18.773, Calls: Typology/Germany; Cognitive Science,Comp Ling/Czech Republic

Tue Mar 13 18:59:47 UTC 2007

LINGUIST List: Vol-18-773. Tue Mar 13 2007. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 18.773, Calls: Typology/Germany; Cognitive Science,Comp Ling/Czech Republic

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. 

Help LINGUIST!
===========================Directory==============================  

1)
Date: 13-Mar-2007
From: René Schiering < schiering at uni-leipzig.de >
Subject: Phonological Words in South Asia and Southeast Asia 

2)
Date: 12-Mar-2007
From: Paula Buttery < pjb48 at cam.ac.uk >
Subject: Cognitive Aspects of Computational Language Acquisition 

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 13:53:47
From: René Schiering < schiering at uni-leipzig.de >
Subject: Phonological Words in South Asia and Southeast Asia 

Full Title: Phonological Words in South Asia and Southeast Asia 

Date: 19-Sep-2007 - 20-Sep-2007
Location: Leipzig, Germany 
Contact Person: René Schiering
Meeting Email: schiering at uni-leipzig.de
Web Site: http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~autotyp/projects/wd_dom/wd_dom.html 

Linguistic Field(s): Linguistic Theories; Typology 

Call Deadline: 16-Apr-2007 

Meeting Description:
Phonological Words in South Asia and Southeast Asia

Workshop to be held at the University of Leipzig, Germany, September 19-20, 2007
(funded by the German Research Foundation, DFG)

The meeting aims at bringing together research which focuses on the prosodic and
morphological word structure of languages spoken in South Asia and Southeast
Asia. Contributions are expected to be theoretically and typologically informed
and should either concentrate on the analysis of word domains in individual
languages or address areal and/or diachronic aspects of word structure by means
of cross-linguistic comparison. 

Invited Speakers:
Gregory D. S. Anderson (University of Oregon & Living Tongues Institute for
Endangered Languages)
Ashwini Deo (Yale University)
Martine Mazaudon (LACITO, UMR 7107 CNRS-Paris 3 & 4)

Broadly speaking, the study of word structure is concerned with two distinct but
interdependent aspects of grammar. First, a word may be prosodically defined by
phonological patterns, e.g. assimilation, stress, or tone, which reference a
particular domain in morphological structure (e.g. a combination of stem plus
suffixes, excluding prefixes). Second, the grammatical word may be defined with
reference to syntactic and morphological patterns that apply exclusively to a
particular domain in morphological structure (e.g. a stem plus affixes,
excluding clitics). In recent years, the relationship between prosodic and
grammatical words has received increased attention (e.g. Hall & Kleinhenz 1999,
Dixon & Aikhenvald 2002).
Research on the cross-linguistic variation of word domains shed doubt on
approaches which aim at formulating a universal architecture of prosodic
structure and its dependence on morphological and syntactic components of
grammar. The assumptions of Prosodic Phonology (Nespor & Vogel 1986), for
instance, are contradicted by current research in a typological project on word
domains at the University of Leipzig (see
http://www.uni-leipzig.de/~autotyp/projects/wd_dom/wd_dom.html for recent
publications).
The languages of South and Southeast Asia provide a particular challenge because
in a number of South Asian languages sound patterns do not converge on a single
domain of 'phonological word' as predicted by theories, and in a number of
Southeast Asian languages, no or almost no sound pattern seems to target a
domain intermediate between the phrases and the foot. In our project we found
that the distribution of phonological domains is however best predicted not by
areal connections but by genealogical affiliation and thus ultimately by the
individual diachrony behind each language.
We invite abstracts for a two-day workshop on word domains in South and
Southeast Asian languages. The meeting aims at bringing together research which
focuses on the prosodic and morphological word structure of languages spoken in
these areas. Contributions are expected to be theoretically and typologically
informed and should either concentrate on the analysis of word domains in
individual languages or address areal and/or diachronic aspects of word
structure by means of cross-linguistic comparison. One-page abstracts for
45-minutes presentations (30 min. talk + 15 min. discussion) should be submitted
electronically via e-mail attachment (mail to: schiering at uni-leipzig.de) and
should reach the organizers no later than April 16, 2007. Notification of
acceptance will be circulated in late April 2007.

The Organizing Committee:
René Schiering (schiering at uni-leipzig.de)
Balthasar Bickel (bickel at uni-leipzig.de)
Kristine A. Hildebrandt (Kristine.Hildebrandt at manchester.ac.uk)

-------------------------Message 2 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 13:53:51
From: Paula Buttery < pjb48 at cam.ac.uk >
Subject: Cognitive Aspects of Computational Language Acquisition 

Full Title: Cognitive Aspects of Computational Language Acquisition 

Date: 29-Jun-2007 - 29-Jun-2007
Location: Prague, Czech Republic 
Contact Person: Paula Buttery
Meeting Email: cognitive-2007 at cl.cam.ac.uk
Web Site: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~alk23/cognitive/cognitive.htm 

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science; Computational Linguistics; Language
Acquisition; Psycholinguistics 

Call Deadline: 26-Mar-2007 

Meeting Description

Our workshop aims to bring together researchers from the diverse fields of NLP,
machine learning, artificial intelligence, (psycho)linguistics, etc. who are
interested in the relevance of computational techniques for understanding human
language learning. The workshop is intended to bridge the gap between the
computational and cognitive communities, promote knowledge and resource sharing,
and help initiate interdisciplinary research projects. 

