[Lingtyp] CfP: 26-30 October 2015 Workshop on Capturing Phylogenetic Algorithms for Linguistics

Mon Jun 22 00:34:39 UTC 2015

Dear all,
See CfP below for a major 5-day workshop in Leiden this fall. Everyone is
welcome
but we have an attendance cap of 55 people. So do submit to secure yourself
a spot.
all the best, H

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Title: International Workshop on Capturing Phylogenetic Algorithms for
Linguistics
Dates: 26-30 October 2015
Venue: Lorentz Center, Oort Building, Niels Bohrweg, Leiden, the
Netherlands.

Call Deadline: 1 Sept 2015

Call for Papers:

The past decade has seen an explosion in the availability of large
datasets of both structural and lexical linguistic data (e.g.,
Greenhill et al. 2008, Moran et al 2014, Dryer & Haspelmath 2013,
Wichmann et al. 2013). These data can be profitably exploited
computationally to explore linguistic history and linguistic
universals. Work in Bioinformatics has addressed parallel sets of
questions for data on living species and a large array of
computational modeling and techniques have been developed towards this
goal (Felsenstein 2004). The workshop aims to bring together
linguists, biologists and mathematicians to make progess on the
following topics:

* Modeling of Linguistic Data: What are theoretically or
empirically the characteristics of linguistic data? Are there
bounded rates of change? What are the limits and expectancy of
borrowing? Are there universal tendencies manifest in linguistic
data? (cf. Sankoff 1973, Field 1998, Blust 2000, Dediu & Cysouw 2013).

* Algorithms for Inferences on Linguistic Data: A rich set of
questions whose input is linguistic data and output is a model with
specifics inferred from the input data (cf. Arapov & Xerts 1974,
Embleton 1986), e.g., a subclassification tree (cf. François 2014), a
scenario of linguistic diffusion (cf. Chang & Michael 2014), a
historical sequence of events (cf. Bouckaert et al 2012), a model of a
cognitive domain (cf. Dunn et al 2011a), a geographical division
(cf. Wichmann et al 2010, Muysken et al 2015, Prokic & Cysouw 2013)
and so on. Both descriptions of novel algorithms to solve such
problems and improved algorithms (including approximation algorithms)
to solve extant problems are solicited.

* Case studies of Specific Families/Regions: Case studies
of computational work addressing a specific language family, region
or linguistic subdomain with a comparison to the state-of-the-art
of non-computational work addressing the same question(s) (cf.
Dunn et al 2011a, Cysouw & Forker 2009, Huffman 1998).

* Synergies between Linguistic and Non-Linguistic Data:
Computational models exploiting linguistic and non-linguistic data
(e.g., archaeological, genetic, ethnographic) tied to the same
people/domain to reveal interpretable symmetries and/or
discrepancies (cf. Walker et al 2012, Jordan & Huber 2013).

Plenary Speakers (confirmed):

Balthasar Bickel (University of Zurich)
John Huelsenbeck (University of California at Berkeley)
Quentin Atkinson (University of Auckland)
Claire Bowern (Yale University)
Dan Dediu (MPI Nijmegen)
Fiona Jordan (University of Bristol)
Francesca Tria (ISI Foundation)
Remco Bouckaert (University of Auckland)
Steven Kelk (Maastricht University)

We invite submission of abstracts for 30-minute presentations. The
desired length for abstracts is 2 pages of text (plus any amount of
pages of references or data tables). Abstracts should be submitted
as per instructions on the conference webpage by September 1, 2015.

Owing to the interdiscplinary nature of the workshop, the format of
the workshop has been tailored to allow for ample dialogue. The
workshop will feature one day of tutorials as well as traditional
presentations across four days. In addition to presentations, the
workshop will have a similarly large component of smaller, more
interactive group sessions where the state-of-the-art of various
subtopics with be elaborated. Prospective participants are expected to
take part in all activities.

Webpage:

http://lorentzcenter.nl/lc/web/2015/767/info.php3?wsid=767&venue=Oort

Contact:

harald.hammarstroem at mpi.nl

Important Dates:

September 1, 2015: Deadline for submission of abstracts
September 15, 2012: Notification of acceptance
October 26-30, 2015: Workshop

The organisers foresee the publication of a proceedings as a special issue
of a suitable journal or as a thematic volume with a suitable publisher.

Organisers:

Harald Hammarström (MPI Nijmegen)
Marian Klamer (Leiden University)
Andrew Meade (University College London)
Devdatt Dubhashi (Chalmers University)
Gerhard Jäger (Tübingen University)
Russell Gray (University of Auckland and MPI for the Science of Human
History, Jena)

Bibliographical References:

Arapov, M. V. & M. M. Xerts. (1974) Matematiceskie metody v istoriceskoy
lingvistike. Moskva: NAUKA.

