LINGUIST List 14.641

Wed Mar 5 2003

Calls: Ling Summer School/Evolutions in Parsing

Editor for this issue: Marie Klopfenstein <marielinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. dorothee.beermann, Trondheim Summer School in Linguistics
2. Eric de la Clergerie, TAL Issue on Evolutions in Parsing

	
Trondheim Summer School in Linguistics

Short Title: TROSS
Location: Trondheim, Norway 
Date: 23-Jun-2003 - 27-Jun-2003 
Call Deadline: 17-Mar-2003
	
Contact Person: Lars Hellan
Meeting Email: multiverbhf.ntnu.no
Linguistic Subfield(s): General Linguistics 

Meeting Description: 

Trondheim Summer School 
Multi-verb Constructions in Constraint-Based Grammar in macro- and
micro-typological perspectives TRONDHEIM SUMMER SCHOOL - 2nd
announcement
	
June 23 - 27, 2003
	
The Trondheim Summerschool consists of three days of courses (June
23-25)and a two days workshop on multi-verb constructions (June
26-27).
	
The following announcement contains a call for papers for the
workshop. The Deadline of submission is March 17th
		
PROVISIONAL COURSE PROGRAM 
Monday, June 23 - Wednesday June 25:
	
9.15-10.30: 
Miriam Butt, UMIST: 
Introduction to LFG and its applications to multi-verb constructions
	
11.00 - 12.15 
Stephen M. Wechsler, University of Texas at Austin: 
Introduction to HPSG and its applications to multi-verb constructions 
	
14.00 - 15.15 
Mary Esther Kropp Dakubu, University of Ghana: 
Introduction to a 'micro-comparative' perspective on multi-verb
constructions in the Volta Basin area (including Ga, Dangme, Gurune,
Ewe, and other languages)
	
15.45 - 17.00 
Kweku E. Osam, University of Ghana: 
Introduction to the structure of Akan: its verbal and multi-verbal system
	
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
	
Verbal Predicates and Complex Predicates in LFG
Miriam Butt, UMIST
	
This course will provide a brief introduction to the treatment of
verbal predication (argument structure, grammatical relations, linking
theory) in LFG and then move on to examine the problems posed by
complex predication as discussed in Alsina 1996, Butt 1995 and Mohanan
1994. The data ranges over periphrastic and morphological causatives
in Bantu, Romance and South Asian languages such as Urdu,Marathi and
Malayalam, as well as N-V complex predicates in Hindi and V-V complex
predicates in Urdu. The synchronic evidence will be augmented by a
look at some of the available historical evidence with respect to
light verbs and complex predication. Finally, the course will wind up
with a look at a recent implementation (Butt and King 2003) of Urdu
V-V complex predicates via the Restriction Operator (Wedekind and
Maxwell 1993) within the XLE grammar development platform.
	
Introduction to HPSG and its application to multi-verb constructions
Stephen M. Wechsler, University of Texas at Austin
	
This course will first review the framework of Head-Driven Phrase
Structure Grammar, focusing especially on those aspects most relevant
to the analysis of multi-verb constructions. Then we will look at
specific HPSG analyses of such constructions, including serial verbs,
causatives, light verbs, and related phenomena. Approaches have
included 'argument attraction' (in which VALENCE items are effectively
transferred from a lower to higher verb); and crucial use of a
structured semantic CONTENT field where verb meanings combine. We will
also compare the proposal by Andrews and Manning 1999 ('Complex
Predicates and Information Spreading in LFG', CSLI Publications),
which blends ideas from LFG and HPSG.
	
Introduction to multi-verb constructions in the languages of the Volta
Basin
Mary Esther Kropp Dakubu, University of Ghana
	
Most languages of the Volta Basin (both ''Kwa'' and Gur) exhibit
multi-verb constructions even within the structures associated with a
single lexical verb. The first day will be devoted to examining the
internal morpho-syntax of verb expressions in languages of the
southern part of the area, particularly Ga and Dangme. Special
attention will be given to headedness in this context. The second day
will similarly examine features associated with the verb in the
languages of the northern part, especially Gurene and Dagaare, drawing
attention to what the northern and southern languages have in common
(or not). The third and final lecture will be devoted to attempting an
area-wide classification of constructions involving more than one
lexical head verb.
	
