[Corpora-List] Early CfP: Constraints in Discourse

[Claudia Sassen]

--
Claudia Sassen         Universitaet Dortmund
Emil-Figge-Strasse 50 IDSuL D-44227 Dortmund
http://129.70.104.40/~csassen/
http://www.hrz.uni-dortmund.de/~hytex/storrer/cs/

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                                 Workshop on
                           Constraints in Discourse
                                3-5 June, 2005
                               Dortmund, Germany
                   http://www.constraints-in-discourse.de


For a long time, the development of precise frameworks of discourse
interpretation has been hampered by the lack of a deeper understanding
of the dependencies between different discourse units. The recent 15
years have seen a considerable advance in this field. A number of
strong constraints have been proposed that restrict the sequencing and
attaching of segments at various descriptive levels, as well as the
interpretation of their interrelations. Early, and very influential,
work on the sequencing and ordering of discourse segments has been
done by Grosz & Sidner (1986). One of the best-known of the
constraints on sequencing and accessibility of expressions across
sentence boundaries is the RFC (Right Frontier Constraint), often
associated with a paper of Polanyi (1988). Other relevant constraints
are, e.g. the CSC (Coordinate Structure Constraint, Ross 1967) or the
recently expressed MDC (Maximal Discourse Coherence, Asher &
Lascarides 2003) principle.

The goal of this workshop is to provide a forum for presenting
recent research on constraints in discourse. The target areas include
the recognition of discourse structure as well as the interpretation
and generation of discourse in a broad variety of domains. The
workshop offers a forum for researchers from diverse formal
approaches, including but not limited to:
- Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST)
- Segmented Discourse Representation Theory (SDRT)
- Tree Adjoining Grammars
- The QUD Modell
- Plan Based Reasoning
- Abductive Reasoning
- Gricean Pragmatics
- Speech Act Theory

We invite talks that further our theoretical understanding of
the role of constraints in discourse, as well as empirical studies
that shed light on their empirical validity. The conference is explicitly
intended for discussion and comparison of theoretical
accounts that lay the ground for applications. It is not intended as a
platform for system demonstrations. Specific topics might relate to
 - Anaphora Resolution
 - Co-reference
 - Dialogical vs. Monological Discourse
 - Questions and Answers
 - Lexicon and Discourse Relations
 - Cognitive Modeling
 - Underspecification and Nonmonotonic Inferences
etc.

The organisers are planning to publish a selection of the results of
the workshop either as a special issue of a journal or as a book.

Publication (and workshop) language is English

The workshop is endorsed by SIGdial, the Special Interest Group on
Discourse and Dialogue, and SIGsem, the Special Interest Group on
Semantics, of ACL.

Invited Speakers
================
Nicholas Asher, Univ. of Texas (Austin), USA
Claire Gardent, LORIA/CNRS, France
Barbara Grosz, Harvard Univ., USA
Livia Polanyi, Palo Alto Research Center, USA
David Schlangen, Univ. Potsdam, Germany

Paper Submission
================

Researchers interested in contributing a paper to the workshop are
invited to submit an abstract that spans not more than 3 pages in PDF or PS
(single column, 10pt font size, a4 paper, including a bibliography)
using the form at the workshop website
(http://www.constraints-in-discourse.de). Reviews will be done
blindly; the abstracts may accordingly not include explicit hints that
allow the identification of the authors (such as "in paper (...) we
show that").

Important Dates
===============
Conf: 3-5 June, 2005
Deadline for Submissions: 1 March, 2005
Notification of Acceptance: 1 April, 2005
Final Abstracts due: 15 May, 2005

Program Committee
=================

Nicholas Asher, Univ. of Texas (Austin)
Anton Benz, Univ. of Southern Denmark, Kolding
Kurt Eberle, Linguatec ES, Germany
Claire Gardent, LORIA/CNRS, France
Barbara Grosz, Harvard Univ., USA
Anke Holler, Ruprecht-Karls-Univ., Germany
Peter Kuehnlein, Univ. Bielefeld, Germany
Livia Polanyi, Palo Alto Research Center
Claudia Sassen, Univ. Dortmund, Germany
David Schlangen, Univ. Potsdam, Germany

Organisation
============

Organisation Committee:
Anton Benz, Univ. of Southern Denmark, Kolding
Peter Kuehnlein, Univ. Bielefeld, Germany
Claudia Sassen, Univ. Dortmund, Germany

Local Organisation:
Claudia Sassen (claudia.sassen at uni-dortmund.de)

Coordinates
===========
The workshop will take place from 3-5 June, 2005. It will be hosted by
the University of Dortmund, Germany. Dortmund is situated in the
Eastern region of the Ruhrgebiet and can easily be reached via car,
airplane or train.

Fees
====
We thank the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG = German NSF) for
the funding.

Their support allows us to keep the fees generally low. The fees are

People from countries with weak economy:  free
Students, including PhD students:	  EUR 20
Other participants from Academia:	  EUR 40
Participants from commercial enterprises: EUR 160