LINGUIST List 8.1593

Thu Nov 6 1997

Calls: Phonology, Semitic Syntax, Lexical Semantics

Editor for this issue: Elaine Halleck <elainelinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. minisymp, Mini-Symposium on Phonetics and Phonology
2. Linda Culver, Semitic Syntax
3. Paul Buitelaar, Lexical Semantics in Context: Corpus, Inference & Discourse

CALL FOR
PAPERS

The Fourth Annual Mini-Symposium on Phonetics and
Phonology

Sponsored by the Phonology Laboratory, the Department of
Linguistics and the Society of Linguistics Undergraduates (SLUG) 



March 13, 1998

University of California

Berkeley, California



Inner Structure of Distinctive Features



Abstracts are invited on papers which focus on the phonetic structure of
distinctive features and the relevance of them to our understanding of
the sound patterns in language. Potential topics include, but are not
limited to:


1. The micro-structure of features, that is, the phonetic cues that
comprise them.

2. Production. The articulatory implementation of distinctive features:
data and theories; articulatory and aerodynamic aspects.

3. Perception. Salience of features in specific contexts. Dominance
relations between features. The extraction of features from the speech
signal.

4. Phonetic validation of the domain of features: segments, syllables,
words. The varying temporal domains of features. 

5. Binary vs. gradual feature values. Ranges of allowable variation for
feature values. Binary vs. privative features. 

6. Features in Gestural Phonology 


Papers will be 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes discussion. 


SUBMISSION OF ABSTRACTS


Send abstracts (400 words or less) by December 15, 1997 by email to:
minisymptrill.berkeley.edu or by regular post to (* no fax submission
please):


Mini-Symposium '98

Department of Linguistics/ Phonology Laboratory

2337 Dwinelle Hall

University of California

Berkeley, CA 94720-2650



Include author's name, affiliation, and where to send notification
(preferable e-mail).


IMPORTANT DATES:


Submission of abstracts: 

December 15, 1997 

NOTE! THIS DEADLINE WILL BE STRICTLY OBSERVED!

Acceptance notification: 

January 19, 1998

Conference: 

March 13, 1998


For further information, contact minisymptrill.berkeley.edu or check out
our web page at
http://trill.berkeley.edu/Talks/CALL_1998.html

CALL FOR PAPERS: THE SYNTAX OF SEMITIC LANGUAGES

The Department of Linguistics at the University of Southern
California invites abstracts for a conference on the syntax of
Semitic Languages to be held at USC April 3-5, 1998.


During the past decade, there has emerged a significant body of work
concerning the syntax and the syntax/semantics interface of Semitic
languages. We feel that the time is now right for scholars who have been
working independently on the syntax of these languages to come together on
a regular basis, so as to share with each other the results of their
research. In order to pursue this goal, the Department of Linguistics at
USC will be hosting a conference on this topic, in the hope that it will
be the first of many. Participants will be selected on the basis of
refereed anonymous abstracts, to be judged by a selection committee. It
is our intention to have 18 talks in all, each 40 minutes long with an
additional 15 minutes for discussion.


Please send 10 copies of an anonymous abstract, at most 2-pages long
(including examples and references). Please enclose a 3x5 card with
submission stating name of paper, name of author, affiliation and address,
including e-mail address, phone number and fax number, where available.
The name of the author SHOULD NOT appear on the abstract. Submissions by
e-mail or by fax will not be accepted. Abstracts should be postmarked NO
LATER THAN JANUARY 10, 1998, and sent to:

	HAGIT BORER
	DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS
	UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
	LOS ANGELES, CA 90089-1693
 USA

Please direct all inquiries to the address above, or to:
 	borerusc.edu


FUNDING PERMITTING, SPEAKERS CAN EXPECT PARTIAL TO 
FULL REIMBURSEMENT FOR THEIR TRAVEL EXPENSES.

 ESSLLI-98 Workshop on 
 LEXICAL SEMANTICS IN CONTEXT: CORPUS, INFERENCE AND DISCOURSE
 August 17 - 21, 1998

 A workshop held as part of the 
 10th European Summer School in Logic, Language and Information 
 (ESSLLI-98) 
 August 17 - 28, 1998, Saarbruecken, Germany

 ** FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS **


ORGANIZERS: Johan Bos (Saarbruecken) and Paul Buitelaar (Brandeis University)

Web site: http://www.dcs.warwick.ac.uk/~esslli98/workshops.html

BACKGROUND:
The workshop aims at bringing together research in two complementary fields of 
semantic analysis that are still too far apart. In order to achieve both a 
broad and a deep understanding of any given text document, a system needs both 
advanced acquisition of corpus specific lexical semantic knowledge and powerful
inference mechanisms that utilize that knowledge in discourse analysis.

Given the still relatively limited results within both areas there has been 
little impetus to combine them. Corpus-based extraction of lexical semantic 
knowledge has only recently become a more feasible task, because of the growing
availibility of on-line text documents; robust corpus processing technologies, 
such as broad coverage part-of-speech tagging and shallow parsing; and readily 
available statistical methods. The various approaches to discourse analysis, 
originating in such diverse fields as formal semantics, psychology and AI, are 
in the process of converging into a unified approach to the analysis and 
representation of the cohesive structure of natural language documents.

The intersection between these two fields lies in the application of lexical 
semantic knowledge to such problems in discourse analysis as anaphora 
resolution and discourse segmentation. In fact, the benefit will be mutual, 
because knowledge of discourse structure is helpful to lexical knowledge 
extraction as well. 

In summary, large scale domain specific lexical semantic knowledge acquisition 
can assist in analyzing discourse structures, which in turn can assist in 
acquiring even more accurate lexical semantic representations for the relevant 
terms in the domain.

WORKSHOP FORMAT:
The workshop will consist of five sessions, with two or three 20+10-minute 
presentations in each session. Additionally, a number of invited talks will be
given by members of the program committee, while also some time will be set 
aside for general discussion of the topic of the workshop.

PROGRAM COMMITTEE:
Submitted papers will be reviewed by the organizers and the following program 
committee:

	Bran Boguraev
	Ann Copestake
	Daniel Kayser
	Alex Lascarides
	Manfred Pinkal
	Massimo Poesio
	James Pustejovsky

SUBMISSION:
It should be stressed that we especially encourage those contributions that
address aspects of the integration of all three areas of research mentioned 
above (lexical semantics, discourse analysis and corpus-based approaches to 
both of these).

The accepted papers will be made available in a summer school reader. 
Publication in an edited volume is under discussion.

All researchers in the area, but especially Ph.D. students and young 
researchers, are encouraged to submit an extended abstract (4 to 5 pages), 
preferably by email and in postscript. 

Submissions should be sent before February 15, 1998 to one of the following 
two organizers:

 Johan Bos Paul Buitelaar
 University of the Saarland Brandeis University
 Dept. of Computational Linguistics 	Department of Computer Science
 Postfach 15 11 50 Waltham, MA 02254
 D-66041 Saarbruecken USA
 Germany
				
 boscoli.uni-sb.de paulbcs.brandeis.edu

REGISTRATION:
Workshop contributors will be required to register for ESSLLI-98, but they 
will be elligible for a reduced registration fee.

IMPORTANT DATES:
 Feb 15, 98: Deadline for submissions
 Apr 15, 98: Notification of acceptance
 May 15, 98: Deadline for final copy
 Aug 17, 98: Start of workshop

FURTHER INFORMATION:
To obtain further information about ESSLLI-98 please visit the ESSLLI-98
home page at http://www.coli.uni-sb.de/esslli