LINGUIST List 13.1307

Thu May 9 2002

Calls: Semantics & Syntax, Neural Processing Demos

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

Directory

1. Ileana Comorovski, 2nd CFP Workshop - 'EXISTENCE: Semantics and Syntax', Nancy, France
2. Zoubin Ghahramani, NIPS*2002 call for demos

 CALL FOR PAPERS

*****************************************************************
 EXISTENCE : Semantics and Syntax

 September 26-28, 2002
 Nancy, France
*****************************************************************


The conference will be structured around two themes: i) the
interpretation of the verb "be" and of the constructions in which "be"
occurs, and ii) the existential binding of indefinites. Both themes
are related to the notion of existence and one purpose of the
conference is to explore possible connections between these
themes. The conference will center on the formal syntax and semantics
of existence, with a special session on computational treatments of
existence constructions.


INVITED SPEAKERS:

General session:

 Francis Corblin (Paris)
 Bart Geurts (Nijmegen)
 Fred Landman (Tel Aviv)
 James McCloskey (Santa Cruz)
 Barbara Partee (Amherst)

Special session:
 Patrick Blackburn (Nancy)


Abstracts are invited for 30-minute presentations (plus 10 minutes
discussion) on all subjects relevant to the conference and in
particular on the following topics:

- The semantics of "be": how many interpretations? Is there evidence
across languages that verbs which correspond to "be" have more than
one interpretation? Predication in languages which have more than one
correspondent for "be" (e.g. Spanish).

- The syntax and semantics of constructions in which "be" occurs: the
"there-be" construction (and the definiteness effect), "it is NP",
"that is NP", various copular constructions across languages; clefts
and pseudo-clefts; auxiliary "be" and auxiliary selection.

- "Be"-existentials and "have"-existentials.

- Existence and negation.

- Sources of existential binding for the variable that indefinites
introduce in the logical representation. Syntactic asymmetries with
respect to the source of existential binding (e.g. the spatio-temporal
anchoring of the sentence as binder of indefinite subjects versus
semantic incorporation for indefinite objects). If indefinites
introduce a function variable, as has been argued by some in recent
years, how is this variable bound?

- Existential presupposition and degrees of (in)definiteness.

- Computational treatment (analysis and generation) of existence
constructions.

The languages of the conference are English and French.

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION:

Electronic submission is greatly encouraged. Send a two-page anonymous
abstract to:

linguniv-nancy2.fr

Please write 'existence' in the subject heading and the following
information in the body of the message: title of paper, author's name,
affiliation, postal address, e-mail address, and telephone
number. Please specify whether the abstract is for the general session
or for the special session. Abstracts may be sent as attached files in
Word, PDF, or .ps format, or as plain text. If E-mail submission is
not possible, abstracts can be mailed to the following address:

Colloque syntaxe/semantique
Casier 286
Universite de Nancy 2
23, Bd. Albert 1er
54015 Nancy
France

Send 5 anonymous copies of your abstract and provide the full author
information on a separate card. Please limit submissions to one
individual and one joint abstract per author.

DEADLINE for receipt of abstracts: MAY 20 , 2002.

Notification of acceptance: July 1, 2002.


PROGRAM COMMITTEE:

David Beaver (Stanford), Ileana Comorovski (Nancy 2), Claire Gardent
(CNRS-Nancy), Bart Geurts (Nijmegen), Daniele Godard (CNRS-Paris 7),
Caroline Heycock (Edinburgh), Helen de Hoop (Nijmegen), Jacques Jayez
(ENS-Lyon), Georges Kleiber (Strasbourg 2), Brenda Laca (Paris 8),
James McCloskey (Santa Cruz), Haihua Pan (Hong Kong), Barbara Partee
(Amherst), Georges Rebuschi (Paris 3), Roger Schwarzschild (Rutgers),
Lucia Tovena (Lille 3), Karina Wilkinson (Rutgers), Henk Zeevat
(Amsterdam).


