[Corpora-List] Final CfP: Interdisciplinary Workshop on Verbs

Thu Jun 10 11:40:43 UTC 2010

Interdisciplinary Workshop on Verbs -
The Identification and Representation of Verb Features

Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa 4-5 November 2010

http://linguistica.sns.it/Workshop_verb/

*** FINAL CfP, Deadline: June 20 ***

_______________________________________________

1. Workshop Description

Verbs and their features have always received wide attention in
various disciplines concerned with linguistic research, since their
contribution is essential to the structure and the interpretation of
language. In recent years, the availability of new lexical resources
and increasingly large corpora, the application of empirical methods
and statistical algorithms and the development of technical devices
such as eye-trackers and magnetic resonance imaging has led to
advances in several linguistic areas.

Their great interest and relevance notwithstanding, verbs still defy
attempts by linguists and cognitive scientists to achieve a clear
understanding of their organisational principles, as well as of the
features entering into their constitution. Verb complexity derives not
only from their notoriously high polysemy, but also and especially
from the fact that verbs are crucially the cornerstone of the
syntax-semantics interface. The semantic behaviour of verbs is
therefore strongly intertwined with the syntagmatic constraints
governing their distributions. As a consequence, while there is a
consensus on the multifarious nature of verb semantic representations,
the different types of verb features analysed in the literature (e.g.,
event properties, argument structure, aspect, etc.) still lie as
separate pieces of a puzzle which is far from complete.

Success in this type of research is brought about by close
collaboration between (computational) linguists and cognitive
scientists. To this end, interdisciplinary workshops can play a key
role in advancing existing and initiating new research. This was
demonstrated by the interest generated by the Verb Workshop 2005,
which received 33 submissions and was held as a standalone event at
Saarland University over 2 days. A more clear understanding of the
(computational) linguistic and cognitive properties of verbs will
bring a positive reflection on the results of the research done within
these communities. Therefore there is a real need to provide a forum
where researchers can meet across disciplines.

The aim of this interdisciplinary workshop is to bring together
researchers from linguistic domains such as linguistics, computational
linguistics, computational lexicography, psycholinguistics, cognitive
science and neuroscience, in order to discuss their perspectives on
verb senses and verb features, exchanging new ideas and methods. Such
an event can help to bridge the gap between the linguistic,
computational and cognitive communities, promote knowledge and
resource sharing, and help initiate interdisciplinary research
projects.

The focus of the workshop is on the identification and representation
of verb features at the syntax-semantics interface. Papers are invited
on, but not limited to, the following topics:

* Empirical studies and formal descriptions of verb features and verb
  senses: these are some of the key fundamental factors in verb
  treatment, and are relevant for representing and distinguishing
  verbs across disciplines.

* Representation of verbs by verb classes: generalisation is crucial
  to the acquisition of verbs and categorisation in cognitive
  linguistics, and for many computational linguistic tasks;
  computational learning of verb classes and properties provides
  insights into argument alternations, verb polysemy, selectional
  preferences, etc.

* Cognitively motivated models of verbs: the definition of verb
  semantics according to human perception, the collection of human
  judgements on verb senses and verb properties, and psycholinguistic
  studies and experiments on verbs are important interdisciplinary
  contributions to verb characterisation.

* Evidence from cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology on verb
  features and corpus-based methods to extract empirical features: the
  distributional account of verb senses and verb features provides
  essential contributions to verb analysis. We also welcome
  contributions on the use of distributional data to model
  (neuro)cognitive evidence on verb representation.

* Data resources and tools: the definition of verb senses and verb
  properties are important for basic and task-oriented research;
  especially the annotation of lexical verb information provides
  valuable data to computational learning procedures and evaluation
  methods.

* Language-specific and cross-linguistic aspects of verbs: which verb
  features are specific to a language, and which are universal?

2. Invited Speakers

Diana McCarthy (Lexical Computing Ltd., Brighton, UK)
Ken McRae (Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, Canada)

3. Workshop Organizers

Pier Marco Bertinetto (Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy)
Anna Korhonen (University of Cambridge, UK)
Alessandro Lenci (University of Pisa, Italy)
Alissa Melinger (University of Dundee, UK)
Sabine Schulte im Walde (University of Stuttgart, Germany)
Aline Villavicencio (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 
and University of Bath, UK)

4. Program Committee

Afra Alishashi (Department of Computational Linguistics and Phonetics, 
Saarland University, Germany)
Tim Baldwin (Department of Computer Science & Software Engineering, 
University of Melbourne, Australia)
Colin Bannard (Department of Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin, 
USA)
Roberto Basili (Department of Computer Science, University of Roma Tor 
Vergata, Italy)
Nuria Bel (University Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain)
Gemma Boleda (Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain)
Chris Brew (Department of Linguistics, Ohio State University, USA)
Miriam Butt (Department of Linguistics, University of Konstanz, Germany)
Amit Dubey (School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh, UK)
Sonja Eisenbeiß (Department of Language and Linguistics, University of 
Essex, UK)
Katrin Erk (Department of Linguistics, University of Texas at Austin, USA)
Afsaneh Fazly (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Shiraz 
University, Iran)
Pablo Gamallo (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain)
Tracy King (Microsoft, USA)
Jean-Pierre Koenig (Department of Linguistics, University at Buffalo, USA)
Beth Levin (Department of Linguistics, Stanford University, USA)
Bernardo Magnini (Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, Italy)
Daniela Marzo (Department of Linguistics, University of Stuttgart, Germany)
Diana McCarthy (Lexical Computing Ltd., Brighton, UK)
Ken McRae (Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, Canada)
Paola Merlo (Department of Linguistics, University of Geneva, Switzerland)
Sebastian Padó (Institute for Natural Language Processing, University of 
Stuttgart, Germany)
Martha Palmer (Department of Linguistics, University of Colorado at 
Boulder, USA)
Massimo Poesio (Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Italy)
James Pustejovsky (Department of Computer Science, Brandeis University, USA)
Anna Rumshisky (Department of Computer Science, Brandeis University, USA)
Ekaterina Shutova (Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge, UK)
Suzanne Stevenson (Department of Computer Science, University of 
Toronto, Canada)
Gabriella Vigliocco (Department of Psychology, University College 
London, UK)
David Vinson (Deafness Cognition and Language Research Center, 
University College London, UK)

5. Submission

Authors are invited to submit a 3-page PDF abstract (including
references and figures) formatted according to the ACL stylesheet
(Latex and Word stylesheets can be downloaded from the workshop
website). Abstracts must be anonymous and submitted using the
Easychair interface available through
  http://linguistica.sns.it/Workshop_verb/Submission.html.
The submissions will be reviewed by the workshop Program Committee.

Accepted abstracts can be extended up to 5 pages (using the same
stylesheet), and will be printed in the workshop proceedings.

6. Important Dates

Paper submission deadline: Jun 20, 2010
Notification of acceptance: Aug 1, 2010
Camera ready papers due: Sep 15, 2010
Workshop dates: Nov 4-5, 2010

7. Contact

You can contact the workshop organisers via email:
verb2010 at easychair.org.

Detailed and up-to-date information on the workshop can be found on
the workshop homepage: http://linguistica.sns.it/Workshop_verb/.

-- 

PD Dr. Sabine Schulte im Walde

Institut für Maschinelle Sprachverarbeitung
Universität Stuttgart
Azenbergstraße 12
70174 Stuttgart, Germany

fon:   +49 (711) 685-84584
fax:   +49 (711) 685-81366
email: schulte at ims.uni-stuttgart.de

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