18.712, Calls: Gen Ling/USA; Cognitive Science,Gen Ling/Germany

Wed Mar 7 19:59:02 UTC 2007

LINGUIST List: Vol-18-712. Wed Mar 07 2007. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 18.712, Calls: Gen Ling/USA; Cognitive Science,Gen Ling/Germany

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  
       <reviews at linguistlist.org> 

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/

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

Editor for this issue: Ania Kubisz <ania 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: 07-Mar-2007
From: Nick Pendar < pendar at iastate.edu >
Subject: Technology for Second Language Learning 

2)
Date: 06-Mar-2007
From: Albert Ortmann < ortmann at phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de >
Subject: Concept Types & Frames in Language: Cognition & Science 

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 07 Mar 2007 14:50:06
From: Nick Pendar < pendar at iastate.edu >
Subject: Technology for Second Language Learning 

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 07 Mar 2007 14:50:14
From: Nick Pendar < pendar at iastate.edu >
Subject: Technology for Second Language Learning 

Full Title: Technology for Second Language Learning 
Short Title: TSLL 

Date: 21-Sep-2007 - 22-Sep-2007
Location: Ames, Iowa, USA 
Contact Person: Yoo Ree Chung
Meeting Email: yrchung at iastate.edu
Web Site: http://apling.public.iastate.edu/TSLL/ 

Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics 

Call Deadline: 21-May-2007 

Meeting Description:

This conference brings together researchers who work in the intersection of
language teaching/learning and technology. Theoretical and applied issues in
computer-assisted language learning (CALL), Computer-Assisted Testing (CAT), and
the use of artificial intelligence and natural language processing techniques in
these areas all fall within the framework of TSLL. 

Technology for Second Language Learning (TSLL)

                        5th Annual Conference
                        September 21-22, 2007

                       Towards Adaptive CALL:
       Natural Language Processing for Diagnostic Language Assessment

                           Plenary Speaker
                      Professor Robert Mislevy
                       University of Maryland

Many advances in computer-assisted language learning (CALL) require an increase
in the technical knowledge about diagnostic assessment, student models, and
natural language processing to design adaptive instruction. This conference
brings together the researchers and graduate students working to address
questions about these areas. The plenary speaker is well-known for his work
drawing on statistical methods and cognitive psychology to integrate these
strands of research conceptually and in practice.

Proposals are invited for papers in the following areas: 

Diagnostic language assessment
  - How can useful areas of diagnostic information be selected by materials 
    developers?
  - How can reliability of diagnostic inferences be achieved and monitored?  
  - How can diagnostic feedback be communicated to language learners?
  - What evidence suggests that language learners are able to use and        
    benefit from diagnostic feedback?

Student models and complex record-keeping in language learning
  - How can learners' language performance be summarized and stored for 
    subsequent use?
  - What practical and ethical issues affect construction and use of student 
    models?

Natural language processing for analysis of learners' responses
  - How can NLP techniques be implemented in CALL and assessment to yield 
    diagnostic information?
  - What types of tasks provide useful samples of learners' linguistic 
    performance for response analysis?
  - What evidence suggests that learners benefit from the feedback and 
    adaptivity afforded by NLP?

Adaptive language learning paths
  - How can adaptive learning paths be set to individualize learning 
    effectively?
  - What evidence suggests that adaptive learning paths help second language
    learners?

Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words as email attachments to Yoo Ree
Chung at yrchung at iastate.edu by May 21, 2007. Acceptances will be sent by June
1, 2007.

-------------------------Message 2 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 07 Mar 2007 14:50:23
From: Albert Ortmann < ortmann at phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de >
Subject: Concept Types & Frames in Language: Cognition & Science 

-------------------------Message 2 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 07 Mar 2007 14:50:37
From: Albert Ortmann < ortmann at phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de >
Subject: Concept Types & Frames in Language: Cognition & Science 

Full Title: Concept Types & Frames in Language: Cognition & Science 

Date: 20-Aug-2007 - 22-Aug-2007
Location: Duesseldorf, Germany 
Contact Person: Anna Grabowski
Meeting Email: ctf at phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de
Web Site: http://phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/fff/ctf/ 

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science; General Linguistics 

Call Deadline: 31-Mar-2007 

Meeting Description:

The topic of the conference is the investigation of concept types (sortal,
relational, individual and functional concepts) and their respective
relationships to frames (recursive attribute-value structures). The
interdisciplinary conference combines approaches from linguistics, computational
linguistics, neuroscience, philosophy, philosophy of science and the history of
science. 

