19.2372, Calls: Philosophy of Lang/Australia; Computational Ling/Pakistan

Wed Jul 30 15:20:40 UTC 2008

LINGUIST List: Vol-19-2372. Wed Jul 30 2008. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 19.2372, Calls: Philosophy of Lang/Australia; Computational Ling/Pakistan

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1)
Date: 29-Jul-2008
From: Mareike Buss < m.buss at isk.rwth-aachen.de >
Subject: The Emergence of Linguistic Patterns 

2)
Date: 29-Jul-2008
From: Sarmad Hussain < sarmad.hussain at nu.edu.pk >
Subject: Conference on Language and Technology 2009

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:16:41
From: Mareike Buss [m.buss at isk.rwth-aachen.de]
Subject: The Emergence of Linguistic Patterns
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Full Title: The Emergence of Linguistic Patterns 

Date: 12-Jul-2009 - 17-Jul-2009
Location: Melbourne, Australia 
Contact Person: Mareike Buss
Meeting Email: elp.ipra2009 at googlemail.com

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics; Historical Linguistics; Linguistic
Theories; Philosophy of Language; Pragmatics 

Call Deadline: 15-Sep-2008 

Meeting Description:

The panel aims at discussing linguistic pattern formation and change in a
cognitive, functional, and semiotic perspective. We expect that the combination
of these different perspectives will generate new insights into the processes of
pattern emergence, especially by focussing on the communicative circumstances
and the discursive context in which an utterance is produced. 

First call for papers for a panel at the 11th International Pragmatics
Conference in Melbourne, Australia, 12-17 July 2009
(http://ipra.ua.ac.be/main.aspx?c=.CONFERENCE11&n=1346)

Panel Theme: ''The Emergence of Linguistic Patterns: Cognitive, Functional and
Semiotic Perspectives''

Panel organizers: Elisabeth Birk (RWTH Aachen), Mareike Buss (RWTH Aachen), Elke
Diedrichsen (RWTH Aachen/U Duesseldorf), Joerg Jost (RWTH Aachen)

Panel Description:
Usage-based models of language claim that linguistic structures are grounded in
instances of language use. Hence, they have to address the question how series
of utterances can lead to the emergence of (relatively stable) linguistic
patterns. In cognitive linguistics, this is generally explained with recourse to
the 'frequency' and the 'similarity' of those linguistic instances that
contribute to the formation of a pattern. Whereas the notion of frequency may be
considered to be quite uncontroversial, it is often far from clear what counts
as a 'similar instance of language use'. We claim that formal or semantic
similarity is not an inherent quality of linguistic patterns. Rather, it is
unconsciously attributed by speakers on the basis of specific structural and
communicative contexts of usage.

In functional linguistics, the question of pattern emergence and change plays a
central role for the analysis of grammaticalization phenomena. A case in point
is grammaticalization based on reanalysis: new interpretations of a given
structure arise in contexts where the given structure is ambiguous. The new
interpretation (called 'reanalysis') is closely tied to the structural and
communicative context of the reanalyzed structure. It is neither an intentional
nor a creative act of the speaker. If, for example, in 'I am going to visit
Bill', the 'am going to'-phrase is given a future interpretation, this is
totally compatible with the former directional interpretation, and the speaker
does not recognize the innovation as such. In consequence, the future meaning
can serve as a basis for further developments and, thus, structures such as 'I
am going to like Bill' emerge.

A semiotic approach based for example on Nelson Goodman's theory of symbols
would interpret both scenarios as exemplifying the problem of induction: There
are always numerous true statements that describe a given state of affairs, but
not all of these are general laws. How do we know which properties to ignore and
which to ascribe to new cases? Goodman has famously argued that our choice of
relevant properties is guided by what he calls the ''entrenchment of a
predicate'' - i.e. we choose a predicate that has been used before in relevant
contexts. If the problem of the emergence of linguistic patterns is of this kind
- how do we know which traits of a given utterance are to give rise to a (new)
pattern? - Goodman's paradox makes a strong case for the assumption that context
and usage are the decisive factors in such processes.

