16.2671, Calls: Computational Ling/UK;General Ling/UK

Fri Sep 16 01:32:39 UTC 2005

LINGUIST List: Vol-16-2671. Thu Sep 15 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.2671, Calls: Computational Ling/UK;General Ling/UK

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1)
Date: 15-Sep-2005
From: Johan Bos < jbos at inf.ed.ac.uk >
Subject: Inference in Computational Semantics 

2)
Date: 13-Sep-2005
From: Emmanuel Defay < emmanuel.defay at univ-lyon2.fr >
Subject: Revisiting Advanced Varieties in L2 Learning 

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2005 21:28:50
From: Johan Bos < jbos at inf.ed.ac.uk >
Subject: Inference in Computational Semantics 

Full Title: Inference in Computational Semantics 
Short Title: ICoS-5 

Date: 20-Apr-2006 - 21-Apr-2006
Location: Buxton, England, United Kingdom 
Contact Person: Johan Bos
Meeting Email: jbos at inf.ed.ac.uk
Web Site: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~ipratt/ICoS-5/ 

Linguistic Field(s): Computational Linguistics; Semantics 

Call Deadline: 16-Jan-2006 

Meeting Description:

The next International workshop on Inference in Computational Semantics (ICoS-5) will take place from 20th-21st April at the University of Derby College, Buxton, England. ICoS-5 is intended to bring together researchers interested in inference-oriented NLP from areas such as Computational Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Formal Semantics, and Logic. 

ABOUT ICOS

Natural Language Processing has reached a stage where the exploration and development of inference is one of its most pressing tasks. On the theoretical side, it is clear that inference plays a key role in such areas as semantic construction and the management of discourse and dialogue. On the practical side, the use of sophisticated inference methods could lead to improvements in application areas such as natural language generation, automatic question answering, and spoken dialogue systems.

ICoS-5 is intended to bring together researchers interested in inference-oriented NLP from areas such as Computational Linguistics, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, Formal Semantics, and Logic.

We invite submissions addressing the theme of inference in computational semantics broadly construed. Subjects relevant to ICoS-5 include but are not restricted to:

- natural language generation
- natural language pragmatics
- discourse and dialogue processing
- (spoken) dialogue systems
- underspecified representations
- ambiguity resolution
- interfacing lexical and computational semantics
- lexically-driven inference
- inference for shallow semantics
- inference in question answering
- recognising textual entailment
- background knowledge: use and acquisition
- applications of semantic resources
  (e.g. CYC, WordNet, FrameNet, PropBank, ontologies)
- automatic ontology creation
- common-sense reasoning in NLP
- temporal and epistemic reasoning
- resource-bounded inference
- applications of automated reasoning
  (e.g. model building, model checking, theorem proving)
- alternative inference strategies
  (e.g. abduction, nonmonotonic reasoning, default)
- decidable fragments of natural language
- controlled languages
- natural language inference in decidable logics
  (e.g. description logic)
- probabilistic and statistical approaches to inference
- machine learning and inference
- inference and information extraction and/or text mining
- novel applications (e.g. semantic web)
- evaluation methodolgies and resources for inference
- robustness and scalability of inference
- system descriptions

Submitted papers should not exceed 10 pages (A4, single column, 12 point font) including references.  All submissions must be in PDF, and must be sent by email to icos5 at coli.uni-sb.de.

SYSTEM DEMONSTRATIONS

We also encourage submission of papers describing systems that show aspects of inference in computational semantics. There will be a separate slot at the workshop where people can demonstrate their systems. System descriptions should follow the same submission guidelines as regular papers.

IMPORTANT DATES

Submission Deadline: January 16, 2006.
Notification: February 20, 2006.
Final Versions: March 20, 2006.
Conference: April 20-21, 2006.