ORGANIZERS:

Ileana Comorovski
Dept. de Sciences du langage
Universite de Nancy 2

Claire Gardent
CNRS-Nancy
LORIA

Conference web site:
http://www.loria.fr/conferences/existence/en/index.html

Questions about the conference can be addressed to the organizers:
ileana.comorovskiuniv-nancy2.fr or claire.gardentloria.fr





*****************************************************************
 APPEL A COMMUNICATIONS
*****************************************************************

 EXISTENCE
 S�mantique et Syntaxe
 
 26-28 Septembre 2002
 Nancy, France


La conf�rence s'articulera autour de deux grands th�mes : (i)
l'interpr�tation du verbe "�tre" et des constructions le faisant intervenir,
et (ii) le liage existentiel des ind�finis. Ces deux th�mes renvoient � la
notion d'existence et un objectif de la conf�rence est d'explorer les
connexions possibles entre ces th�mes. La conf�rence sera centr�e sur la
syntaxe et la s�mantique formelle de l'existence, avec une session sp�ciale
sur le traitement computationel des constructions existentielles.

Conf�renciers invit�s :

Session g�n�rale :
 Francis Corblin (Paris)
 Bart Geurts (Nijmegen)
 Fred Landman (Tel Aviv)
 James McCloskey (Santa Cruz)
 Barbara Partee (Amherst)
 
Session sp�ciale :
 Patrick Blackburn (Nancy)

Nous invitons � soumettre des r�sum�s pour des pr�sentations de 30 minutes
(suivies de 10 minutes de discussion) dans tous les domaines pertinents et
en particulier sur les questions suivantes:
- La s�mantique de "�tre": combien d'interpr�tations? Y a-t'il des donn�es
inter-linguistiques justifiant plusieurs interpr�tations pour "�tre"?
Pr�dication dans les langues qui ont plus d'un �quivalent pour "�tre" (e.g.
l'espagnol).
- La syntaxe et la s�mantique de constructions dans lesquelles "�tre"
appara�t: "c'est SN", "ceci est SN" et autres constructions copulatives �
travers les langues; clivages et pseudo-clivages; l'auxiliaire "�tre" et
s�lection de l'auxiliaire.
- Constructions existentielles en "�tre" et constructions existentielles en
"avoir". 
- Existence et n�gation.
- Sources de liage existentiel pour la variable introduite par les ind�finis
dans la repr�sentation logique. Asym�tries syntaxiques par rapport � la
source de liage existentiel (e.g. l'ancrage spatio-temporel d'une phrase
comme lieur des sujets ind�finis versus l'incorporation s�mantique des
objets ind�finis). Si, comme il l'a �t� propos� au cours des derni�res
ann�es, les ind�finis introduisent une variable fonctionnelle, comment cette
variable est-elle li�e?
- Pr�supposition existentielle et degr�s de (in)d�finitude.
- Traitement informatique (analyse et g�n�ration) des constructions
existentielles.

Les langues de la conf�rence seront le fran�ais et l'anglais.

SOUMISSIONS

Les soumissions �lectroniques sont encourag�es. Les r�sum�s de deux pages
anonymes seront envoy�s � :

linguniv-nancy2.fr

La ligne "sujet" de votre message devra sp�cifier le mot cl� "existence"
tandis que le corps du message sp�cifiera les informations suivantes : titre
de l'article, nom(s) du/des auteur(s), affiliation(s), adresse(s)
postal(es), adresse(s) email et num�ro(s) de t�l�phone. Le corps du message
sp�cifiera �galement si le r�sum� est soumis pour la session g�n�rale ou la
session sp�ciale. Les r�sum�s seront envoy�s en fichiers attach�s en format
Word, PDF, .ps ou ascii.

Si la soumission �lectronique est impossible, le r�sum� peut �tre envoy� �
l'adresse suivante:

Colloque syntaxe/s�mantique
Casier 286
Universit� de Nancy 2
23, Bd. Albert 1er
54015 Nancy
France

Dans ce cas, l'envoi devra contenir 5 copies anonymes du r�sum�. Les
informations concernant le/les auteur(s) seront fournies sur une feuille
s�par�e. Merci de ne pas soumettre plus d'un article co-sign� et un article
seul.

DATE LIMITE de r�ception des propositions de communication : 20 MAI 2002

Notification aux auteurs : 1 Juillet 2002.


