LINGUIST List 12.2158

Wed Sep 5 2001

Calls: Comp Ling, Generative Approaches/L2

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Massimo Zancanaro, Information Presentation & Natural Multimodal Dialogue
2. juana liceras, Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition

***********************************************************************
		 
		2nd Call for papers and participation
	 (Deadline for submission: September 15, 2001)

		 International Workshop on
 Information Presentation and Natural Multimodal Dialogue

		 Verona, Italy 14-15 December 2001
	 http://i3p-class.itc.it/events/ipnmd2001.html

Recently, the two research areas of Intelligent Interactive
Information Presentation and Natural and Multimodal Interactivity have
emerged as key requirements for the usability and effectiveness of
information systems.

* Intelligent Interactive Information Presentation relates to the
 ability of a computer system to automatically produce multimodal
 information presentations, taking into account the specifics about
 the user, such as needs, interests, or knowledge, and engaging in a
 collaborative interaction that helps the retrieval of relevant
 information and its understanding on the part of the user. In order
 to build intelligent multimodal interactive presentation systems,
 different technologies must be exploited synergistically, such as
 natural language generation, language-based interaction and advanced
 user modelling. Also, the media and modalities used impose further
 constraints. For instance, the same meaning can be conveyed
 differently according to the communication channels available for
 the specific application setting. In particular, when several media
 and modalities are involved, presentations require their appropriate
 co-ordination.

* Natural and Multimodal Interactivity has the goal of ultimately
 supporting people in communicating with an information system in the
 same ways in which they would communicate with one another. This
 requires not only natural output presentation but also that users
 are able to present input to the computer in ways which feel natural
 to them, e.g. by talking to the computer whilst also pointing with
 the hand/arm and wrinkling the eyebrows, all of which is being
 understood by the system. The construction of natural interactive
 and multimodal systems requires equal focus on input and output so
 that technologies such as natural language understanding, dialogue
 management, speech and other signal processing techniques are needed
 in addition to those required for output presentation. Moreover, the
 issue of choosing the appropriate media and modalities for the
 application at hand increases in complexity when both input and
 output must be taken into account.

Workshop Goal

The aim of the workshop is to bring together researchers from the
fields of Natural Language Generation, Conversational Spoken Dialogue,
Multimodal Communication, Life-like Characters, Adaptive Hypermedia,
User Modelling, and technologists interested in new media and
modalities. Submitted abstracts should present innovative results or
introduce challenging issues in at least one of the two areas
mentioned above in order to stimulate discussion. The workshop will
include short presentations and brainstorming sessions initiated by
invited speakers.
Authors of some selected abstracts will be invited to submit a full
version of their papers to be published in an international journal.

The workshop is sponsored by the CLASS Project, funded by the Human
Language Technologies (HLT), which is part of the Information Society
Technologies Programme of the EC's 5th Framework. CLASS
(http://www.class-tech.org) was created on the request of the European
Commission for the purpose of stimulating cross-project collaborations
among HLT projects and between HLT projects and relevant projects
world-wide, and for suggesting how the Commission can better support
and meet the needs of advanced HLT research projects. Researchers
working on European projects are particularly encouraged to submit
abstracts to the workshop.


Instruction for Authors

* Authors are requested to send an extended abstract of three pages,
 including a list of keywords and most relevant references.
* Abstracts should be sent in PDF or PS formats to class-wsitc.it

Important Dates:

Paper Submission:		15 September 2001
Acceptance Notification:	5 October 2001
Workshop:			14-15 December 2001

Workshop Co-Chairs:

Niels Ole Bernsen, NISLab, Denmark
Oliviero Stock, ITC-irst, Italy

Program Committee:

Elisabeth Andr�, University of Augsburg, Germany
Justine Cassell, MIT, USA
Phil Cohen, OGI, USA
Laila Dybkj�r, NISLab, Denmark
Elena Not, ITC-irst, Italy
Catherine Pelachaud, University of Rome "La Sapienza", Italy
Fiorella de Rosis, University of Bari, Italy
Donia Scott, University of Brighton, UK
Wolfgang Wahlster, DFKI, Germany
Massimo Zancanaro, ITC-irst, Italy

Venue:

The workshop will be held in the heart of historical Verona
(http://tourism.verona.it), located only a few minutes from Verona's
International Airport and only an hour and a half by train from Milan
and Venice.

The workshop will take place at the prestigious Due Torri Hotel (+39
045 595 044) (http://www.baglionihotels.com), set on a thirteenth
century mansion and located adjacent to the city's major tourist
attractions, cultural centre, and shopping areas. A limited number of
rooms have been reserved until 31 October 2001, at the special rate of
approximately 114 Euros/single occupancy and 95 Euros/double occupancy
per person, per night.

All workshop participants are requested to register, however, there
will be no fee for participation. Conference costs, lunch and coffee
breaks at the hotel will be covered by CLASS.

The workshop will be inaugurated with a welcome dinner to be held on
Thursday, 13 December 2001, followed by a talk by an invited speaker.

CALL FOR PAPERS

GASLA 2002

The 6th biannual Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition
Conference is inviting abstracts for its meeting, to be held at the
University of Ottawa, April 26-28. The theme for the conference is L2 LINKS:
second language acquisition and its ties to allied disciplines, e.g., L1A,
linguistic theory, psycholinguistics, impaired language development,
cognitive modeling, etc.

The following scholars have agreed to give plenary talks:

Harald Clahsen, University of Essex
David Pesetsky, MIT
Mabel Rice, University of Kansas
Lisa Travis, McGill University

Proposals for papers or posters are solicited. Paper presentations will be
20 minutes long with 10 minutes for questions. Please indicate on your
abstract whether you wish your submission to be considered for one category
only (please, specify) or for both categories. Posters and papers will
receive equal consideration for inclusion in the conference proceedings and
in a volume of selected papers.

The proceedings will appear in Cahiers linguistiques d=B9 Ottawa. A commercial
publisher will be approached for the publication of selected papers.

Abstracts should not exceed 450 words. If possible, please submit your
abstract as an e-mail attachment (MS Word or RTF format) to the following
address: gasla6uottawa.ca. Otherwise, please send 4 copies by regular mail.
Include your name(s), affiliation(s) and full address(es) at the top of the
abstract; this will be removed for blind evaluation. If you are submitting
abstracts by mail, please include one copy with the afore-mentioned
information and 3 copies with no author details. The deadline for submission
of abstracts is September 15, 2001. Notification about acceptance will go
out by December 1, 2001.

Please visit the GASLA-6 (2002) website for upcoming information regarding
hotel accommodations and registration.

Queries can be directed to:

Department of Modern Languages / Department of Linguistics
 PO 450 Stn A, Ottawa ON. K1N 6N5, CANADA
Telephone: (613) 562-5800 poste/ext. 3742
Telefax: (613) 562-5138
E-mail: gasla6uottawa.ca
Website: http://aix1.uottawa.ca/~gasla6/

The Organizing Committee,
Juana Liceras, Department of Modern Languages, University of Ottawa
Helmut Zobl, The School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies,
Carleton University
Helen Goodluck, Department of Linguistics, University of Ottawa






Juana M. Liceras
Professor, General and Spanish Linguistics
University of Ottawa, Department of Modern Languages
70 Laurier East, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, CANADA
Telephone: (613) 562-5800 Ext. 3742 (direct); (613) 562-3751 (secretariat)
Telefax: (613) 5625138
E-mail: jlicerasuottawa.ca