workshop deadline extended

Fri Mar 24 18:16:47 UTC 2000

>  WORKSHOP DEADLINE EXTENDED
>
>  Call for papers
>
>  Analysis for Generation
>
>      a Workshop
>
> in conjunction with
> The International Conference on
> Natural Language Generation INLG'2000 (June 13-14)
>
>  June 12, 2000, Mitzpe
> Ramon, Israel
>
> 1. The reasons why the workshop is of interest at this time.
>
> The last decade has seen an explosion in the work done in the field of
> NLG with the emphasis on the development of independent NLG applications
> rather than generation modules of MT systems. While it seems natural to
> consider problems of
> analysis and generation as two sides of a coin in such NLP applications
> as MT, researchers working on "pure" generation systems sometimes treat
> problems arising at every stage of generation^content specification,
> sentence planning, and
> surface realization^as independent. Time may be ripe for examining the
> mutual utility of analysis and generation in greater detail. The impetus
> is, as can be expected, the goal of minimizing system-building efforts
> in language engineering.
>
> 2.  A brief technical description of the issues the workshop will
> address.
>
> The workshop proposes to address:
>
>      ^ issues connected to the needs of analysis in generation systems
> as well as
>
>      ^ issues of interrelation between generation and analysis from the
> standpoint of reusability and adaptability of analysis techniques and
> tools for generation.
>
>      ^ issues of reusability of analysis knowledge and methodology of
> its acquisition for generation.
>
> Analysis as part of generation. A wide range of complex problems which
> are considered to be specific for generation^content specification,
> planning, and grammaticalization^may lead one to believe that generation
> is completely independent
> of analysis. Most generators tacitly assume that an intermediate system
> module can use the output of the preceding module as its input without
> any processing (that is, analysis) of this output. This is not, however,
> the case in practice.
>
> A modicum of analysis is, in fact, an essential part of every generation
> system. The input to generation systems such as raw data in tables,
> lists, diagrams, elements of various databases or even text snippets
> that are fed into the system directly
> by a user still must first be somehow processed, that is, analyzed. The
> analysis is needed to provide both the necessary content and, often,
> format for the content specification (see, for example, Dale 1995, Robin
> 1994, Kukich 1988, McKeown et al. 1994, Bateman and Teich 1995). This
> problem becomes especially important in those applications (including
> multilingual ones) in which at least some input to generation is in
> textual form (e.g., Sheremetyeva and Nirenburg 1996).
>
> Many NLG systems often use a variety of analysis techniques. The
> question arises whether it is possible to develop criteria to better
> choose and integrate analysis techniques which could be efficiently
> applied at different stages of generation.
>
> Reusability and adaptability of analysis techniques and tools for
> generation. While it is not uncommon to believe that generation and
> analysis are not reversible, a number of contributions over the years
> have discussed reversibility of analysis
> and generation resources, especially the grammars. Appelt 1987, Barnett
> and Mani 1990 and van Noord 1993, among others, demonstrate how the use
> of reversible grammars may lead to efficient and flexible natural
> language parsing and
> generation systems. It is worth discussing constraints on reversibility.
>
> Reusability of analysis knowledge and methodology of its acquisition for
> generation. Generation and analysis are closely related in that both
> processes use many similar resources, and often it is less expensive to
> reorganize an existing
> "analysis" resource (e.g., an analysis lexicon) than to acquire one for
> generation from scratch. (Allgayer et al. 1989, Viegas and Beale 1996,
> Sheremetyeva and Nirenburg 1999a, 1999b). It is worth discussing how to
> establish whether a resource
> built for analysis can be used for generation and at what price.
> In particular the workshop will seek to address the following issues:
>
> I. Applications of analysis in generation and types of analysis
> techniques used in NLG.
>
> II. Reusability and adaptability of knowledge resources in generation
> and analysis
> - knowledge representation
>      - lexicon format and indexing
>      - rule writing format
> - knowledge acquisition and adaptation
>      - reversibility of grammars
>      - use of microtheories
> - architectural issues
>      - converting (morphological, syntactic, semantic, etc.) analyzers
> into generator modules
>      - architectural peculiarities of systems involving both analysis
> and synthesis and reusability of their modules.
>
> FORMAT FOR SUBMISSION
>
> Paper submissions should consist of full papers (maximum of 12 pages,
> including references, 12pt font size). Each submission should include a
> separate title page providing the following information: the title, a
> short abstract, names and
> affiliations of all the authors, the full address of the primary author
> (or alternate contact person), including phone, fax, and email. Please
> send your electronic submission (PostScript or PDF format) until APRIL,10
> to:
>
> Svetlana Sheremetyeva
> Computing Research Laboratory, New Mexico State University
> USA Box30001/Dept.3CRL/Las Cruces New Mexico 88003-8001
> 505 646 5466 (voice)
> 505 646 6218 (fax)
> lana at crl.nmsu.edu
>
> IMPORTANT DATES
>
> Paper submission deadline: APRIL, 10 (extended)
> Notification of acceptance: April 20
> Final paper to workshop coordinator: April 28
> Workshop: June 12
> INLG 2000: June13 - June 16
>
> 3. Organizing Committee
>
> Svetlana Sheremetyeva, Chair and contact person
> Computing Research Laboratory, New Mexico State University, USA
> lana at crl.nmsu.edu
>
> Sergei Nirenburg
> Computing Research Laboratory, New Mexico State University, USA
> sergei at crl.nmsu.edu
>
> Richard Kittredge
> Department of Linguistics and Translation, University of Montreal
> kittredge at IRO.UMontreal.CA
>
> Anna Sagvall Hein
> Department of linguistics, Uppsala University
> Anna at ling.uu.se
>
> Evelyne Viegas
> Microsoft Corporation
> evelynev at microsoft.com
>
> Michael Zock
> Language & Cognition LIMSI - CNRS
> zock at limsi.fr