LINGUIST List 11.19

Tue Jan 11 2000

Calls: Lang Resources/Evaluation, Afroasiatic Language

Editor for this issue: Jody Huellmantel <jodylinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Laila Dybkjaer, SPOKEN DIALOGUE/FULL NATURAL INTERACTIVE DIALOGUE (LREC 2000)
2. Jacqueline Lecarme, Conference on Afroasiatic Languages (CAL 5)

LREC 2000 (LANGUAGE RESOURCES AND EVALUATION CONFERENCE) workshop:
FROM SPOKEN DIALOGUE TO FULL NATURAL INTERACTIVE DIALOGUE. 
THEORY, EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION.

29 May 2000 - immediately before LREC 2000, Athens, Greece

http://www.nis.sdu.dk/lrec2000workshop


CALL FOR PAPERS

Spoken dialogue systems have been in the marketplace since around 1990.
Whereas the first systems only had single word recognition there has
been a steady development towards increasingly natural spoken dialogue.
The most advanced current systems still work within a limited task
domain but some are capable of understanding and replying to fairly long
user utterances, coping with various kinds of initiative, and taking a
variety of contextual issues into account.

Naturalness, as perceived by the user, is closely connected to
properties such as allowed user utterance length, grammar, vocabulary,
style and initiative. Depending on task and situation, perceived
naturalness is also connected to how the user can interact with the
system. In human-human communication we normally do not restrict
ourselves to using speech-only but also include gesture, facial
expression, and bodily posture and we often draw on other information
sources such as diagrams, maps and drawings. 

Natural interactive dialogue and conversational systems are moving
centre-stage because of increasing interest in adding other modalities
to achieve a larger potential than speech alone can offer. Several
recent conversational prototype systems include one or several natural
interaction modalities in addition to speech. However, there are many
open questions and unsolved or insufficiently explored problems related
to extending spoken dialogue management and dialogue interfaces to
enable increased natural interactivity.

The workshop aims to bring together researchers and developers in the
area of natural interactive dialogue. The goal of the workshop is to
highlight and evaluate empirically based theories and methods for
natural multimodal conversational dialogue management and dialogue
interfaces, and their evaluation. Focus will be on key issues such as
dialogue initiative, reference, communicative acts, feedback, and
cooperativity.


TOPICS

Topics of interest should fall within theory, empirical analysis, and
evaluation of key issues in the transition from spoken dialogue to full
natural interactive dialogue. Topics include but are not limited to:

- Cooperative natural interactive dialogue interfaces and usability
- Experience from natural interactive systems development and evaluation 
- Integration of natural interactivity modalities 
- Empirically based theories in support of natural interactive dialogue
management and interfaces
- Communicative acts (beyond speech acts) 
- Reference in a multimodal context
- Dialogue initiative
- Task management
- Feedback
- Methods for evaluation of natural interactive dialogue management and
dialogue interfaces


SUBMISSION DETAILS

Extended abstracts should be around 4 pages in length. Final papers
should not exceed six pages. Extended abstracts must be submitted
electronically to lailanis.sdu.dk and must be in postscript or rtf
format. Please write "LREC2000 workshop paper submission" in the subject
line.
Final paper style format will be announced by LREC on 2 February 2000
and will also be made available at
http://www.nis.sdu.dk/lrec2000workshop


IMPORTANT DATES

Deadline for submission of extended abstracts: 14 February 2000 
Notification of acceptance/rejection: 20 March 2000 
Deadline for submission of accepted papers: 10 April 2000 
Workshop: 29 May 2000


PROGRAM COMMITTEE 

Laila Dybkj�r, Natural Interactive Systems Laboratory, Odense, Denmark
(chair)
Niels Ole Bernsen, Natural Interactive Systems Laboratory, Odense,
Denmark
Ronald Cole, Center for Spoken Language Understanding, University of
Colorado at Boulder, USA
Bj�rn Granstr�m, Dept. of Speech, Music and Hearing, KTH, Sweden 
Joseph Mariani, LIMSI-CNRS, France
Dominic W. Massaro, Dept. of Psychology, University of California, USA 
David McNeill, Dept. of Psychology, University of Chicago, USA 
Sharon Oviatt, Center for Human-Computer Communication, Oregon Graduate
Institute of Science & Technology, USA
Oliviero Stock, IRST, Italy
Jan van Kuppevelt, IMS, Universit�t Stuttgart, Germany

 FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON AFROASIATIC LANGUAGES (CAL5)

 -----------------------------------------------------

 June 28-30, 2000
 Paris, FRANCE

 --------------------

Invited Speakers:

Alec Marantz, MIT
Mohand Guerssel, UQAM
Richard Hayward, SOAS

 CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

The `Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle' URA 1028 CNRS-Universite de
Paris 7 is hosting the Fifth International Conference on Afroasiatic
Languages (CAL5). The aim of the Conference is to promote research in
theoretical linguistics in relation to Afroasiatic languages. The
editorial committee hopes to undertake the publication of a collection
of papers based on the presentations at the colloquium, a sequel to the
volumes entitled 'Studies in Afro-Asiatic Grammar' (Holland Academic
Graphics, 1996) and `Studies in Afro-Asiatic Grammar 2' (John Benjamins,
in press).

Abstracts are invited for thirty minutes talks in all areas of syntax,
morphology and phonology. Abstracts should be no less than one page and
may not exceed two pages (500-1000 words). All abstracts will be
anonymously reviewed. Please send three anonymous copy of the abstract
and one copy with the name of author(s) and institution(s). Include a
card containing the following information: name of author(s), title of
the paper, address and affiliation, phone number, fax and e-mail
address. Since we intend to post the abstracts on the conference
website, we strongly encourage submission by e-mail.

Abstracts must be received by March 1, 2000.

Send all material to:

Fifth Conference on Afro-asiatic Languages
Selection Committee
c/o J. Lecarme
CNRS-CRA
250, rue A. Einstein
06560 Sophia Antipolis
FRANCE 
Tel:(0)4 93 95 41 75
Fax:(0)4 93 65 29 05
E-mail: lecarmecra.cnrs.fr

Expected notification date: 15 April 2000

Organizers: 
Jean Lowenstamm <lowenccr.jussieu.fr>
Jacqueline Lecarme <lecarmecra.cnrs.fr>

For further details and updated information, please see:
http://www.llf.cnrs.fr (soon available).