Third (and last) Call for Papers

Concept Types and Frames in Language, Cognition, and Science

International Conference
Düsseldorf (GER), August 20-22, 2007
Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf
Research Unit: Functional Concepts and Frames

http://phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/fff/ctf/

Invited speakers:

Lawrence Barsalou
Vladimir Borschev
Xiang Chen
Charles Fillmore
Peter Gaerdenfors
Nicola Guarino
William McGregor
Peter Simons
Barbara Partee
Jeff Pelletier
Friedemann Pulvermüller

General chair: Sebastian Löbner

Organization: Thomas Gamerschlag, Christian Horn, Albert Ortmann, Markus
Werning, Stefanie Zaun

Scientific board: Heiner Fangerau, Hans Geisler, Christoph Kann, Jim
Kilbury, Gerhard Schurz, Ede Zimmermann

Administration and contact: Anna Grabowski (ctfphil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de)

Linguistic perspectives:

Nouns in natural language can be related to different basic types of concepts.
The basic types are sortal nouns (cow); individual nouns (e.g. proper names) and
functional nouns (size) are marked as inherently unique; relational nouns (part)
and functional nouns are marked by involving one or more additional arguments.
The focus of the conference is on functional nouns.

Linguistically, functional nouns are linked to grammatical phenomena such as
possessive constructions and definiteness. Cognitively, functional concepts
enable the unique identification of referents, for example as unique parts
of wholes, or as unique values of attributes. Therefore, functional nouns
and concepts are of special importance in the advanced evolution of human
language and scientific terminology. In fact, most lexicalised functional
concepts are the products of complex linguistic developments.

Philosophical and cognitive perspectives:

Frames, in Barsalou's sense, are recursive attribute-value structures. While
frames can be used to implement individual and sortal concepts, their
attributes can themselves be analysed as recursively interrelated functional
concepts. Given that frames are the basic format of concept formation in
cognition, attributes and frames might have neural correlates in our brain.
Frames are a natural linguistic and conceptual format for the representation
of complex ontologies that embody substance-accidence and part-whole
relations. Of particular interest is the relation of frames to complex
representational formats such as conceptual spaces and mental models.
Functional concepts and frames play a crucial role in the human evolution of
a stable cognitive framework for communication and cooperation, in everyday
life as well as in science. Insofar as the objects of scientific disciplines are
defined in terms of underlying frames, Kuhnian paradigm shifts are related to
changes in the frames employed science.

The conference invites contributions to the following topics:

- Semantics and logic of concept types, in particular of functional, relational
and individual nouns.
- Typological characteristics of functional, relational and individual nouns,
including the typology of possession and definiteness.
- Historical development of functional and relational nouns and their
grammatical integration.
- Semantics, typology and evolution of stative dimensional verbs such as cost,
weigh, mean.
- Automatic classification of noun types in natural language corpora.
- Frames as meaning representations in compositional and decompositional
semantics.
- The evolution of meaning and the role of functional concepts and frames therein.
- The structure of scientific ontologies, especially in medicine and biology, and
their relation to functional concepts and frames.
- The development of central functional concepts such as ''substance'' in the
history of metaphysics.
- Functional concepts and frames in scientific theory and practice, from a
historical perspective, in particular in the history of medical science.
- The relation of changes of scientific frames to paradigm shifts.
- Potential neural correlates and neural net models of functional concepts and
frames.
- Formalization and computational modeling of functional concepts and frames.

Abstract submissions of no more than 500 words are due by March 31, 2007.
Please use the online submission form at:
http://phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/fff/ctf/.

For further information please email: ctfphil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de.

The conference is sponsored by the DFG (German Research Foundation).

-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-18-712	