We welcome both theoretical and empirical contributions that explore the
induction problem that arises with the emergence of linguistic patterns within
and across languages.

References:
Barlow, Michael/Kemmer, Suzanne (eds., 2000): Usage-based models of language.
Stanford: CSLI Publications.
Becker, Thomas (1994): Die Erklaerung von Sprachwandel durch Sprachverwendung am
Beispiel der deutschen Substantivflexion. In: Koepcke, Klaus-Michael (ed.):
Funktionale Untersuchungen zur deutschen Nominal- und Verbalmorphologie.
Tuebingen: Niemeyer, 45-63.
Bybee, Joan L./Hopper, Paul J. (eds., 2001): Frequency and the emergence of
linguistic structure. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.
Chafe, Wallace (1998): Language and the flow of thought. In: Tomasello, Michael
(ed.), 93-111.
Comrie, Bernard (2003): On explaining language universals. In: Tomasello,
Michael (ed.), 195-209.
Douglas, Mary (1992): Rightness of categories. In: Douglas, Mary/Hull, David
(eds.): How classification works: Nelson Goodman among the social sciences.
Edinburgh: EUP, 239-271.
Du Bois, John W. (2003): Discourse and grammar. In: Tomasello, Michael (ed.), 47-87.
Du Bois, John W./Kumpf, Lorraine E./Ashby, William J. (eds., 2003): Preferred
argument structure: grammar as architecture for function.
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins. 
Elgin, Catherine Z. (ed., 1997): Nelson Goodman's new riddle of induction. New
York etc.: Garland.
Goldberg, Adele E. (1995): Constructions: a construction grammar approach to
argument structure. Chicago/London: UCP.
Goodman, Nelson (1976 [1968]): Languages of art: an approach to a theory of
symbols. Indianapolis etc.: Hackett. 
Goodman, Nelson (1983 [1954]): Fact, fiction and forecast. Cambridge etc.: HUP. 
Helasvuo, Marja-Liisa (2001): Syntax in the making. The emergence of syntactic
units in Finnish conversation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.
Hopper, Paul J. (1998): Emergent grammar. In: Tomasello, Michael (ed.), 155-175.
Hopper, Paul J./Closs Traugott, Elizabeth (2003): Grammaticalization. Cambridge:
CUP.
Keller, Rudi (1994): On language change: the invisible hand in language. London:
Routledge.
Keller, Rudi (2005): Sprachwandel als invisible-hand-Phaenomen. In: Stehl,
Thomas (ed.): Unsichtbare Hand und Sprecherwahl. Tuebingen: Narr, 27-42.
Silverstein, Michael (1981): Case marking and the nature of language. In:
Australian Journal of Linguistics 1, 227-244. 
Silverstein, Michael (1986): Noun phrase Categorial Markedness and syntactic
parametrization. In: Choi, Soonja/Devitt, Dan/Janis, Wynn/McCoy, Terry/Zhang,
Zheng-sheng (eds.): Proceedings of the Eastern States Conference on Linguistics,
October, 1985 at SUNY Buffalo. Columbus: Ohio State University, 337-361.
Stetter, Christian (2005): System und Performanz. Symboltheoretische Grundlagen
von Medientheorie und Sprachwissenschaft. Weilerswist: Velbrueck.
Tomasello, Michael (ed., 1998): The new psychology of language: cognitive and
functional approaches to language structure, Vol. 1. New Jersey: Erlbaum. 
Tomasello, Michael (ed., 2003): The new psychology of language cognitive and
functional approaches to language structure, Vol. 2. New Jersey: Erlbaum.

