LINGUIST List 15.419

Mon Feb 2 2004

Calls: Cognitive Sci/USA; Historical Ling/Poland

Editor for this issue: Andrea Berez <andrealinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. levys, American Association for Artificial Intelligence Fall Symposium on Compositional Connectionism in Cognitive Science
2. mkotin, Das Deutsche als Forschungsobjekt und als Studienfach

American Association for Artificial Intelligence Fall Symposium on
Compositional Connectionism in Cognitive Science
Short Title: AAAI FSS04 

Date: 22-Oct-2004 - 24-Oct-2004
Location: Washington, DC, United States of America
Contact: Simon Levy
Contact Email: levyswlu.edu 
Meeting URL: http://www.cs.wlu.edu/~levy/aaai04 

Linguistic Sub-field: Cognitive Science 

Call Deadline: 03-May-2004 


Meeting Description:

This symposium will bring together connectionist and non-connectionist
researchers to discuss and debate a topic of central concern in AI and
cognitive science: the nature of compositionality. The open-ended
productivity of the human capabilities aspired to by AI (e.g.,
perception, cognition, and language) is generally taken to be a
consequence of compositionality; i.e., the ability to combine
constituents recursively. The aim of this symposium is to expose
connectionist researchers to the broadest possible range of
conceptions of composition- including those conceptions that pose the
greatest challenge for connectionism- while simultaneously alerting
other AI and cognitive science researchers to the range of
possibilities for connectionist implementation of composition. This
CFP is also available in MSWord and PDF format, from:

 http://www.cs.wlu.edu/~levy/aaai04/AAAI_FSS04_CCCS_CFP.doc
 http://www.cs.wlu.edu/~levy/aaai04/AAAI_FSS04_CCCS_CFP.pdf

 Call for Papers

 Compositional Connectionism in Cognitive Modeling
 (AAAI 2004 Fall Symposium Series)

 October 22-24, 2004
 Washington, D.C. U.S.A.

This symposium will bring together connectionist and non-connectionist
researchers to discuss and debate a topic of central concern in AI and
cognitive science: the nature of compositionality. The open-ended
productivity of the human capabilities aspired to by AI (e.g.,
perception, cognition, and language) is generally taken to be a
consequence of compositionality; i.e., the ability to combine
constituents recursively. The aim of this symposium is to expose
connectionist researchers to the broadest possible range of
conceptions of composition- including those conceptions that pose the
greatest challenge for connectionism- while simultaneously alerting
other AI and cognitive science researchers to the range of
possibilities for connectionist implementation of composition. We
therefore welcome and encourage submissions from both proponents and
critics of connectionist representations, so long as the work
described focuses on compositionality in an AI or in the modeling of
cognition.

Specifically, the symposium will seek to address the following issues:

(1) What do we mean by "compositional" in terms of the relationship
between the constituents and the composite?

(2) What do we mean by the process of "composition�"

(3) Are composition and decomposition (of a given type) completely
symmetric operations?

(4) What constituents (that are relevant to human agency) can be
composed?

(5) What are the consequences of having multiple interacting
compositional systems?

(6) To what extent do ''structure-in-time'' connectionist models, like
Elman's Simple Recurrent Networks, represent compositional structure?

(7) Do different connectionist models implement different aspects of
compositionality, and can they be used in conjunction to address
different aspects of composition?

Plenary Speakers

Dr. Jeffrey Elman, Dept. of Cognitive Science, University of
California at San Diego

Dr. Mark Steedman, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh

Submissions

Standard talks at the symposium will be allocated 20 minutes for
presentation, and papers will be limited to four pages. As the
participants are expected to come from a wide range of disciplines,
authors are asked to consider very carefully these constraints of
brevity and variable background knowledge in planning their
papers. Such constraints will be a primary criterion for evaluating
submissions. Send submissions (in PDF, Postscript, or Microsoft Word
format) to levyswlu.edu (Simon D. Levy).