Blust, Robert. 2000. Why lexicostatistics doesn't work: the 'universal
constant' hypothesis and the Austronesian languages. In Colin Renfrew,
April McMahon & Robert Lawrence Trask (eds.), Time depth in historical
linguistics (Papers in the prehistory of languages 2), 311-331. Cambridge:
Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.

Bouckaert, Remco, Philippe Lemey, Michael Dunn, Simon J. Greenhill,
Alexander V.
Alekseyenko, Alexei J. Drummond, Russell D. Gray, Marc A. Suchard & Quentin
D.
Atkinson. 2012. Mapping the Origins and Expansion of the Indo-European
Language
Family. Science 337(6097). 957-960.

Chang, Will & Lev Michael. (2014) A relaxed admixture model of contact.
Language Dynamics and Change 4(1). 1-26.

Cysouw, Michael & Diana Forker. (2009) Reconstruction of morphosyntactic
function: Nonspatial usage of spatial case marking in tsezic. Language
85(3). 588-617.

Dediu, Dan & Cysouw, Michael. 2013. Some structural aspects of language are
more stable than others: A comparison of seven methods. PLoS One 8e:55009.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0055009

Dryer, Matthew S. & Haspelmath, Martin (eds.) 2013. The World Atlas of
Language Structures Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology.
(Available online at http://wals.info, Accessed on 2015-03-19.)

Dunn, Michael, Simon J. Greenhill, Stephen C. Levinson & Russell D. Gray.
2011a.
Evolved structure of language shows lineage-specific trends in word-order
universals. Nature 13 April. 1-4.

Dunn, Michael, Niclas Burenhult, Nicole Kruspe, Sylvia Tufvesson & Neele
Becker. (2011b) Aslian linguistic prehistory: A case study in computational
phylogenetics. Diachronica 28(3). 291-323.

Embleton, Sheila M. (1986) Statistics in Historical Linguistics
(Quantitative Linguistics 30). Bochum: Brockmeyer.

Felsenstein, Joseph. 2004. Inferring Phylogenies. Sunderland,
Massachusetts: Sinauer.

Field, Fredric W. 1998. Borrowing and Borrowability. University of Southern
California doctoral dissertation.

François, Alexandre. 2014. Trees, waves and linkages: Models of language
diversification. In Claire Bowern & Bethwyn Evans (eds.), The Routledge
Handbook of Historical Linguistics, 161-189. New York: Routledge.

Greenhill, Simon J., Robert Blust & Russell D. Gray. 2008. The Austronesian
Basic Vocabulary Database: From Bioinformatics to Lexomics. Evolutionary
Bioinformatics 4. 271-283.

Huffman, Stephen M. (1998) The genetic classification of languages by
n-gram analysis: A computational technique. Georgetown University doctoral
dissertation.

Jordan, Fiona M. & Huber, B. 2013. Evolutionary approaches to
cross-cultural anthropology. Cross-Cultural Research 47. 91-101

Moran, Steven, McCloy, Daniel & Wright, Richard (eds.) 2014.
PHOIBLE Online. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
(Available online at http://phoible.org, Accessed on 2015-03-19.)

Muysken, Pieter, Harald Hammarström, Joshua Birchall, Rik van Gijn, Olga
Krasnoukhova & Neele Müller. (2015) Linguistic Areas, bottom up or top
down? The case of the Guaporé-Mamoré region. In Bernard Comrie & Lucía
Golluscio (eds.), Language Contact and Documentation, 205-238. Berlin:
DeGruyter Mouton.

Sankoff, David. (1973) Mathematical developments in lexicostatistic theory.
In Thomas A. Sebeok (ed.), Diachronic, Areal, and Typological Linguistics
(Current Trends in Linguistics XI), 93-113. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Walker, Robert S., Søren Wichmann, Thomas Mailund & Curtis J. Atkisson.
(2012) Cultural Phylogenetics of the Tupi Language Family in Lowland South
America. PLoS ONE 7(4). e35025.

Wichmann, Søren, André Müller & Viveka Velupillai. (2010) Homelands of the
world's language families: A quantitative approach. Diachronica XXVII(2).
247-276.

Wichmann, Søren, André Müller, Annkathrin Wett, Viveka Velupillai, Julia
Bishoffberger, Cecil H. Brown, Eric W. Holman, Sebastian Sauppe, Zarina
Molochieva,
Pamela Brown, Harald Hammarström, Oleg Belyaev, Johann-Mattis List, Dik
Bakker,
Dmitry Egorov, Matthias Urban, Robert Mailhammer, Agustina Carrizo, Matthew
S.
Dryer, Evgenia Korovina, David Beck, Helen Geyer, Pattie Epps, Anthony Grant
& Pilar Valenzuela. 2013. The ASJP Database (Version 16). Available at
http://asjp.clld.org/ (accessed 1 March 2015).
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