Abstract Submission:
Please submit an abstract of 500 words max. (references included, formatted as
Word, RTF or PDF document) by 15 September 2008 to the following email address:
elp.ipra2009 at googlemail.com
The subject line should be: ''Panel/IPrA2009''. 
The body of your email should include the following information:
- Title of the paper, 
- Name(s) of the author(s), 
- Affiliation of the author(s), 
- Contact email address.

Please note that once your abstract has been accepted, you will have to register
individually at the IPrA website (http://ipra.ua.ac.be). Since registration for
the conference requires IPrA membership, we kindly ask you to read the
information regarding IPrA membership prior to submitting your abstract
(http://ipra.ua.ac.be/main.aspx?c=*HOME&n=1266).

Notification of acceptance: 05 October 2008

Deadline for registration at the IPrA website: 15 October 2008

-------------------------Message 2 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:16:53
From: Sarmad Hussain [sarmad.hussain at nu.edu.pk]
Subject: Conference on Language and Technology 2009
E-mail this message to a friend:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/emailmessage/verification.cfm?iss=19-2372.html&submissionid=185581&topicid=3&msgnumber=2 

Full Title: Conference on Language and Technology 2009 
Short Title: CLT09 

Date: 22-Jan-2009 - 24-Jan-2009
Location: Lahore, Pakistan 
Contact Person: Sarmad Hussain
Meeting Email: sarmad.hussain at nu.edu.pk
Web Site: http://www.crulp.org/clt09 

Linguistic Field(s): Computational Linguistics 

Call Deadline: 15-Aug-2009 

Meeting Description:

Conference on Language and Technology is a biennial conference series organized
by the Pakistani Society for Language Processing (PSLP), aiming to bring
together students, researchers and practitioners to exchange research and
development in the fields of linguistics and processing of speech, script and
language. CLT09, the second conference in the series, is being hosted by the
Center for Research in Urdu Language Processing at the National University of
Computer and Emerging Sciences, Lahore. 

Call for Papers (http://www.crulp.org/clt09/download/CallforPapers.pdf)

Conference on Language and Technology, 22-24 Jan. 2009

The program of CLT09 will consist of invited talks, workshops, tutorials, paper
presentations and panel discussions. Authors are invited to submit full papers
describing completed or on-going research or development in the following and
related areas. 

Phonetics 
Phonology 
Morphology 
Syntax 
Semantics 
Discourse Analysis 
Writing Systems 
Ontologies 
Text Summarization
Localization 
Stemming 
Morphological Analysis 
POS Tagging 
Grammar Modeling 
Chunking 
Parsing 
Computational Lexica 
Ambiguity Resolution 
Linguistic Resources 
Speech Recognition 
Text-to-Speech Analysis 
Optical Character Recognition 
Handwriting Recognition 
Fonts 
Machine Translation 
Information Retrieval 
Computer Assisted Language Learning

Venue:
National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences, Lahore, Pakistan

Submission Procedure:
Papers and Tutorial/Workshops are to be submitted electronically through the
online submission system at www.crulp.org/clt09

Important Dates:
Paper submission by: 15 August 2008
Tutorial/Workshop proposal submission by: 15 September 2008
Notification of acceptance: 1 November 2008
Camera ready version of accepted papers: 20 November 2008
Conference: 22-24 January 2009

For Further Details:
Dr. Sarmad Hussain
CLT09 Secretariat,
Center for Research in Urdu Language Processing
National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences
B Block, Faisal Town, Lahore, Pakistan. 
Phone: +92-42-111 128 128 Fax: +92-42-5165232
Email: clt09 at crulp.org 

URL: www.crulp.org/clt09 

Organizing Committee:
- Dr. Sarmad Hussain, National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences,
Pakistan (Conference Chair)
- Dr. Miriam Butt, Universitat konstänz, Germany (Head of Technical Committee)
- Mr. Shafiq ur Rahman, National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences,
Pakistan (Head of Program Committee)
- Dr. Muhammad Abid, University of Peshawar, Pakistan (Head of Publications)

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