cnr.it

Local Chair
Bill Andersen (Ontology Works, USA) andersen at ontologyworks.com

Publicity Chair
Leo Obrst (The MITRE Corporation, USA) lobrst at mitre.org 

Topics

We seek high-quality papers on a wide range of topics. While authors may focus on fairly narrow and specific issues, all papers should emphasize the relevance of the work described to formal ontology and to information systems. Papers that completely ignore one or the other of these aspects will be considered as lying outside the scope of the meeting. Topic areas of particular interest to the conference are: 

Foundational Issues

-	Kinds of entity: particulars vs. universals, continuants vs. occurrents, abstracta vs. concreta, dependent vs. independent, natural vs. artificial 
-	Formal relations: parthood, identity, connection, dependence, constitution, subsumption, instantiation 
-	Vagueness and granularity 
-	Identity and change 
-	Formal comparison among ontologies 
-	Ontology of physical reality (matter, space, time, motion, ...) 
-	Ontology of biological reality (genes, proteins, cells, organisms, ...) 
-	Ontology of mental reality (mental attitudes, emotions, ...) 
-	Ontology of social reality (institutions, organizations, norms, social relationships, artistic expressions, ...) 
-	Ontology of the information society (information, communication, meaning negotiation, ...) 
-	Ontology and natural language semantics, ontology and cognition, ontology and epistemology, semiotics

Methodologies and Applications

-	Top-level vs. application ontologies 
-	Role of reference ontologies; Ontology integration and alignment 
-	Ontology-driven information systems design 
-	Requirements engineering 
-	Knowledge engineering 
-	Knowledge management and organization 
-	Knowledge representation; Qualitative modeling 
-	Computational lexica; Terminology 
-	Information retrieval; Question-answering 
-	Semantic web; Web services; Grid computing 
-	Domain-specific ontologies, especially for: Linguistics, Geography, Law, Library science, Biomedical science, E-business, Enterprise integration, ... 

Deadlines and Further Information

Electronic abstracts: May 1, 2006
Final submissions: May 5, 2006
Acceptance Notification: June 26, 2006
Submission of camera-ready paper: July 28, 2006

Electronic abstracts should be less than 300 words, outlining the topic of your paper. These will be used in assigning papers to appropriate reviewers. Submitted papers must not exceed 5000 words (including bibliography) and must minimally be in 10 pt font size. Papers should be submitted electronically at: http://www.softconf.com/start/FOIS06/. Additional information will be provided on the conference web page: http://www.formalontology.org/.

Proceedings will be published and available at the conference.

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LINGUIST List: Vol-17-1116	