LINGUIST List 10.1509

Tue Oct 12 1999

Calls: Natural Language/ECAI,Language Change

Editor for this issue: James Yuells <jameslinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Hans-Juergen Buerckert, Artificial Intelligence/ECAI 2000 CAll for Tutorial Proposals
2. D. Eric Holt, OPTIMAL APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE CHANGE

European Conference on Artificial Intelligence


CALL FOR TUTORIAL PROPOSALS -- Deadline 1 Nov 1999

The ECAI-2000 Organising Committee invites proposals for tutorials to be
held in conjunction with the conference. The tutorials will be held on
21-22 August 2000, immediately prior to the start of the main conference.

IMPORTANT DATES 
 1 Nov 1999 Deadline for proposals
 1 Dec 1999 Notification of acceptance
15 Dec 1999 Deadline for tutorial summaries
 7 Jan 2000 Publication of ECAI-2000 tutorial programme
 1 May 2000 Camera-ready tutorial notes
21-22 Aug 2000 Tutorials at ECAI-2000

We invite proposals for four-hour tutorials on topics relating to
theoretical and applied AI. The aim is to offer conference delegates
both tutorials on up-to-date AI technologies, and case study tutorials
on the application of the AI technologies to real-world problems.

For further details please visit ECAI2000 Homepage

http://www.ecai2000.hu-berlin.de/

- 
Dr. Hans-J�rgen B�rckert
DFKI GmbH
Stuhlsatzenhausweg 3
D-66123 Saarbr�cken, Germany

Phone/Fax: +49.681.302-5321 / -2235
Mobile: +49.171.717-2065
Email: hjbdfki.de
http://www.dfki.de/~hjb/

FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS:
 "OPTIMAL APPROACHES TO LANGUAGE CHANGE"

A special session to be held at the 45th Annual Conference of the
International Linguistic Association

April 7-9, 2000, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.

The 45th ILA conference has as its major theme Language
Contact/Language Change, and abstracts are solicited for a session on
the application of Optimality Theory to language change.

Background: Beginning shortly after the circulation of the earliest
manuscripts in Optimality Theory (Prince and Smolensky 1993, McCarthy
and Prince 1993), various researchers began to investigate the
application of OT to language change. Historical issues investigated
in English, Slavic, a number of Romance languages and others have
included the development of syllable structure, metrical structure,
syncope and epenthesis, simplification of consonant clusters, changes
in vowel and consonant length, diphthongization, Finnish leveling, and
many others, including syntactic changes. Approaches have appealed to
a variety of theoretical mechanisms, including lexicon optimization,
re-ranking or partial ranking of constraints on markedness,
faithfulness, alignment, sonority and others. Additionally, the role
of perception and reinterpretation by the listener has been addressed
in some of these works, as has the relationship between historical
change and the first language acquisition of constraint rankings in
the grammar of children and speakers of newer generations.

Existing historical OT analyses, though they frequently rely heavily
on traditional argumentation to sustain them, are often innovative and
have often allowed for the establishment of a relation between the
changes discussed in these works that could not or had not
satisfactorily been seen as interrelated previously. Additionally, the
application of Optimality Theory to the explanation of historical
sound change arguably provides us with a firmer base for understanding
the given phenomena analyzed, and suggests that this is an area for
further fruitful investigation. Further, results from these studies
also are beginning to inform synchronic OT analyses and help to shape
our understanding of language more generally.

However, to date there has been no gathering dedicated to bringing
researchers in this area together to share their work and discuss it
as primary issue, rather than as part of a larger more general
meeting. This session solicits abstracts related to the analysis of
some issue related to historical linguistics and/or to the application
of OT to language change from a more general perspective. Submission
information is given below.

Submission Requirements: The 45th ILA conference will have as its
major theme Language Contact/Language Change. While papers on that
theme are especially welcomed, abstracts on any subject in theoretical
and applied linguistics are also solicited. Invited speakers: Lila
Gleitman, University of Pennsylvania and Lesley Milroy and Sarah
Thomason, both of the University of Michigan. Local host: Father
Solomon Sara.

Single-spaced abstracts, bearing the title of the paper (but no
author), of not more than 425 words should clearly state the problems
or research questions addressed, and should give some indication of
results or conclusions. Send via e-mail to the Session organizer (see
below). Simultaneously, send via airmail 3 camera-ready hard copies of
the abstract, plus a 3x5 card bearing name, title of paper, addresses,
affiliation, and audio-visual equipment needed. (Anonymity will be
preserved when abstracts are forwarded to the judges.) Presentations
will be 20 minutes (plus discussion). Submissions on diskette will
not be accepted.

Deadline for submission of abstracts for the special session on 
OT: January 7, 2000. 

Any questions regarding the conference itself may be addressed to
either the Conference Chair, Ruth Brend (rbrendumich.edu) or the
Conference Secretary Johanna Woltjer (ilaconf.woltjergte.net).
Abstracts designed for this panel will be judged by the general
conference committee, who will send direct notification regarding
acceptance.

Send e-mail and hard copies of abstracts and 3x5 information card to:

D. Eric Holt
Organizer, ILA session on OT and language change
Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese &
Program in Linguistics
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208
holtsc.edu

[Please send abstracts in one of the following formats, listed in
descending order of preference: Word97, RTF, WordPerfect, PDF, or as
text in the body of an e-mail message.]