INVITED SPEAKERS

TBA

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

-Carlos Areces
-Peter Baumgartner
-Christoph Benzmueller
-Raffaella Bernardi
-Patrick Blackburn
-Johan Bos (co-chair)
-Harry Bunt
-Ann Copestake
-Dick Crouch
-Ido Dagan
-Kees van Deemter
-Nissim Francez
-Claire Gardent
-Alexander Koller (co-chair)
-Shalom Lappin
-Alex Lascarides
-Bernardo Magnini
-Katja Markert
-Dan Moldovan
-Jeff Pelletier
-Maarten de Rijke
-Michael Schiehlen
-Matthew Stone
-Bonnie Webber

PUBLICATION

As well as producing the workshop proceedings, we plan to publish a selection of accepted papers as a book or special issue of a journal.

-------------------------Message 2 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2005 21:28:55
From: Emmanuel Defay < emmanuel.defay at univ-lyon2.fr >
Subject: Revisiting Advanced Varieties in L2 Learning 

Full Title: Revisiting Advanced Varieties in L2 Learning 

Date: 09-Jun-2006 - 10-Jun-2006
Location: Birmingham, United Kingdom 
Contact Person: Emmanuelle Labeau
Meeting Email: e.labeau at aston.ac.uk
Web Site: http://www.afls.net 

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics 

Call Deadline: 31-Jan-2006 

Meeting Description:

The present workshop aims at:

1. Clarifying the concept of 'advanced learner'. What is it? How does it 
relate to 'native speaker' or 'near-native speaker' How does advancement 
translate in terms of, for e.g., mental representations of formal 
features, or in terms of sociolinguistic and pragmatic knowledge?

2, Providing new evidence for the understanding of advanced varieties in 
areas such as lexical development, nominal and verbal morphology; mood, 
tense and aspect; syntax; discursive, sociolinguistic or pragmatic 
competence etc? on the basis of the various approaches.

The workshop will focus in the first instance on L2 French but 
contributions on other languages are more than welcome, be it the studies 
of other Romance Languages, contrastive studies or studies that provide 
general insight into advanced varieties. 

Revisiting advanced varieties in L2 learning
Aston University, Birmingham (UK), Friday 9th - Saturday 10th June 2006
Supported by the Association for French Language Studies (AFLS) and the 
Institute for the Study of Language and Society (ISLS)

Practical Information

Abstract deadline: 31st January 2006
Language: English or French
Proposal: Anonymous abstract of max. 400 words sent as an attachment 
(word Document) to an email message containing the author's name and 
affiliation, and the title.
Submission: Send all proposals to e.labeau at aston.ac.uk
Organisers: Prof. Florence Myles, Newcastle University
Dr Emmanuelle Labeau, Aston University

In 1997, Bartning collated a series of papers investigating a little 
studied type of L2 learners, the apprenants d'un niveau d'instruction 
élevée. She provided a list of distinctive characteristics of L2 French 
based on studies available at the time. However, much work has been 
devoted to advanced learners since, not only in French (e.g. for tense 
and aspect acquisition of L2 French: Kihlstedt, 1998; Howard, 2002 and 
Labeau, 2002, 2005) but also in other languages: Spanish (Salaberry, 
2000), Italian (Giacolome-Ramat, 2002) etc? Many different theoretical 
frameworks other than the descriptive / functionalist approach used in 
the above studies have also paid attention to this type of learner; for 
example, the Universal Grammar framework has investigated ultimate 
attainment in the context of the Critical Age Hypothesis (Birdsong 2005), 
and sociolinguistic and pragmatic models have looked at the (non-) 
acquisition of sociolinguistic variation in advanced learners (Dewaele, 
2004, Regan & Bailey, 2004).

Therefore, in the light of new corpora and findings, it is now time to 
revisit and refine the concept of advanced varieties both in instructed 
and natural settings.

