17.3802, Calls: Ling Theories, Semantics, Syntax/Ireland; Pragmatics/Ireland

Fri Dec 22 17:42:39 UTC 2006

LINGUIST List: Vol-17-3802. Fri Dec 22 2006. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 17.3802, Calls: Ling Theories, Semantics, Syntax/Ireland; Pragmatics/Ireland

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Eastern Michigan U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>

Reviews: Laura Welcher, Rosetta Project / Long Now Foundation  
         <reviews at linguistlist.org> 

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, Wayne
State University, and donations from subscribers and publishers.

Editor for this issue: Dan Parker <dan at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  

As a matter of policy, LINGUIST discourages the use of abbreviations
or acronyms in conference announcements unless they are explained in
the text.

To post to LINGUIST, use our convenient web form at 
http://linguistlist.org/LL/posttolinguist.html. 

===========================Directory==============================  

1)
Date: 22-Dec-2006
From: Reinhard Muskens < r.a.muskens at uvt.nl >
Subject: New Directions in Type-theoretic Grammars 

2)
Date: 22-Dec-2006
From: Christian Ebert < christian.ebert at uni-bielefeld.de >
Subject: Workshop on Language, Games, and Evolution 

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2006 12:41:00
From: Reinhard Muskens < r.a.muskens at uvt.nl >
Subject: New Directions in Type-theoretic Grammars 

Full Title: New Directions in Type-theoretic Grammars 
Short Title: NDTTG 2007 

Date: 06-Aug-2007 - 10-Aug-2007
Location: Dublin, Ireland 
Contact Person: Reinhard Muskens
Meeting Email: r.a.muskens at uvt.nl
Web Site: http://let.uvt.nl/general/people/rmuskens/ndttg/ 

Linguistic Field(s): Linguistic Theories; Semantics; Syntax 

Call Deadline: 08-Mar-2007 

Meeting Description:

In 1961 Haskell Curry published his by now famous paper on 'Some Logical Aspects of Grammatical Structure'. In this paper (large parts of which had already been written in the 1940's) he made a distinction between the 'tectogrammatics' and 'phenogrammatics' of language (a distinction similar to that between abstract syntax and concrete syntax in compiler theory), while also arguing against directionality in the type system used for language description. 

Since the turn of the century there has been a heightened activity within a series of type-theoretical formalisms bearing a family resemblance to one another. All of these adopt the pheno/tecto distinction or undirectedness in one way or another and claim various descriptive and formal advantages. The workshop intends to bring together researchers in this now very active field.

Organized as part of the European Summer School on Logic, Language and Information, ESSLLI 2007, www.cs.tcd.ie/esslli2007, 6 - 17 August, 2007 in Dublin 

Workshop Organizer:
    Reinhard Muskens

Workshop Purpose:

In 1961 Haskell Curry published his by now famous paper on 'Some Logical Aspects of Grammatical Structure'. In this paper (large parts of which had already been written in the 1940's) he made a distinction between the 'tectogrammatics' and 'phenogrammatics' of language (a distinction similar to that between abstract syntax and concrete syntax in compiler theory), while also arguing against directionality in the type system used for language description. In 1953 Bar-Hillel had introduced a distinction between categories seeking material to their right and categories seeking material to the left. To date most categorial grammarians follow Bar-Hillel in this, but in Curry's architecture phenogrammatical structure can take care of word order, making
directionality unnecessary.

Curry's proposal was part of a classical phase in categorial grammar that started with Ajdukiewicz's paper on syntactic 
connexity and also included Joachim Lambek's pivotal work on the introduction of hypothetical reasoning. It led to many follow-ups. For example, in Richard Montague's work the tectogrammatics/phenogrammatics distinction reappeared as one between analysis trees and surface strings, while Montague also added a level of meaning as a third component. The grammatical
architecture thus became one in which a central abstract component is interpreted on two levels. An explicit connection between Montague's set-up and that of Curry was given in David Dowty's work in the 1980's. Also in the 1980's, Aarne Ranta used the idea in a constructive type theory setting, while Reinhard Muskens used it for his Partial Montague Grammar and Johan van Benthem explored the logical and linguistic implications of LP*, the undirected
version of the Lambek Calculus, or, in other words, the logic of simply typed linear lambda terms. Later years brought Richard Oehrle's insight that the interpreting levels of the theory (not only semantics but also phenogrammar) can be represented with the help of lambda terms. Since the central abstract component consists of LP* derivations in Oehrle's set-up, equivalent with linear lambda terms, in fact all levels of the grammar can now be represented with the help of lambda terms and the typed lambda calculus becomes the central mechanism for grammatical description (as it had been in Cresswell's lambda-categorial languages).

