[Corpora-List] UCNLG+MT - First Call for Papers

[Anja Belz]

UCNLG+MT - FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS
================================

Using Corpora for NLG: Language Generation and Machine Translation
(UCNLG+MT) is a pre-conference workshop at MT Summit XI, to be held in
Copenhagen on 11 September 2007.

There are many branches of NLP research where language is generated
(MT, summarisation, human-computer dialogue, data-to-text generation,
document authoring, etc.). However, for the most part, these form
separate research communities and the field called "Natural Language
Generation (NLG)" is to some degree isolated from many of them.

The UCNLG workshops have the general aims

1. to provide a forum for reporting and discussing data-based
   methods for generating language in all areas of application;
2. to open up the NLG research field to neighbouring areas in NLP
   and to foster cross-fertilisation between these research fields;
   and
3. to promote the sharing of data in NLG and the use of data-based
   methods of evaluation.

The special theme of this second UCNLG workshop is Language Generation
and MT. Target language generation is typically given less attention
than other aspects of MT, such as evaluation, source language analysis
and transfer. Recently there has been increasing interest in combining
linguistic knowledge with statistical MT. Conversely, NLG -- where
symbolic approaches have long dominated -- has seen increasing
interest in probabilistic methods. With this special theme, we would like
to explore crossover points and potential for cross-fertilisation
between MT and NLG.

The workshop also continues from UCNLG'05 in its general focus on
data-based methods for language generation and their evaluation.
We invite submissions on all aspects of using corpora in the
generation of language.  Specific topics include, but are not limited
to:

* Using NLG techniques in MT
* Combining statistical MT with rule-based techniques such as those
  developed in NLG
* Introducing linguistic filters into statistical MT
* Issues in annotating corpora for language generation
* Statistical approaches to deep and/or surface generation
* Machine learning methods for deep and/or surface generation
* Uses of corpora in the evaluation of automatically generated language
* Reuse of corpus resources developed for NLU (e.g. treebanks) in
  language generation
* Domain-specific vs. general-purpose corpora for language generation


Invited Speaker:
----------------

Kevin Knight, ISI, University of Southern California, US.


Panel on Language Generation and MT:
------------------------------------

We will hold a panel discussion on the special theme of the workshop.
Panel members T.B.A.


Proceedings:
------------

The proceedings of the workshop will be published by the MT Summit XI
conference organisers, in a companion volume to the main conference
proceedings.


Requirements:
-------------

Papers should describe original and unpublished work, emphasizing
actual rather than intended work, and should indicate clearly the
state of completion of the reported results.  Wherever appropriate,
concrete evaluation results should be included.  Papers that are being
submitted to other conferences or workshops should indicate this.


Submission information:
-----------------------

Submissions should be no longer than 8 (eight) pages, should follow
the MT Summit XI style guidelines, and should be sent in PDF format by
email to ucnlg at itri.brighton.ac.uk no later than 8 June 2007.  RTF
format is also accepted but not encouraged.

Reviewing of papers will be blind.  Reviewing will be managed by the
international workshop programme committee.  Final decisions on the
technical programme will be made by the workshop organisers.

As reviewing will be blind, the paper should not include the authors'
names and affiliations.  Self-references that reveal the authors'
identity, e.g., "We previously showed (Smith, 1991) ...", should be
avoided. Instead, use citations such as "Smith previously showed
(Smith, 1991) ...".

In the body of the email submitting the paper, please include
the authors' names and affiliations, and the paper title.


Important Dates:
----------------

08 June   	  Submission deadline for workshop papers
29 June   	  Notification of acceptance to authors of workshop
		  papers
20 July 	  Camera-ready copy from all authors
11 September	  UCNLG+MT in Copenhagen


Programme Committee:
--------------------

Srinivas Bangalore, AT&T, USA
Stephan Busemann, DFKI, Germany
Robert Dale, Macquarie University, Australia
Kevin Knight, ISI, University of Southern California, USA
Irene Langkilde-Geary, Brigham Young University, USA
Chris Mellish, University of Aberdeen, UK
Jon Oberlander, University of Edinburgh, UK
Richard Power, Open University, UK
Flo Reeder, The Mitre Organisation, USA
Ehud Reiter, University of Aberdeen, UK
Amanda Stent, SUNY, USA
Michael Strube, EML Research, Germany
Kees van Deemter, University of Aberdeen, UK
Bonnie Webber, University of Edinburgh, UK
Mike White, Ohio State University, USA


Workshop organisers:
--------------------

Anja Belz, NLTG, University of Brighton, UK
Sebastian Varges, Information and Communication Technology, University of
Trento, Italy


Workshop website:
-----------------

http://www.nltg.brighton.ac.uk/ucnlg/