LINGUIST List 9.1524

Sun Nov 1 1998

FYI: Lectures, PERL trees, ChatterBox free software

Editor for this issue: Brett Churchill <brettlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Laura Walsh Dickey, Nijmegen Lectures with Labov
2. Sean M. Burke, New Perl class for trees
3. Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D., Ergo Talks with Microsoft Agents (Free Software)

NIJMEGEN LECTURES WITH WILLIAM LABOV
December 14-16 1998

In December, William Labov (University of Pennsylvania) will gives a series
of lectures and seminars in Nijmegen, The Netherlands. If you would like
to attend any of the lectures or seminars, please register with:

Marlene Jonas
Max Planck Institute
PB 310
6500 AH Nijmegen
The Netherlands

+31 (24) 352-1454 (phone)
+31 (24) 352-1213 (fax)
Nijmegen.Lecturesmpi.nl

In your registration, please give your name, address, and which lectures
and seminars you would like to attend. There is no cost to attend, but
there are limited spaces, so registration is on a first-come first-served
basis. Program booklets will be sent out to registered participants.

PROGRAM

LINGUISTIC CHANGE: SOME SOLVED AND UNSOLVED PROBLEMS

Monday, December 14: The mechanism of linguistic change

Lecture: Accounting for the growing diversity of North American English
dialects.
	10:45-12:30 Collegezalencomplex Room 02, Mercatorpad 1, University
of Nijmegen.
Seminar: The gender paradox: women as sociolinguistic conservatives and
radicals.
	14:30-17:00 Max Planck Institute, Room 163, Nijmegen.

Day 2: Cognitive problems in linguistic change

Lecture: The transmission of change across generations.
	10:45-12:30 Collegezalencomplex Room 03, Mercatorpad 1, University
of Nijmegen.
Seminar: The asymmetry of production and perception.
	14:30-17:00 Max Planck Institute, Room 163, Nijmegen.

Day 3: The relation of variation studies to current linguistic theory

Lecture: Can optimality theory deal with linguistic variation? The issue of
transparent vs.
opaque constraints.
	10:45-12:30 Collegezalencomplex Room 04, Mercatorpad 1, University
of Nijmegen.

Seminar: The surprising Constant Factors Effect in syntactic change. The
competing grammars model vs. inherent variation.

Laura Walsh Dickey, Ph.D.
Max Planck Institute
PB 310
NL-6500 AH Nijmegen
The Netherlands

Phone: 31 (0)24 352-1347
Fax: 31 (0)24 352-1213
Email: laurampi.nl

Recently, while I was working on a suite of object classes in Perl to
parse a toy markup language, I noticed that CPAN (Comprehensive Perl
Archive Network) had no base class for manipulating trees (other than
just binary trees, which were irrelevant to what I was doing).

So I genericized and documented my tree class and released it to CPAN:
Look for it in http://www.cpan.org/modules/by-module/Tree/ called
"Tree::DAG_Node". It's useable as a normal class, or as a base class.

Altho this class started life as something just for building and
walking markup language parse-trees, the methods I've added make it
sufficient for representing and wrangling syntax trees as used in
formal syntax. Someone on the LINGUIST list might find it useful for
that purpose.

- 
Sean M. Burke sburkenetadventure.net http://www.netadventure.net/~sburke/

Microsoft has recently made some of its agent technology available
on the web at http://www.microsoft.com/agents. Most well-known
is a 3 D Parrot called "Peedy." Ergo Linguistics has just modified
their patented "ChatterBox" technology to make it possible to speak
with "Peedy" and the other agents. 

For those who are interested in viewing this talking desktop agent,
we can provide the necessary files for a user that will
set everything up and put the "Peedy" icon on the desktop.
The "ChatterBox.exe" file will set up ChatterBox which will
automatically allow you to speak to Peedy. 

Once you set up ChatterBox and the "Peedy" in this setup file
Just type in sentences like the following and you can ask the
corresponding questions. 

John gave mary a book because it was her birtbday
 did John give mary a book
 what did john give mary
 who gave mary a book
 who did john give a book
 why did john give mary a book

the tall dark stranger is carrying a bloody knife
 what is the stranger doing
 what is the stranger carrying
 was the stranger carrying a knife

you saw the tall dark stranger in the park
 where did you seen the stanger
 what did you see
 what did you see in the park

thomas jefferson is the third president of the United States
 who is the third president of the United States

The Yankees won the 1998 World series
 WHAT won the 1998 World Series
 *currently the program does not know that the "Yankees" are
 people so it is necessary to use "What" for this question.

and so on. 

Of course you could build a variety of story or
educational files to talk to Peedy about, but for this
early version it is just fun to put in a few sentences
and chat with him. This is also available with the
Virtual Friend technology at http://www.haptek.com. 
Our web site is http://www.ergo-ling.com if you have
any further interest in our NLP technology. Or...
if you have a WIN95 animation of your own we would
be happy to show you how to connect ChatterBox to
it. 

I will be showing this in Boston at the SBIR National
Conference November 3-5th. I will also be giving a
lecture and demonstration of this technology at
Northeastern University (Thursday at noon room 415 in
the Classroom Building) while I am there. If you have
anyone in town at that time or at that conference, ask
them to stop by and I will give them a more thorough
introduction to the ChatterBox technology and our other
NLP tools. Because my company is an SBIR grantee we
will have display space in the SBIR section near the
main entrance. 

Phil Bralich

Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D.
President and CEO
Ergo Linguistic Technologies
2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 175
Honolulu, HI 96822

Tel: (808)539-3920
Fax: (808)539-3924
bralichhawaii.edu
http://www.ergo-ling.com