Introduction to the structure of Akan: its verbal and multi-verbal system 
Kweku E. Osam, University of Ghana
	
Akan is a Kwa language spoken in Ghana. This course will focus on the
verbal system of the language by examining its verbal morphology which
essentially involves its tense-aspect system. The view that Akan is an
aspect oriented language will be demonstrated with data from the
language. In addition, there will also be a discussion of some of the
verbal alternations in the language, with a focus on how these
relations impinge on grammatical and semantic relations. A core
component of the course will be to present the facts of the multi-verb
system (focusing on serialisation) in the language.
	
WORKSHOP ON MULTI-VERB CONSTRUCTIONS(June 26-27)
The ensuing workshop focuses on the same and related themes, with
invited talks as well as selected papers. The invited speakers are
Felix Ameka, University of Leiden, Miriam Butt, UMIST, Mary Esther
Kropp Dakubu, University of Ghana, and Stephen M. Wechsler, University
of Texas at Austin. There will be about 10-12 selected papers (see
below). Participants in the workshop are welcome to also attend the
courses.
	
FINAL CALL FOR PAPERS
The Deadline for submission has been extended to March 17th 
	
We invite papers for 40 min. talks (30 min. presentation + 10
min. discussion). The contributions should address the topics of
multi-verb and complex predicate constructions, possibly with data
from other language areas than those in focus for the course, and not
necessarily presented in the frameworks highlighted in the course.
	
SUBMISSION SPECIFICATION 
Maximum length of abstracts is 3 pages. 
The following information should be provided on a separate page or in 
the body of the email:
	
PAPER TITLE: 
(for each author:) 
NAME: 
AFFILIATION: 
E-MAIL ADDRESS: 
	
Please let us know, together with your official submission, if you are
a student. We have special time slots reserved for student papers.
	
(for author of contact:) 
MAIL ADDRESS: 
PHONE NUMBER: 
FAX NUMBER: 
	
Regular Mail: 
Include: 
- Four copies of the abstract/paper. 
- A card or cover sheet with author information. 
- Address:
	
Multiverbs 
Department of Linguistics, NTNU, 
Dragvoll 
7491 Trondheim 
Norway
	
Email: 
Include the author information in the body of your email
message.

Include or preferably attach your abstract. The preferred file 
formats are PDF or plain ASCII; also Word attachments will be fine.
	
Address: 
multiverbhf.ntnu.no 
	
Deadlines: 
Abstracts should be received by March 17
Notification of acceptance will be given on April 10. 

PARTICIPATION FEES, ACCOMMODATION AND MORE
Participation fee for the whole 5-day period is NOK (Norwegian crowns)
400 (to be paid on the site). For the courses only, or the workshop
only, the fee is NOK 200. Participants will have to arrange
accommodation themselves, but the organizers will provide
recommendations. (For Norwegian students participating in the program
'Nasjonale Forskerkurs', some special arrangements apply - please
contact the organizers for further information.)
	
Links to more information about the area and the university:
	
http://www.trondheim.com/ 
http://www.ntnu.no/maler/info/index_e.php
	
More details will be provided in later announcements.
	
Greetings, and hoping to see you in Trondheim in the last week of June!
	
Organizing committee:
	
Lars Hellan: lars.hellanhf.ntnu.no 
Dorothee Beermann : dorothee.beermannhf.ntnu.no 
Eli Andenes: eli.andeneshf.ntnu.no
	

Call for papers for the special issue of the TAL journal

Title: Evolutions in Parsing

Submission deadline: May 9th 2003

Guest Editors: �ric de la Clergerie (INRIA, France)
 Martin Rajman (EPFL, Switzerland)

http://www.atala.org/tal/appel-syntaxe.html

Parsing is a very important component in Natural Language Processing.
It still raises many problems, for instance at the level grammatical
formalisms or at the level of the algorithmic complexity, especially
to handle ambiguity. However, because of recent advances, parsers are
nowadays more and more widely used in large scale applications.