Important Deadlines for Authors

May 3, 2004 Submission due to organizers
May 24, 2004 Notifications of acceptance sent by organizers
August 31, 2004 Accepted camera-ready copy due to AAAI

Registration

The symposium will be limited to 40-60 participants. Those interested
in attending should submit a paper (details above) or, if not
intending to speak, submit a brief position paper or research
abstract. Both sorts of submission (full paper or position / abstract)
are due May 3, 2004. The symposium is intended for active
participants, however there may be a limited number of places for
interested individuals. These will be available on a first-come,
first-served basis after the opening of general registration. General
registration information will be available on the AAAI web site in
July 2004.

More detailed registration information will be available later and a
separate Call for Participation will be made.

Organizing Committee

Simon D. Levy Computer Science Dept., Washington & Lee University
Ross Gayler La Trobe University / Baycorp Advantage Value Solutions
Pentti Kanerva Redwood Neuroscience Institute

Further Information

For further information on the AAAI Symposia please see:
http://www.aaai.org/Symposia/symposia.html
http://www.aaai.org/Symposia/Fall/2004/fss-04.html

Das Deutsche als Forschungsobjekt und als Studienfach 

Date: 14-Oct-2004 - 16-Oct-2004
Location: Zielona Góra, Poland
Contact: Mikhail Kotin
Contact Email: mkotinpoczta.onet.pl 
Meeting URL: http://www.ifg.uz.zgora.pl 

Linguistic Sub-field: Historical Linguistics ,Semantics ,Syntax
,Typology
Subject Language: German, Standard 
Call Deadline: 31-May-2004 


Meeting Description:

Das Deutsche als Forschungsobjekt und als Studienfach: Synchronie,
Diachronie, Sprachkontrast, Glottodidaktik. Das Deutsche als
Forschungsobjekt und als Studienfach: Synchronie Diachronie
Sprachkontrast Glottodidaktik

Internationale Fachtagung aus Anlass des 30-jährigen Bestehens der
Germanistik in Zielona Góra


Der Beitritt Polens zur Europäischen Union bedeutet neue
Herausforderungen für das nationale Bildungssystem, darunter
insbesondere für Forschung und Vermittlung westeuropäischer Sprachen
an polnischen Universitäten. Für die Universität in Zielona Góra
ist dabei gerade die Germanistik von besonderem Stellenwert, liegt ja
unsere Stadt in unmittelbarer Nähe zu deutsch-polnischer Grenze und
hat mannigfaltige wirtschaftliche und kulturelle Beziehungen zu
Deutschland. Die stets hohen Bewerberzahlen um das Studienfach
Germanistik beweisen ein grosses Interesse polnischer Abiturienten an
deutscher Sprache, Literatur und Kultur und zeugen von guten
Perspektiven der Germanistik-Ausbildung hierzulande, die durch den
EU-Beitritt Polens qualitativ neue Dimensionen annehmen. Die
Germanistik in Zielona Góra ist relativ jung, kann aber schon auf
gediegene Leistungen und Traditionen zurück blicken.

Die geplante Fachtagung, die am 14.-16. Oktober 2004 bei uns
stattfinden soll, hat vor allem zum Ziel, Probleme der deutschen
Sprache in Synchronie, Diachronie, Typologie und Sprachkontrast sowie
Fragen der Glottodidaktik zu behandeln. Es sind sowohl Plenar- als
auch Sektionsreferate vorgesehen. Oeber Anzahl und genaue Thematik der
Sektionen wird nach Eingang der Anmeldungen entschieden. Geplant sind
schon jetzt Sektionen bzw. Arbeitsgruppen zur historischen deutschen
Sprachwissenschaft, Problemen der Gegenwartssprache, Sprachvergleich
Deutsch-Polnisch sowie Glottodidaktik. Die Konferenzsprache ist
Deutsch.

Wir laden Sie ein, an der Germanisten-Fachtagung in Zielona Góra
teilzunehmen.

Das Anmeldeformular und weitere Informationen sind auf der Seite
www.ifg.uz.zgora.pl zu finden.