COMITE SCIENTIFIQUE :

David Beaver (Stanford), Ileana Comorovski (Nancy 2), Claire Gardent
(CNRS-Nancy), Bart Geurts (Nijmegen), Dani�le Godard (CNRS-Paris 7),
Caroline Heycock (Edinburgh), Helen de Hoop (Nijmegen), Jacques Jayez
(ENS-Lyon), Georges Kleiber (Strasbourg 2), Brenda Laca (Paris 8), James
McCloskey (Santa Cruz), Haihua Pan (Hong Kong), Barbara Partee (Amherst),
Georges Rebuschi (Paris 3), Roger Schwarzschild (Rutgers), Lucia Tovena
(Lille 3), Karina Wilkinson (Rutgers), Henk Zeevat (Amsterdam).


ORGANISATION :

Ileana Comorovski
D�pt. de Sciences du langage
Universit� de Nancy 2

Claire Gardent
CNRS-Nancy
LORIA

SITE WEB : http://www.loria.fr/conferences/existence/index.html

Pour toute question concernant la conf�rence, merci de s'adresser aux
organisatrices : ileana.comorovskiuniv-nancy2.fr ou claire.gardentloria.fr

	 *** New at NIPS: Demonstrations Track ***
__________________________________________________________________

		 CALL FOR DEMONSTRATIONS
		Neural Information Processing Systems
			 Natural and Synthetic
	 Monday, December 9 -- Saturday December 14, 2002
		 Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

 http://nips.cc
__________________________________________________________________
				 
For the first time, the Neural Information Processing Systems
conference will include a separate track for demonstrations. The
demonstrations will take place in parallel with the poster sessions at
the NIPS*2002 conference. Example areas of interest for the
demonstrations track include but are by no means limited to the
following:

Analog and digital VLSI

Neuromorphic Engineering

Computational sensors and actuators

Robotics

bioMEMS (microelectromechanical systems)

Biomedical instrumentation

Neural prostheses

Photonics

Real-time multimedia systems

Large-scale neural emulators

Software demonstrations of novel algorithms

NIPS is an interdisciplinary conference, which attracts cognitive
scientists, computer scientists, engineers, neuroscientists,
physicists, statisticians, and mathematicians interested in all
aspects of neural and statistical processing and computation. The
demonstration track enables researchers to highlight scientific
advances, systems, and technologies in ways that go beyond
conventional poster presentations. It will provide a unique forum for
demonstrating advanced technologies (hardware and software), and
fostering the direct exchange of knowledge. We hope that this track
will stimulate interactions between researchers from different fields
(for example, roboticists and neuromorphic engineers) and encourage
new colloboration between researchers in theoretical fields and those
in more applied fields. Submissions accepted in the demonstrations
track will be published on the NIPS web site, but will not appear in
printed proceedings. However, submitting your work to the
demonstration track by no means precludes the submission of a
companion paper to the regular NIPS conference. In fact, joint
submissions are very much encouraged. We also encourage authors
submitting demonstrations to consider organizing a workshop at
NIPS*2002. Note that the deadline for paper submissions is July 1,
2002, and for demonstration and workshop proposals the submission
deadline is August 9, 2002. Please see http://nips.cc for further
details.

There will be a separate room for these demonstrations and
participants will have access to power strips, tables and poster
boards. VCRs and monitors will also be provided on
request. Participants are responsible for ensuring that their
demonstration is sufficiently portable; additional hardware beyond
that specified above will not be provided by NIPS.

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS: All proposals for demonstrations will be
reviewed by the Demonstrations Co-Chairs. Interested parties should
submit a brief description of their proposed demonstration via email
by August 9, 2002. Proposals should include a title, description of
the device or system to be demonstrated, main results, novelty and
significance of the work, any related publications, and estimated
space requirements for the demonstration. Please include the name,
address, email address, phone and fax numbers for all co-authors on
the submmitted work, and indicate whether a related paper has also
been submitted to NIPS*2002.

Proposals should be emailed to shihini.phys.ethz.ch, and should be in
plain ascii text, postscript or pdf.

Questions may be addressed to shihini.phys.ethz.ch.

Information about the main conference and the workshop program can be
found at http://nips.cc


			 Shihab Shamma
		 Electrical Engineering Department &
	Institute for Systems Research University of Maryland
 and
			 Shih-Chii Liu
		 Institute of Neuroinformatics,
		 University of Zurich & ETH Zurich

		 NIPS*2002 Demonstrations Co-Chairs



	 PROPOSALS MUST BE RECEIVED BY AUGUST 9, 2002