18.2986, Confs: Cognitive Science,Computational Linguistics,Syntax/USA

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LINGUIST List: Vol-18-2986. Sat Oct 13 2007. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 18.2986, Confs: Cognitive Science,Computational Linguistics,Syntax/USA

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1)
Date: 13-Oct-2007
From: Robert Berwick < berwick at csail.mit.edu >
Subject: Where Does Syntax Come From? Have We All Been Wrong?

 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 12:47:08
From: Robert Berwick [berwick at csail.mit.edu]
Subject:  Where Does Syntax Come From? Have We All Been Wrong?
E-mail this message to a friend:
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Where Does Syntax Come From? Have We All Been Wrong? 

Date: 19-Oct-2007 - 19-Oct-2007 
Location: Cambridge, MA, USA 
Contact: Robert Berwick 
Contact Email: berwick at csail.mit.edu 

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science; Computational Linguistics; Syntax 

Meeting Description: 

The impetus for this workshop, borrowing from a recent review by
Yang in TICS (2004), is that 'Recent demonstrations of statistical
learning in infants have reinvigorated the innateness versus learning
debate in language acquisition,' particularly regarding syntax.
We aim to reexamine this issue in a single forum from the
computational, cognitive, and formal linguistics perspectives. Our
intent is to examine recent applications of statistical learning
theory to language acquisition. 

Where Does Syntax Come From? Have We All Been Wrong?


When:
        Friday, October 19th,  2007,  9 am - 5:45 pm
        (breakfast 9-9:30; lunch 12:00-1:00; afternoon refreshments)

Where:        (Note room change!)
        Massachusetts Institute of Technology
        Wong Auditorium
        Building E51 (Tang Center)
        70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA
        (http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?mapterms=e51&mapsearch=go)

Webcast:
        This event will not be streamed live but will
        subsequently become available on the web via
        http://mitworld.mit.edu.  Also available via Apple and iTunes at
        iTunes U.

Registration:
        No advance registration required, no fee - open to all.
        RSVP's are appreciated but certainly not required.


Program:

9:00-9:30        Breakfast (Coffee and bagels)
                In Foyer outside the Wong Auditorium

9:30-10:00        Opening Remarks:
                Robert Berwick (MIT)
                Michael Coen (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

10:00-10:45        Lila Gleitman (University of Pennsylvania)
                ''Human Simulations of Language Learning''

10:45-11:15        Christopher Manning (Stanford University)
                ''Machine Learning of Language from Distributional
                Evidence''

11:15-12:00        Partha Niyogi (University of Chicago)
                ''The Computational Nature of Language Learning''

12:00-1:00        Lunch

1:00-1:30        Josh Tenenbaum (MIT), Amy Perfors (MIT),
                & Terry Regier (University of Chicago)
                ''Explorations in Language Learnability Using
                Probabilistic Grammars and Child-Directed speech''

1:30-2:10        Howard Lasnik & Juan Uriagereka (UMD)
                ''Structure Dependence, the Rational Learner, and
                Putnam's 'Sane Person'''

2:10-3:10        Noam Chomsky (MIT)
                ''Remarks and Reflections''

3:10-3:30        Coffee Break

3:30-4:00        Sandiway Fong (University of Arizona)
                ''Statistical Natural Language Parsing: Reliable Models
                of Language?''

4:00-4:30        William Sakas & Janet Dean Fodor (CCNY)
                '''Ideal' Language Learning and the Psychological
                Resource Problem''

15 minute break

4:45-5:45           Panel discussion:
                Charles Yang (University of Pennsylvania)
                Jean-Roger Vergnaud (USC)
                Anna-Maria di Sciullo (University of Québec)
                Norbert Hornstein (UMD)
                Robert Freiden (Princeton University & Université Paris)


Organizers:
    Robert C. Berwick, MIT, berwick at csail.mit.edu
    Michael Coen, University of Wisconsin-Madison, mhcoen at cs.wisc.edu






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