LINGUIST List 5.1453

Thu 15 Dec 1994

Confs: Optionality, LAGB, CFP/Spatial Expressions

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1. "Fred Weerman, OTS Utrecht", call workshop optionality
2. "G.Corbett", Call for Papers: LAGB
3. PATRICK LUKE OLIVIER, CFP: Spatial Expressions

 - CALL FOR PAPERS - CALL FOR PAPERS - CALL FOR PAPERS -

 The Research Institute for Language and Speech (OTS),
 Utrecht University,
 organizes a.....

 Workshop on Optionality

 to be held on
 September 1-2, 1995.

 Keynote speakers:
 Jane Grimshaw (Rutgers)
 Tony Kroch (Penn)
 Tanya Reinhart (Tel Aviv/Utrecht)
 Edwin Williams (Princeton)

 In the history of generative linguistics, there has been a shift from
construction-specific rules to general principles.
 In the minimalist framework of Chomsky (1993), movement is argued to be
a last resort operation: it may only take place if it is triggered, that is,
if movement is required to escape ungrammaticality. This concept, which
gradually took shape in the late eighties (cf. Travis 1986), is referred to as
"economy". Now, although economy is conceptually attractive, it faces serious
problems when confronted with optional movements: by hypothesis, a movement
is blocked if it does not have to take place. Optionality is widely attested
in natural language. One might even claim that there are situations in which it
is typical that two or more variants of a construction coexist. In this
workshop we would like to explore in what ways the problem of optionality can
be approached.
 One would like to have a theory that predicts which types of
optionality may be expected in natural language. We would therefore like to
invite papers that deal with the theoretical problem of optionality. Papers
may focus on optionality in the steady state or on optionality in situations
of language acquisition and language change.

In addition to 4 (invited) keynote talks, we have 12 slots for 35 min.
papers. Please send 5 copies of an anonymous two-page abstract, one
camera-ready version and a 3x5" card with name(s) of author(s), title of
paper, affiliation, phone number and e-mail address to:

 Workshop on Optionality,
 Research Institute for Language and Speech (OTS),
 Utrecht University,
 Trans 10,
 3512 JK Utrecht,
 Netherlands.

We hope to be able to (partially) reimburse speakers. The
deadline for submissions is MAY 1, 1995. Submissions by e-mail
or fax will not be accepted.

For further information contact neelemanlet.ruu.nl or
weermanlet.ruu.nl.

LINGUISTICS ASSOCIATION OF GREAT BRITAIN
Spring Meeting 10-12 April 1995

The Linguistics Association of Great Britain spring conference will be
held from Monday April 10 to Wednesday April 12 at the University of
Newcastle upon Tyne. The guest speaker is Ellen Prince, who will give the
LAGB 1995 Lecture on 'The notion "construction" and the relation between
discourse and syntax'. The workshop will be on 'Grammar and Discourse',
organised by Noel Burton-Roberts. There will be a language tutorial on
Basque (two sessions), given by Larry Trask.

CALL FOR PAPERS
Offers of papers on all areas of linguistics are invited. Send 7 anonymous
copies of a one-page abstract, plus one copy with your name and institution
at the top and your name and correspondence address on the back. The
abstracts should be camera-ready so that those accepted can be included
unaltered in the conference booklet.

Send abstracts (hard copy) to arrive by Monday January 9 to:
Greville G. Corbett, President LAGB, Linguistic and International Studies,
University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 5XH

Enquiries about the meeting:
 Billy Clark, Meetings Secretary LAGB: billy1vaxa.middlesex.ac.uk

Enquiries about local arrangements:
 Karen Corrigan: k.p.corrigannewcastle.ac.uk

Enquiries about the LAGB:
 Nigel Fabb, Secretary LAGB: N.A.J.Fabbstrath.ac.uk

Greville G. Corbett
Department of Linguistic and International Studies
University of Surrey
Guildford
Surrey, GU2 5XH
Great Britain

email: g.corbettsurrey.ac.uk
FAX: +44 1483 302605
phone: +44 1483 300800 ext 2849

(<FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS)> <<FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS>> <<FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS>>

 IJCAI-95 Workshop on the
 Representation and Processing of Spatial Expressions

Fourteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI-95)
 Montreal, Canada

 1 day during 19th-21st August 1995

ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Klaus-Peter Gapp (Saarbruecken, Germany)
Jugal Kalita (Colorado, USA)
Paul Mc Kevitt (Sheffield, UK)
Amitabha Mukerjee (IIT, Kanpur, India)
Patrick Olivier (Aberystwyth, UK)
Junichi Tsujii (UMIST, Manchester, UK)
Laure Vieu (IRIT, Toulouse, France)
Wolfgang Wahlster (DFKI, Saarbruecken, Germany)
Yorick Wilks (Sheffield, UK)

WORKSHOP ISSUES:

There are been many different approaches to the representation and processing
of spatial expressions including geometric schemas, semantic nets, fuzzy sets
and predicate logic. Yet most existing computational characterisations have
so far been restricted to particularly narrow problem domains, that is,
specific spatial contexts determined by overall system goals.

To date, artificial intelligence research in this field has rarely taken
advantage of studies of language and spatial cognition carried out by the
cognitive science community. One of the intentions of this workshop is to
bring together researchers from both disciplines in the belief that
artificial intelligence has much to gain from an appreciation of cognitive
theories.

In addition to presenting original research participants will be asked where
possible to address the following questions:

o How does your work draw upon, differ from, refine or extend existing
 linguistic, cognitive and artificial intelligence approaches? What are the
 limitations and assumptions of your approach?
o How should knowledge about space be represented? What is your underlying
 knowledge representation and reasoning formalism and what issues have
 motivated your choice?
o How important is the issue of cognitive plausibility?
o How should the lexicon be organised with respect to spatial prepositions
 and spatially relevant words? How can multiple meanings for such words be
 accommodated?
o The meaning of spatial expressions cannot be addressed in isolation. Indeed
 spatial expressions are used in many different physical contexts and
 environments. How should the meanings of individual spatially relevant
 words be composed during processing to obtain meanings of complex spatial
 expressions?
o Object knowledge is generally thought to play an important role in the
 interpretation of spatial words especially spatial prepositions. How can
 this be realised and are there any other factors which affect the
 interpretation of spatially relevant words?
o How language dependent is your approach?
o What are the open questions?

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS:
Electronic submission is strongly encouraged (preferably self-contained
LaTeX). Papers must be printed to 8 1/2" x 11" size. They must be a maximum
of 15 pages, each page having no more than 43 lines, lines being at most
140mm long and with 12 point type. Title, abstract, figures and references
must be included within this length limit. Four copies should be mailed to
the address below. Double sided printing is encouraged.

Patrick Olivier E-mail: ploaber.ac.uk
Centre for Intelligent Systems Tel: +44 970622447
University of Wales Fax: +44 970622455
Aberystwyth
Dyfed, SY23 3DB, UK

DEADLINES:
Submission deadline: 13th March 1995
Notification of acceptance: 13th April 1995
Camera ready copy due: 27th April 1995

PUBLICATION:
Accepted papers will be published in the workshop notes/preprints by IJCAI. If
there is sufficient interest it is intended that a book will be published based
on the workshop notes.