Since the turn of the century there has been a heightened activity within a series of type-theoretical formalisms bearing a family resemblance to one another. All of these adopt the pheno/tecto distinction or undirectedness in one way or another and claim various descriptive and formal advantages. We mention Abstract Categorial Grammars (de Groote), De Saussure Grammar (Kracht),    Minimalist Categorial Grammars (Lecomte, Retore), Lambda Grammars
(Muskens), Higher Order Grammar (Pollard), and the Grammatical Framework (Ranta). The workshop intends to bring together researchers in this now very active field.  It aims to provide a forum for advanced PhD students and researchers, enabling them to present their work and to discuss it with colleagues who work in the broad subject areas represented at ESSLLI.

Workshop Topics:

We solicit contributions on all aspects of undirected type-theoretic grammars, including their parsability, their learnability, their psycholinguistic adequacy, and various applications in syntax and semantics. We are also interested in
practical issues relating to natural language processing and more theoretical issues such as the abstract/concrete syntax distinction in linguistics and computer science, the relation to compiling theory and the relation of undirected type-theoretic grammars to other linguistic formalisms. Particularly welcome are also contributions discussing the minimal requirements the
approach imposes on the type theory that is used.

Submission Details:

Authors are invited to submit an extended abstract describing original work. The extended abstract should not exceed two pages and should be in the PDF format. Since reviewing will be anonymous, please make sure that your abstract does not contain author's names or references from which author identities can
easily be deduced. Please upload your submission at the EasyChair website of the workshop, www.easychair.org/NDTTG2007/, by the deadline listed below. Submissions will be reviewed by the workshop's programme committee and additional reviewers. The accepted papers, which can be worked out to a maximum of 4000 words, will appear in the workshop proceedings published by ESSLLI.

Workshop format: 

The workshop is part of ESSLLI and is open to all ESSLLI participants. It will consist of five 90-minute sessions held over five consecutive days in the first week of ESSLLI. There will be 2 slots for paper presentation and discussion per session. On the first day the workshop organizer will give an introduction to the
topic.

Invited Speakers:

  t.b.a.

Workshop Programme Committee:

    Johan van Benthem
    Nissim Francez
    Philippe de Groote
    Makoto Kanazawa
    Marcus Kracht
    Alain Lecomte
    Glyn Morrill
    Richard Oehrle
    Carl Pollard
    Aarne Ranta
    Christian Retore
    Yoad Winter

Important Dates:

    Submission deadline: 8 March, 2007
    Notification: 21 April, 2007
    Preliminary programme: 24 April, 2007
    ESSLLI early registration: 1 May, 2007
    Final papers due: 17 May, 2007
    Final programme: 21 June, 2007
    Workshop dates: 6-17 August, 2007

Local Arrangements:

All workshop participants including the presenters will be required to register for ESSLLI. The registration fee for authors presenting a paper will correspond to the early student/workshop speaker registration fee. Moreover, a number of additional fee waiver grants will be made available by the ESSLLI organizing
committee on a competitive basis and workshop participants are eligible to apply for those.

There will be no reimbursement for travel costs and accomodation. Workshop speakers who have difficulty in finding funding should contact the local organizing committee to ask for the possibilities of a grant.

Further information:

About the workshop: http://let.uvt.nl/general/people/rmuskens/ndttg

About ESSLLI: www.cs.tcd.ie/esslli2007

-------------------------Message 2 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2006 12:40:58
From: Christian Ebert < christian.ebert at uni-bielefeld.de >
Subject: Workshop on Language, Games, and Evolution 

-------------------------Message 2 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Fri, 22 Dec 2006 12:41:07
From: Christian Ebert < christian.ebert at uni-bielefeld.de >
Subject: Workshop on Language, Games, and Evolution 

Full Title: Workshop on Language, Games, and Evolution 

Date: 06-Aug-2007 - 10-Aug-2007
Location: Dublin, Ireland 
Contact Person: Christian Ebert
Meeting Email: christian.ebert at uni-bielefeld.de
Web Site: http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/lili/personen/cebert/LGE/ 

Linguistic Field(s): Pragmatics 

Call Deadline: 08-Mar-2007 

Meeting Description:

Recent years witnessed an increased interest in formal pragmatics and especially the establishment of game theory as a new research methodology for the study of language use. Within this field of research, three major currents can be distinguished: one is closely related to the Gricean paradigm and aims at a precise foundation of pragmatic reasoning, the second originates in the economic literature and is concerned with the role of game theory in the context of language use, and the third aims at language evolution seen either from a biological or from a cultural perspective.

