LINGUIST List 12.2357

Sun Sep 23 2001

Calls: Theory & Subsaharian Lang, JHU Summer Workshop

Editor for this issue: Renee Galvis <reneelinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Ora Matushansky, Linguistic Theories and Subsaharian Languages
2. Johns Hopkins WS02, JHU Summer Workshop on Language Engineering

CALL FOR PAPERS


The Department of General Linguistics of Universite Paris, the School of
Graduate Studies 'Cognition, Langage & Interaction' (Universite Paris)
and the Research Group UMR 7023 (CNRS/Paris) are pleased to announce the
international conference which will take place at Universite Paris on
February 6-7-8, 2001:


LINGUISTIC THEORIES
AND
SUBSAHARIAN LANGUAGES

scientific and organizing committees
Lea Nash, Lelia Picabia, Patrick Sauzet, Anne Zribi-Hertz

Nora Boneh, Nisrine El Zahre, Jerome Jouannic,
Aime-Germain Ndong, Jean-Bosco Sima-Mve

keynote speakers
Nick Clements (CNRS)
Denis Creissels (Lyon)
Larry Hyman (Berkeley)
Sam Mchombo (Berkeley)
Annie Rialland (CNRS)


The conference will include twenty papers, which should discuss theoretical
issues in general linguistics on the basis of first-hand data from
Subsaharian languages. The specific problem(s) addressed in each paper may
pertain to any module of linguistic theory phonology, morphology, syntax,
or semantics. Applicant-contributors are encouraged either to emphasize the
theoretical relevance of some language-specific phenomenon, or to discuss
data from two or several different languages from a comparative,
typological or genetic perspective. Contributors are free to cast their
research within their favourite theoretical framework, but should make sure
their categories, terminology and formalism are transparent for a
theoretically-mixed audience.

Time allowed for keynote lectures : 45 mn + 15 mn (discussion).
Time allowed for other papers : 30 mn + 10 mn (discussion).

Papers will be selected upon submission of a one to two-page single-spaced
abstract, in French or English, letter size 12, with one-inch margins on
all four sides.

Abstracts may be sent by post or email:

 Postal address
 Colloque 'Theories linguistiques & langues subsahariennes'
 Sciences du langage
 Universite Paris
 2 rue de la Liberte
 93526 Saint-Denis CEDEX 02
 France


 Email address
 <simamveyahoo.com>

Deadline for submission: October 31, 2001

The conference program will be established by November 30, 2001.

Registration fees : 250 FF (38,11 euro)
 students : 200 FF (30,49 euro)
 (free for speakers)

Registration fees (covering: abstract booklet, three lunches, and
subscription to the Proceedings) should be sent in together with
participation form (to be sent after November 15). Contributors other than
keynote speakers should finance their own transportation and accommodation.


Ora Matushansky
MIT e39-239
Cambridge MA 02139

http://www.mit.edu/people/matushan/home.html

FINAL CALL FOR WORKSHOP TEAM PROPOSALS

The Center for Language and Speech Processing at the Johns Hopkins
University invites research proposals for a Summer Workshop on
Language Engineering, to be held in Baltimore, MD, USA, from July 8 to
August 16, 2002.

The deadline for submitting a 1-2 page proposal is October 8, 2001.

You may already have a good idea about the purpose of these summer
workshops, which we have hosted every year since 1995: We attempt to
identify specific research topics (suitable for a six week team
exploration) on which progress is needed to advance the state of the
art in various fields of Language Engineering such as:

* Speech recognition
* Trans-lingual information detection and extraction
* Machine translation
* Speech synthesis
* Information retrieval
* Topic detection and tracking
* Text summarization
* Question answering

The research topics of the participating teams in previous workshops
can serve as a good example (see
http://www.clsp.jhu.edu/workshops). Having identified such topics
through the review process described below, we then attempt to get the
best researchers to collaboratively work on them.

You may also have a good idea about the typical participants of these
summer workshops: the workshops bring together diverse teams of
leading researchers and students. The senior participants in the
workshop are university professors and industrial and governmental
researchers working in widely dispersed locations. The graduate
students are familiar with the field and are selected in accordance
with their demonstrated performance, usually by the senior
researchers. The undergraduates, selected through a national search,
are entering seniors who are new to the field and who have shown
outstanding academic promise.

We are soliciting proposals for research projects from a wide range of
academic and government institutions, as well as from industry. An
independent panel of experts will screen all proposals received by the
deadline for suitability to the workshop goals and format. Results of
this screening will be announced no later than October 22,
2001. Proposals passing this initial screening will be presented to a
peer-review panel that will meet in Baltimore on November 9-11,
2001. One or two authors of the screened proposals and other leading
researchers will be invited to this meeting. It is expected that the
proposals will be revised at this meeting to address any outstanding
concerns or new ideas. Out of these panel reviews and ensuing
discussion, three research topics will finally be selected for the
2002 workshop. Authors of successful proposals will typically be the
team leaders.

If you are interested in and available to participate in the 2002
Summer Workshop, we ask that you submit a one or two page research
proposal for consideration, detailing the problem to be addressed and
a rough agenda to be followed by the team in the six-week period. If
your proposal passes the initial screening, we will invite you to join
us for the organizational meeting in Baltimore (as our guest) for
further discussions aimed at consensus. If a topic in your area of
interest is chosen as one of the three to be pursued next summer, we
expect you to be available for participation in the six-week
workshop. We are not asking for an ironclad commitment at this
juncture, just a good faith understanding that if a project in your
area of interest is chosen, you will take an active role in pursuing
it.

Proposals may be faxed (410-516-5050), sent via e-mail
(secclsp.jhu.edu) or via regular mail (CLSP, Johns Hopkins
University, 320 Barton Hall, 3400 N. Charles St., Barton 320,
Baltimore, MD 21218).