28.1042, Calls: Cog Sci, Comp Ling, Lang Acquisition, Ling Theories, Typology/Norway

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-28-1042. Tue Feb 28 2017. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 28.1042, Calls: Cog Sci, Comp Ling, Lang Acquisition, Ling Theories, Typology/Norway

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Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2017 14:09:23
From: Terje Lohndal [terje.lohndal at ntnu.no]
Subject: Prior Structure in Language Acquisition: A Consensus Workshop

 
Full Title: Prior Structure in Language Acquisition: A Consensus Workshop 

Date: 31-Aug-2017 - 01-Sep-2017
Location: Trondheim, Norway 
Contact Person: Giosuè Baggio
Meeting Email: giosue.baggio at gmail.com

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

Call Deadline: 31-Mar-2017 

Meeting Description:

August 31-September 1, 2017, Norwegian University of Science and Technology,
Trondheim

In recent years, research in the language sciences has been revitalized by the
emergence of novel research programs and by the radical reconfiguration of
some existing ones. More compact characterizations of Universal Grammar have
been produced in parallel with alternative frameworks in the theory of grammar
and language learning. Modelling techniques such as Bayesian probability and
game theory have been applied in computational and experimental work on
language learning, processing and transmission, generating new problems and
results. Cognitive neuroscience, genetics and comparative ethology are
changing our understanding of the biological preconditions of language.
Finally, technological advances such as deep learning are bringing neural
networks back to the fore. None of these projects views language as the effect
of the environment on a blank slate, but they differ as to the nature and
scope of the prior structure that enables language learning in humans.

The aim of the Workshop is to explore the possibility that a common core of
learning principles, constraints or mechanisms exists, shared by all or most
of these different approaches to language. Specifically, we will bring
together scholars from different sub-disciplines of the language sciences and
from different research traditions in search for consensus on what kind of
prior structure enables first language acquisition, and on what may be its
evolutionary origins.

The invited speakers at the Workshop are:

- David Adger (Queen Mary University, London)
- Jennifer Culbertson (University of Edinburgh)
- Adele Goldberg (Princeton University)
- Simon Kirby (University of Edinburgh)
- Ianthi Tsimpli (University of Cambridge)
- Charles Yang (University of Pennsylvania).

The organizing committee: Giosuè Baggio and Terje Lohndal.


Second Call for Papers:

Prior Structure in Language Acquisition: A Consensus Workshop 
August 31﹣September 1, 2017, Norwegian University of Science and Technology,
Trondheim 

We invite additional contributions to the Workshop in the form of concise
(word limit is 5000), tightly argued papers on the topic. Papers must address
at least one of these issues: 

- What is the nature of prior structure in first language acquisition:
constraints on learning, inductive biases, specific computational mechanisms,
principles of grammatical or conceptual structure etc.? 
- What is the scope of prior structure in first language acquisition: does it
include properties of sound only, or does it affect grammar acquisition too? 
- Where is critical evidence for the options above more likely to come from:
typology, experimental and computational research on language acquisition and
transmission, cognitive neuroscience, genetics, comparative biology etc.? 
- What is the most effective methodological approach at this stage of
research: to posit minimal or no prior structure, pursue an empiricist
approach and increase prior structure at each failed attempt to model or
explain the data; or, conversely, to posit as much as structure as seems
reasonable, and then reduce it by falsification or correction vis-à-vis
empirical data; or a mixture of the two? 

Papers must be submitted by March 31, 2017 to the following email address:
giosue.baggio at ntnu.no. All papers will be peer reviewed. Accepted papers will
be presented at the Workshop. We aim to publish the proceedings of the
Workshop either in a special issue of an international linguistics or
cognitive science journal or as a book with one of the major international
academic publishers.




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