Call for papers: Psycho-computational Models of Human Language Acquisition

[William Gregory Sakas]

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                           Call for Papers

                        COLING-2004 Workshop:

       Psycho-computational Models of Human Language Acquisition

               Geneva Switzerland    28 August 2004

            http://www.colag.cs.hunter.cuny.edu/psychocomp/


Workshop Topic
--------------

The workshop will be devoted to psychologically motivated computational models
of language acquisition -- models that are compatible with research in
psycholinguistics, developmental psychology and linguistics -- with particular
emphasis on the acquisition of syntax.

Invited panel: Learning Biases in Language Acquisition Models
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  Walter Daelemans, Antwerp and Tilburg
  Charles D. Yang, Yale

Invited speaker
---------------
  Elan Dresher, Toronto


Workshop Description and Motivation
-----------------------------------

In recent decades there has been a great deal of successful research that
applies computational learning techniques to emerging natural language
technologies, along with many meetings, conferences and workshops in which to
present such research.  However, there have been few venues in which psycho-
computational models of how humans acquire their native language(s) are the
focus.

Psycho-computational models of language acquisition are of particular interest
in light of recent results in developmental psychology which suggest that very
young infants are adept at detecting statistical patterns in an audible input
stream.  However, this begs the question of whether or not a psychologically
plausible statistical learning strategy can be successfully exploited in a
full-
blown psycho-computational acquisition model.  Although there has been a
significant amount of presented research targeted at modeling the acquisition
of
word categories and phonology, research aimed at psychologically motivated
modeling of syntax acquisition has just begun to emerge.

The principal goal of the workshop is to bring together researchers who work
within computational linguistics, formal learning theory, machine learning,
artificial intelligence, linguistics, psycholinguistics and other fields, and
who have created or are investigating computational models of language
acquisition. In particular, it will provide a forum for establishing links and
common themes between diverse paradigms.  Although research which directly
addresses the acquisition of syntax is strongly encouraged, related studies
that
inform research on the acquisition of syntax are also welcome.

Papers are invited on, but not limited to, the following topics:

* Acquisition models that contain a parsing component
* Models that have a cross-linguistic or bilingual perspective
* Models that address the question of learning bias in terms of innate
  linguistic knowledge versus statistical regularity in the input
* Models that can acquire natural language word-order
* Hybrid models that cross established paradigms
* Models that directly make use of or can be used to evaluate existing
  linguistic or developmental theories in a computational framework (e.g. the
  principles & parameters framework or Optimality Theory)
* Empirical models that make use of child-directed corpora
* Formal models that incorporate psychologically plausible constraints
* Comparative surveys, across multiple paradigms, that critique previously
  published studies

Paper Length: Submissions should be no longer than 8 pages (A4 or the
equivalent). High-quality short papers or extended abstracts of 4 to 5 pages
are
encouraged. Submission and format details are below.

Lunch session: Word-order acquisition
--------------------------------------

The topic of this session will be the acquisition of different natural
language
word-orders. The workshop will provide a common test-bed of abstract sentence
patterns from word order divergent languages.  The shared data contains the
sentence patterns and cross-linguistic fully-specified parses for each
sentence
pattern. The patterns are available at:

  www.colag.cs.hunter.cuny.edu/grammar/data/allsentences.zip

General information and a web interface for perusing the data can be found at:

  www.colag.cs.hunter.cuny.edu/grammar

Due to the limited amount of time available to work with novel data, pilot
studies are encouraged. The session will consist of short presentations and
roundtable discussion.  Submissions for this session are limited to 2 pages.

Those who may be interested in submitting to this session should contact the
workshop organizer before the submission deadline for further details.

Dates of submissions

  Submission deadline:      30 March 2004
  Acceptance notification:  14 May 2004
  Camera-ready deadline:    10 June 2004
  Workshop date:            28 August 2004

Workshop Organizer

  William Gregory Sakas, City University of New York (sakas at hunter.cuny.edu)

Program Committee

* Robert Berwick, MIT, USA
* Antal van den Bosch, Tilburg University, The Netherlands
* Ted Briscoe, University of Cambridge, UK
* Damir Cavar, Indiana University, USA
* Morten H. Christiansen, Cornell University, USA
* Stephen Clark, University of Edinburgh, UK
* James Cussens, University of York, UK
* Walter Daelemans, University of Antwerp, Belgium and Tilburg University,
  The Netherlands
* Jeffrey Elman, University of California, San Diego, USA
* Janet Dean Fodor, City University of New York, USA
* Gerard Kempen, Leiden University, The Netherlands and The Max Planck
  Institute, Nijmegen
* Vincenzo Lombardo, University of Torino, Italy
* Larry Moss, University of Indiana, USA
* Miles Osborne, University of Edinburgh, UK
* Dan Roth, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
* Ivan Sag, Stanford University, USA
* Jeffrey Siskind, Purdue University, USA
* Mark Steedman, University of Edinburgh, UK
* Menno van Zaanen, Tilburg University, The Netherlands
* Charles Yang, Yale University, USA


Paper Submission
----------------

Length: Submissions should be no more than 8 pages (A4 or equivalent). High-
quality short papers or extended abstracts of 4 to 5 pages are encouraged.
Submissions to the lunch session on word-order should be up no more that 2
pages. (If accepted, final camera ready versions may be up to 8 pages or 5
pages
for the word-order submissions.)

Layout: Papers must conform to COLING 2004 formatting guidelines, available at:

  http://www.issco.unige.ch/coling2004/coling2004downloads.html

Electronic Submission: All submissions will be by email.  Reviews will be
blind,
so be careful not to disclose authorship or affiliation.  PDF submissions are
preferred and will be required for the final camera-ready copy.

Submissions should be sent as an attachment to:
  Psycho.Comp at hunter.cuny.edu.
  The subject line must contain the single word: Submission.

Please be sure to include accurate contact information in the body of the
email.

Contact:

Psycho.Comp at hunter.cuny.edu
   or sakas at hunter.cuny.edu

http://www.colag.cs.hunter.cuny.edu/psychocomp/