2nd Call for Papers
ACL 2007 Workshop on
Cognitive Aspects of Computational Language Acquisition
29th June, 2007
Prague, Czech Republic

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~alk23/cognitive/cognitive.htm

Workshop Description

The past decades have seen a massive expansion in the application of statistical
and machine learning methods to natural language processing (NLP). This work has
yielded impressive results in numerous speech and language processing tasks,
including e.g. speech recognition, morphological analysis, parsing, lexical
acquisition, semantic interpretation, and dialogue management. The good results
have generally been viewed as engineering achievements.

Recently researchers have begun to investigate the relevance of computational
learning methods for research on human language acquisition. These
investigations are very important since if computational techniques can be used
to improve our understanding of human language acquisition, this will not only
benefit cognitive sciences in general but will reflect back to NLP
and place us in a better position to develop useful language models.

Some examples of recent investigations include:

- statistical lexical acquisition and analysis of corpora to gain more accurate
descriptions of the learning environment, to investigate the lexical properties
of developmental stages, and to quantify differences between child and adult
productions;

- computational models which investigate the capabilities of particular theories
(notably the benefit and practicality of Universal Grammar);

- biologically motivated neural networks which investigate the acquisition of
specific lexical constructions.

Success in this type of research requires close collaboration between NLP and
cognitive scientists. To this end, interdisciplinary workshops can play a key
role in advancing existing and initiating new research. This was demonstrated by
two successful workshops held at COLING 2004 and ACL 2005 which focused on
psycho- computational models of human language acquisition. However, in general,
there has been little space at major NLP conferences for cognitive aspects of
language acquisition. Even CoNLL which
was originally intended to provide a venue for research on
(psycho)linguistically relevant machine learning work has only occasionally
provided a forum for work.

Target Audience

Our workshop aims to bring together researchers from the diverse fields of NLP,
machine learning, artificial intelligence, (psycho)linguistics, etc. who are
interested in the relevance of computational techniques for understanding human
language learning. The workshop is intended to bridge the gap between the
computational and cognitive communities, promote knowledge and resource sharing,
and help initiate interdisciplinary research projects.

Areas of Interest

Papers are invited on, but not limited to, the following topics:

- Computational learning theory and analysis of language learning

- Computational models of human (first, second and bilingual) language acquisition

- Computational models of various components of the language faculty and their
impact on the acquisition task

- Computational models of the evolution of language

- Data resources and tools for investigating computational models of human
language acquisition

- Empirical and theoretical comparisons of the learning environment and its
impact on the acquisition task

- Computational methods for acquiring various linguistic information (related to
e.g. speech, morphology, lexicon, syntax, semantics, and discourse) and their
relevance to research on human language acquisition

- Investigations and comparisons of supervised, unsupervised and
weakly-supervised methods for learning (e.g. machine learning, statistical,
symbolic, biologically-inspired, active learning, various hybrid models) from
the cognitive aspect

Papers can cover one or more of these areas.

Submission Information

Papers should describe original work and should indicate the state of completion
of the reported results. In particular, any overlap with previously published
work should be clearly mentioned. Submissions will be judged on correctness,
novelty, technical strength, clarity of presentation, usability, and
significance/relevance to the workshop.

Submissions should follow the two-column format of the ACL 2007 main-conference
proceedings and should not exceed eight (8) pages, including references. We
strongly recommend the use of either the LaTeX style file or the Microsoft-Word
Style file, which can be found at http://ufal.mff.cuni.cz/acl2007/styles.

The reviewing will be blind. Therefore, the paper should not include the
authors' names and affiliations. Furthermore, self-citations and other
references that could reveal the author's identity should be avoided.

Submission will be electronic. The only accepted format for submitted papers is
Adobe PDF. Papers must be submitted no later than March 26, 2007 using the
submission webpage http://www.softconf.com/acl07/ACL07-WS15/submit.html.

Submissions will be reviewed by 3 members of the Program Committee. Authors of
accepted papers will receive guidelines regarding how to produce camera-ready
versions of their papers for inclusion in the ACL workshop proceedings.

Notification of receipt will be emailed to the contact author.

Important Dates

Paper submission deadline: 26 March 2007
Acceptance notification sent: 20 April 2007
Final version deadline: 9 May 2007
Workshop date: 29 June 2007

Workshop Chairs

Paula Buttery
University of Cambridge, UK

Aline Villavicencio
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
University of Bath, UK

Anna Korhonen
University of Cambridge, UK

Address any queries regarding the workshop to:
cognitive-2007 at cl.cam.ac.uk

Program Committee

Colin J Bannard (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany)
Robert C. Berwick (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
Antal van den Bosch (Tilburg University, The Netherlands)
Chris Brew (Ohio State University, USA)
Ted Briscoe (University of Cambridge, UK)
Robin Clark (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
Stephen Clark (University of Oxford, UK)
Alexander Clark (Royal Holloway, University of London, UK)
Matthew W. Crocker (Saarland University, Germany)
James Cussens (University of York, UK)
Walter Daelemans (University of Antwerp, Belgium and Tilburg University, The
Netherlands)
Bruno Gaume (Universite Paul Sabatier, France)
Ted Gibson (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
Julia Hockenmaier (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
Marco Idiart (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil)
Mark Johnson (Brown University, USA)
Aravind Joshi (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
Gerard Kempen (Leiden University, Netherlands)
Brian MacWhinney (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)
Martin Pickering (University of Glasgow, UK)
Thierry Poibeau (University Paris 13, France)
Ari Rappoport (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel)
Kenji Sagae (University of Tokyo, Japan)
Sabine Schulte im Walde (University of Stuttgart, Germany)
Mark Steedman (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Suzanne Stevenson (University of Toronto, Canada)
Charles Yang (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
Menno van Zaanen (Macquarie University, Australia)

-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-18-773	