LINGUIST List 12.983

Sun Apr 8 2001

Calls: Finite State Methods/NLP, Translatory Action

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

Directory

1. Ahti Pietarinen, Finite State Methods in NLP (ESSLLI'01)
2. [** iso-8859-1 charset **] Dr. Kristin B�hrig, Translatory Action and Intercultural Communication

SECOND CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

Finite State Methods in Natural Language Processing
ESSLLI Workshop, August 20-24 2001, Helsinki


Description:

Finite state methods are used in various areas of linguistic
computation, including tokenization, lexicography, spell checking,
part of speech tagging, speech recognition, grapheme to phoneme
conversion, computational phonology and morphology, as well as
computational syntax.

In recent years the use of finite state methods has increased both in
practical applications (such as in morphological analyzers for a
variety of languages), as well as in more theoretical approaches (such
as in recent attempts to formalize optimality-theoretic analyses in
phonology by finite-state means).

The aim of the workshop is to bring together researchers and
Ph.D. students working with finite-state methods within natural
language processing and computational linguistics.

The workshop belongs to the program of the 13th European Summer School
in Logic, Language and Information (ESSLLI) which is organized at the
University of Helsinki from August 13 until August 24, 2001 (see the
home page http://www.helsinki.fi/esslli for more information).

Submission guidelines:

Extended abstracts (up to four pages) for forty-five minute talks are
invited from all areas of interest for the workshop. The abstract
should be submitted by e-mail to Gertjan van Noord,

vannoordlet.rug.nl

before the deadline given below, in Postscript or PDF. Note that all
participants of the workshop must register for the ESSLLI summer
school.


Organisers:

Lauri Karttunen
Xerox Research

Kimmo Koskenniemi
University of Helsinki

Gertjan van Noord
University of Groningen


Important Dates:

Submission deadline: April 27, 2001
Notification of contributors: May 15, 2001
Workshop Dates: August 20-24, 2001


Sponsor

The workshop is co-financed by the NWO PIONIER project Algorithms for
Linguistic Processing. Further info at http://www.let.rug.nl/~vannoord/alp/

Call for papers

We are pleased to announce the workshop "Translatory Action and
Intercultural Communication" which we organize within the 34 th
Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea on "Language Study at
the turn of Milennium". The conference will be held in Leuven,
Belgium, on 28-31 August

http://wwwling.arts.kuleuven.ac.be/sle2001

Kristin B=FChrig, Juliane House and Jan ten Thije

Translatory Action and Intercultural Communication

Translating and interpreting as forms of translatory or mediating
actions are used to overcome linguistic barriers. This mediating
function often implies the necessity (or possibility) of creating a
"communicative bridge" for members of two or more cultures. Evidence
for the existence in translatory action of such a bridging function is
provided by investigations of "covert translations" (House 1997),
i.e., translations in which a "cultural filter" is employed. Such a
filter prevents, for instance, Anglo-American textual conventions from
invading German textual norms by adapting the translated texts to the
relevant German norms. Similarly, studies of interpreted interactions
show how, for instance, explanations are used to adapt source
linguistic actions to the needs of target language receptors (Rehbein
1985; B=FChrig & Rehbein 2000).

But the translatory process may also be fraught with difficulties and
misunderstandings, which can complicate either the translatory process
itself or the reception of target linguistic actions, thus rendering
intercultural communication more difficult. For example, language -
and culture-specific communicative phenomena such as the realisation
of speech action patterns, politeness or forms of address must
frequently be modified in translatory action. Such modifications make
special demands on the translator and in particular on the
interpreter, who - due to time constraints- faces enormous
communicative difficulties, which is one reason why interpreters and
translators often shift the focus of their activities in the direction
of intercultural mediation.

Since in studies of translation and interpretation both source and
target linguistic actions are, as a rule, available as written or
transcribed documents, it is also possible to reflect on the
epistemological value of translation studies for intercultural
communication.

Consistent with the above, we want to try in this workshop to 
interrelate the following thematic strands:
a. Procedures of mediating between cultures in translatory action
b. Problems of intercultural communication in translatory action
c. Insights into intercultural communication based on analyses of
translatory action.

We welcome contributions that are empirically based and that deal with
any one of these three topics or, indeed, combinations of them.

Please send your abstract (rtf. Document) until the 1st of June to 
Kristin Buehrig (kristin.buehrigtalknet.de)