The workshop constitutes a forum for younger researchers to present and discuss their work in the broad context of ESSLLI. In addition it provides an opportunity for researchers from other fields to get acquainted with the style
and the problems addressed in this new research paradigm.

Organized as part of the European Summer School on Logic, Language and
Information ESSLLI 2007 (http://www.cs.tcd.ie/esslli2007/) August 6-17, 2007
in Dublin.

Workshop Organizers:

 - Anton Benz, ZAS Berlin (benz at zas.gwz-berlin.de)
 - Christian Ebert, University of Bielefeld (christan.ebert at uni-bielefeld.de)
 - Robert van Rooij, ILLC Amsterdam (R.A.M.vanRooij at uva.nl)

Workshop Format:

The workshop is part of ESSLLI and is open to all ESSLLI participants. It will
consist of five 90-minute sessions held over five consecutive days in the
first week of ESSLLI. There will be 2 slots for paper presentation and
discussion per session. On the first day the workshop organizers will give an
introduction to the topic.

Invited Speakers;

 - Simon Huttegger (Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, Austria)
 - Rohit Parikh    (Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center, USA)

Workshop Programme Committee:

 - Anton Benz
 - Christian Ebert
 - Simon Huttegger
 - Gerhard Jäger
 - Manfred Krifka
 - Rohit Parikh
 - Robert van Rooij 

Workshop Topics:

We invite talks that further our theoretical understanding of the role of
rational interaction in communication, as well as empirical studies and
computational simulations that shed light on the empirical validity of formal
models. Specific topics might relate but are not limited to:

Aspects of Rationality in Language Use:
 - Gricean Pragmatics
 - Speech Act Theory
 - Pragmatics of Dialogue
 - Interaction and Discourse Structure
 - Structure of Common Ground
 - Alignment in Discourse

Aspects of Language Games:
 - Signalling Games
 - Credibility
 - Bounded Rationality
 - Relevance and Optimality

Aspects of Language Evolution:
 - Evolution of Typological Diversity
 - Studies of Grammaticalisation Phenomena
 - Micro-Dynamics of Language Evolution
 - Mathematical Models

Submission Details:

Authors are invited to submit an extended abstract, which should not exceed 3
pages including references. Please send your submission in either PDF or
Microsoft Word format electronically to Christian Ebert
(christian.ebert at uni-bielefeld.de) by March 8, 2007. The submissions will be
reviewed by the workshop's programme committee and additional reviewers.

The accepted papers will appear in the workshop proceedings published by
ESSLLI. The final versions should not exceed 8 pages. A selection of the
papers of this workshop proceedings will be the kernel of a book ''Language,
Games, and Evolution'' edited by Benz, Ebert and van Rooij to appear in the
series ''Texts on Logic and Games'' published by the Amsterdam University Press.

Important Dates:

  Deadline for submissions: March 8, 2007
  Notification: April 21, 2007
  Preliminary programme: April 24, 2007
  ESSLLI early registration: May 1, 2007
  Final papers for proceedings: May 17, 2007
  Final programme: June 21, 2007
  Workshop dates: August 6-10, 2007

Local Arrangments:

All workshop participants including the presenters will be required to
register for ESSLLI. The registration fee for authors presenting a paper will
correspond to the early student/workshop speaker registration fee. There will
be no reimbursement for travel costs and accommodation. Workshop speakers who have difficulty in finding funding should contact the local organizing
committee to ask for the possibilities for a grant.

Further Information:

The workshop is supported by Project P13 on optimality theory at the ZAS
Berlin, Project A2 on implicit common ground of the SFB 673 ''Alignment in
Communication'' at the University of Bielefeld, and Robert van Rooij's VIDI
project ''The Economics of Language''.

About the workshop:
http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/lili/personen/cebert/LGE/

About ESSLLI:
http://www.cs.tcd.ie/esslli2007/

-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-17-3802	