17.2354, Confs: Cognitive Science;Computational Ling/Italy

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LINGUIST List: Vol-17-2354. Fri Aug 18 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.2354, Confs: Cognitive Science;Computational Ling/Italy

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1)
Date: 16-Aug-2006
From: Paul Vogt < p.a.vogt at uvt.nl >
Subject: Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic Communication 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Fri, 18 Aug 2006 12:52:22
From: Paul Vogt < p.a.vogt at uvt.nl >
Subject: Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic Communication 
 

Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic Communication 
Short Title: EELC 

Date: 30-Sep-2006 - 01-Oct-2006 
Location: Rome, Italy 
Contact: Paul Vogt 
Contact Email: p.a.vogt at uvt.nl 
Meeting URL: http://bdc.brain.riken.go.jp/eelc2006/ 

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science; Computational Linguistics; Language
Acquisition 

Meeting Description: 

Third Intl. Symposium on the Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic Communication
(EELC III). http://bdc.brain.riken.go.jp/eelc2006/  

Rome, Italy, 30 Sept. - 1 Oct. 2006.

As part of the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior (SAB) conference
http://www.sab06.org/ 

Invited Speakers: 
Peter Gardenfors (Lund University, Sweden), Naoto Iwahashi (ATR, Japan), Elena
Lieven (Max Planck Institute, Germany), Eörs Szathmáry (Eötvös Loránd
University, Hungary) 

Scope of the Workshop
Language is generally considered as the hallmark of human intelligence. One
important way to study why this is the case, is to investigate how linguistic
communication has evolved. In the past decade, this research area has received a
lot of attention from the scientific community and could be considered as one of
the main areas of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science. The EELC III
workshop will focus on empirical and modelling research on the emergence of
symbol grounding and other aspects of linguistic communication in language
evolution and language acquisition. The key questions relate to how symbolic
communication can emerge from interactions of individuals with their
environment, including other individuals, and how such communication can become
meaningful to the individual or population. Research methods that are used to
study these issues include experimental and observational studies on child
language acquisition and animal communication; theoretical and computational
modelling; and (robotic) simulations of adaptive behaviour. The workshop aims to
provide leading scientists in the interdisciplinary area of language evolution
and language acquisition a platform to present their latest results and discuss
areas of further research. 

Until about 15 years ago, there was very little productive research in the study
of language evolution. However, with the increased advancements of computational
techniques and other empirical methods, the field of language evolution has
grown to become one of the major research areas in cognitive science. While the
field is largely interdisciplinary with contributions from linguistics,
psychology, neuroscience, biology, anthropology, philosophy and computer
science, the latter has proven to be among the most influential disciplines. A
reason for this is that empirical evidence on language evolution is scarce and
computer simulations offer a good testbed for investigating hypotheses. One of
the major driving forces for language evolution is often considered to be
language acquisition. Language can be transmitted over subsequent generations if
individuals can learn language.

Moreover, it has been claimed that the stages of children's language acquisition
mirrors the stages of language evolution. So, the current EELC will not only
look at studies on the evolution of language, but also at studies on language
acquisition. 

Although many computer simulations take the emergence of symbol grounding for
granted, recently there has been an increase in studies that focus on issues
relating to the emergence of grounded communication systems. The EELC III will
therefore have 'adaptive approaches to symbol grounding and beyond' as its
central theme, though contributions are not limited to this theme. 

Submissions are invited covering all aspects of the emergence and evolution of
language. All accepted papers will be published in a Springer LNCS/LNAI Series.
For more information and details on submission, consult the workshop's homepage,
http://bdc.brain.riken.go.jp/eelc2006/.

Extended deadline: 7 May 2006
Notification of acceptance: 2 June 2006
Camera ready submissions: 30 June 2006
Workshop date: 30 Sept. - 1 Oct. 2006





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