En 1997, Bartning a rassemblé une série d'articles consacrés à un type 
peu étudié d'apprenants de L2, les apprenants d'un niveau d'instruction 
élevée. Elle fournissait une liste de traits distinctifs du français L2 
sur la base des résultats disponibles à cette époque. Cependant, de  
nombreuses études se sont penchées depuis sur les apprenants avancés, non 
seulement en français (ex. pour l'acquisition du temps et de l'aspect : 
Kihlstedt, 1998, Howard, 2002, Labeau, 2002, 2005) mais aussi dans 
d'autres langues : espagnol (Salaberry, 2000) ou italien (Giacolome-
Ramat, 2002) etc? des cadres théoriques très divers, autres qu l'approche 
descriptive / fonctionnaliste des études susmentionnées se sont penchés 
sur ce type d'apprenant ; par exemple, la Universal Grammar a étudié la 
question de réussite ultime dans le contexte de l'hypothèse de l'iage 
critique (Birdsong, 2005) et des modèles sociolinguistiques et 
pragmatiques ont exploré la (non-_ acquisition de la variation 
linguistique parmi les apprenants avancés (Dewaele, 2004, Regan & Bailey, 
2004).

Ainsi, à la lueur des nouveaux corpus et des nouvelles découvertes, il 
est temps de se repencher sur le problème et de raffiner le concept de 
variétés avancées en milieu instructionnel ou naturel.

L'atelier a pour but de :

1. Clarifier le concept d' « apprenant avancé ». Qu'est-ce ? Quels sont 
ses rapports avec les concepts de 'locuteur natif' ou  de 'locuteur quasi-
natif ». Comment l'avancement se traduit-il en termes, par exemple, de 
représentations mentales de traits formels, ou en termes de connaissances 
sociolinguistique et pragmatique ?

2. Fournir de nouveaux éléments pour la compréhension des variétés 
avancées dans des domaines tels que le développement lexical, la 
morphologie nominale et verbale ; le mode, le temps et l'aspect ; la 
syntaxe, la compétence discursive, sociolinguistique ou pragmatique etc? 
sur la base des différentes approches.

L'atelier se concentrera principalement sur le français langue seconde 
mais des contributions consacrées à d'autres langues (études d'autres 
langues romanes, études contrastives ou études générales sur les variétés 
avancées) sont les bienvenues

Informations pratiques
Date de soumission: 31 janvier 2006
Langue:	Français ou anglais
Proposition: Résumé anonyme de 400 mots max. envoyé en pièce jointe
(document Word) d'un message électronique contenant le nom et 
l'affiliation de l'auteur, ainsi que le titre de la proposition.
Soumission : Envoyez vos propositions à e.labeau at aston.ac.uk
Organisatrices : Prof. Florence Myles, Newcastle University
Dr Emmanuelle Labeau, Aston University

References:
Birdsong, D. (2005). Interpreting age effects in second language 
acquisition. In Kroll, J. & A. De Groot (Eds.), Handbook of Bilingualism: 
Psycholinguistic Perspectives (pp. 109-127). Cambridge: Cambridge U. 
Press.

Dewaele, J.M. (2004) The acquisition of sociolinguistic competence in 
French as a foreign language: An overview. In Myles, F. & R. Towell 
(eds.), The acquisition of French as a second language . Special issue of 
Journal of French Language Studies , 14, 301-319.

Howard, M. (2002) 'L'acquisition des temps du passé en français par 
l'apprenant dit avancé: une approche lexicale', in LABEAU, E. & LARRIVÉE, 
P. (dir.), Les temps du passé français et leur enseignement. pp. 181-204.

Kihlstedt, M. (1998) La référence au passé dans le dialogue: Etude de 
l'acqui-sition de la temporalité chez des apprenants dits avancés de 
français (Cahiers de la Recherche 6). Stockholm: G. Engwall & J. Nystedt 
ed.

Labeau, E. (2002) The Acquisition of French Past Tenses by tutored 
Anglophone advanced Learners: Is Aspect enough?. Unpublished PhD Thesis, 
Aston University.

Labeau, E. (2005) ) Beyond the Aspect Hypothesis : Tense-Aspect 
Development in advanced L2 French. Peter Lang, Contemporary Studies in 
Descriptive Linguistics vol.5 

Regan, V. & R. Bayley (eds.) Sociolinguistics and Second Language 
Acquisition , Special issue of the Journal of Sociolinguistics , 8 (3)

Salaberry, R. (2000) The development of past tense morphology in L2 
Spanish. Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins (Studies in 
Bilingualism 22).

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