Many approaches exist in the Parsing community that differ on the
methods and objectives. The methods include for instance stochastic
parsing, local parsing cascades, or more traditional complete or deep
parsing. Objectives range from segmentation into chunks to deep
parsing based on wide coverage grammars, including shallow and/or
robust parsing. Anyway, these various methods and objectives are not
necessarily in opposition and may be perceived as complementary.

Despite the large number of existing grammatical formalisms, there are
hints of convergences between them which open ways for (partial)
conversions between formalisms (for instance between TAG and HPSG or
HPSG and CFG) or toward "operational" formalisms. Also, some parsing
techniques are "generic" and may be applied for several formalisms.
Some parsing systems also aim to be multi-formalisms, relying on
generic and efficient infrastructures (indexing, memory management by
structure sharing or copying, powerful unification). Finally, the
notion of lexicalization is present in most formalisms.

Last but not least, the generalization of parsers raises the issue of
their evaluation.

Themes:

The main objective of this special issue is a better understanding of
the various approaches and techniques found in Parsing, highlighting
the convergences and complementarities that may exist between them. We
welcome works on any of the following issues.

 * Convergence between grammatical formalisms
 * conversions of formalisms
 * operational formalisms vs declarative ones
 * Convergence and complementarity in parsing approaches
 * robustness (unknown words, error corrections)
 * lexicalization
 * Integration of stochastic methods
 * Cascade parsing vs one-pass parsing
 * Evolution of parsing techniques for new formalisms
 * (generic) Optimizations in Parsing
 * parsing strategies
 * ambiguity management
 * chart indexing
 * memory management (structure sharing and copying)
 * Wide coverage grammars
 * parsing efficiency
 * maintenance and modularity
 * Parsing evaluation

Reviewers

 Pierre Boullier (INRIA, France)
 John Carroll (University of Sussex, UK)
 Jean-Pierre Chanod (XRCE, France)
 Alexandra Kinyon (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
 Guido Minnen (Motorola, USA)
 Alexis Nasr (LATTICE, France)
 Mark-Jan Nederhof (University of Groningen, NL)
 Gertjan van Noord (University of Groningen, NL)
 Patrick Paroubek (LIMSI, France)
 Gerald Penn (University of Toronto, Canada)
 Anoop Sarkar (Simon Fraser University, Canada)
 Giorgio Satta (University of Padua, Italy)
 Manuel Vilares (University of Vigo, Spain)
 David Weir (Universit� of Sussex, UK)
 R�mi Zajac (Systran Software, USA)


Format

Papers (25 pages maximum) may be submitted in Word, LaTeX, Postscript
or PDF. The style sheets are available at HERMES
http://tal.e-revues.com/appel.jsp

Language

Papers may be written either in French or in English (non-French
speaking authors only)

Schedule

The submission deadline is May 9th 2003. People intending to submit a
paper should contact �ric de la Clergerie
(Eric.De_La_Clergerieinria.fr).

Articles will be reviewed by a member of the editorial board of the
journal (http://www.atala.org/tal/redaction.html) and two external
reviewers chosen by the editors of the special issue. Editorial board
decisions and referees' reports will be transmitted to the authors by
July 1st, 2003.

Final versions of accepted papers will be required by October 1st,
2003. Publication is planned for the end of 2003.

Submission

Submissions (25 pages maximum, following the Hermes style sheet)
should be sent either electronically (Eric.De_La_Clergerieinria.fr),
or by surface mail (five copies) to

 �ric de la Clergerie
 INRIA Rocquencourt
 Domaine de Voluceau - B.P. 105
 78153 Le Chesnay Cedex, France