LINGUIST List 9.1774

Mon Dec 14 1998

Calls: Chicago Ling Society, Lang in Virtual Worlds

Editor for this issue: Karen Milligan <karenlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Aaron Griffith, Chicago Linguistic Society
2. Anton Nijholt, Interactions in Virtual Worlds

Announcing the 35th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society

April 22-24, 1999
University of Chicago


Main Session:
We invite original, unpublished work on any topic of general linguistic
interest.

Invited Speakers:
	Beth Levin (Northwestern University)
	Paul Smolensky (Johns Hopkins University)

Panels:
We invite original, unpublished work which addresses one of the panel
topics below.

Language, Identity, and the Other
Thursday, April 22

Language serves as a means to unite as well as to exclude groups or
individuals. This panel will explore the linguistic mechanisms by which
this is accomplished in different speech communities.

Invited Speakers:
	Robert Greenberg (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
	Michael Silverstein (University of Chicago)

In conjunction with the University of Chicago workshop on theory and data
	in speech research:
ChiPhon 99 New Syntheses:
	Multi-Disciplinary Approaches to Basic Units of Speech
Friday, April 23

This panel seeks to synthesize findings from linguistics and other fields
which investigate linguistic behavior, to determine whether these can be
used as evidence for a unified theory of basic units of speech processing.

Invited Speakers:
	John Ohala (University of California, Berkeley)
	Joseph Perkell (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Theory and Linguistic Diversity
Saturday, April 24

Approximately five thousand languages are spoken throughout the world
today. This panel seeks to explore the ways in which linguistic theories
attempt to account for such variety.

Invited Speakers:
	Mark Baker (Rutgers University)
	Joan Bresnan (Stanford University)
	R.M.W. Dixon (Australian National University)


Please submit ten copies of a one-page 500 word anonymous abstract for a
twenty minute paper (optionally one additional page for data and/or
references may be appended), along with a 3 by 5 card with:
	1 your name
	2 affiliation
	3 address, phone number, and e-mail address
	4 title of the paper
	5 an indication for which panel or which particular subdivision of
	 the main session (eg: phonetics, phonology, syntax, semantics,
	 historical linguistics, etc.) the paper is intended.
The abstract should be as specific as possible and it should clearly
indicate the data covered, outline the arguments presented, and include
any broader implications of the work. An individual may present at most
one single and one co-authored paper. Authors must submit a camera-ready
copy of the paper at the time of the conference in order to be considered
for publication. Only a selection of papers presented at CLS 35 will be
published.

This years deadline for receipt of abstracts is February 1, 1999. Send
abstracts to:
	Chicago Linguistic Society
	1010 East 59th St.
	Chicago, IL 60637
	773.702.8529
Information on e-mail submission and additional guidelines for abstracts
may be obtained by visiting our website at
http://humanities.uchicago.edu/humanities/cls/cls.html, by writing to the
above address, or by e-mailing us at clsdiderot.uchicago.edu.

WORKSHOP
Interactions in Virtual Worlds

May 19-21, 1999
Parlevink Research Group
University of Twente/CTIT
Enschede
The Netherlands



INTRODUCTION
The Parlevink Research Group of the Centre of Telematics
and Information Technology (CTIT) is pleased to announce
a 3-day workshop on interactions in virtual reality (VR)
environments. Anyone dealing with theoretical, empirical,
computational, experimental, sociological and
anthropological aspects of VR environments that are
either purely artificial or use real world
characteristics is invited to participate in this
workshop. In this workshop the emphasis is on VR
environments that provide means for interacting with the
objects in the environment, with embedded information
sources and services (possibly represented as agents) or
with other users and visitors of the environment.

MOTIVATION
In recent years we have seen that the computer science
and the cognitive ergonomics communities have discovered
and are exploring the possibilities of VR in user
interfaces. In order to visualize available information
and to provide users access to this information, virtual
environments have been built such that users can find
and explore information, communicate with other users
and can communicate with objects and agents in the
virtual worlds.

This workshop emphasizes the role of VR in interfaces
and in environments in which people share knowledge and
experience and in which new forms of interactivity will
emerge. In particular we want to explore the role of
speech and language in virtual environments. How can we
navigate in VR using speech and language, how can we
model multimodal access to such environments, how can
we communicate with other humans and with artificial
agents in the VR environment, etc. The workshop is
organized in the context of the U-Wish project of the
Dutch Telematics Institute.

FORMAT
The format of the workshop will consist of keynote
presentations by experts in the fields of VR, dialogue
modelling and speech and language processing, combined
with presentations of accepted papers. All presentations
will be plenary.

SUBMISSION PROCEDURE
Researchers working in this domain are invited to email
a 400-words abstract (plain ascii format), together
with title, affiliation and keywords to
twlt15cs.utwente.nl. Invited and accepted papers will
be published in the workshop proceedings.


INVITED LECTURES

Niels Ole Bernsen (Odense University. Odense, Denmark:
Coordinator of i3net, the European Network for
Intelligent Information Interfaces. i3 was created in
1997 in order to take a human-centred approach to the
exploration of new, visionary interactive systems for
people in their everyday activities.

Lili Cheng (Microsoft Research, Seattle, Wa., USA):
Lead Program Manager in the Microsoft Research's Virtual
Worlds Group, working on the Virtual Worlds Platform.
At NYU, Cheng designed graphics and created the human
interface for one of the first participatory, real
time rendered 3D environments which was broadcast
tri-weekly from NYU. Lili is a registered architect
and designed commercial architecture in both Tokyo
and Los Angeles.

James N. Davidson (CEDeS, Seattle, Wa., USA):
Project Manager of the Community and Environmental
Design Simulation Lab, (CEDeS), jointly sponsored by
the College of Architecture and Urban Planning and
the Human Interface Technology Lab of the University
of Washington. The mandate for this Lab is to
research and teach the use of real-time simulations
and VR for urban, architectural and landscape design,
and the creation of virtual spaces and environments.

James C. Lester (North Carolina State University,
Raleigh, USA):
The primary objective of Lester's research is to design,
construct, and empirically evaluate computational
mechanisms to support HCI in educational and scientific
software. His interests focus on developing advanced
animated and natural language explanation systems that
facilitate learning and scientific analysis.

Stephen N. Matsuba (VRML Dream Company, Toronto, Canada:
Matsuba has authored a series of VR spaces for
Cyberstage Live: an on-line journal dealing with the
arts and technology. His interests are focussed on
multimedia and VR applications. He and others developed
a VRML-based theatre adaptation of Shakespeare's A
Midsummer Night's Dream.

Pierre Nugues (ISMRA-Caen, France)
Research of Pierre Nugues is focused on natural language
processing for spoken dialogue and user interfaces.
This includes design & implementation of conversational
agents within a multimodal framework.

PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Program Chairman: Anton Nijholt (CTIT, Enschede)
Niels Ole Bernsen, James N. Davidson, James C. Lester,
Stephen N. Matsuba, Pierre Nugues & Oliviero Stock


ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Local Chairman: Betsy van Dijk
Olaf Donk, Boris van Schooten & Hendri Hondorp

VENUE
The workshop on "Interactions in Virtual Worlds" will take
place in the computer science building at the campus of the
University of Twente, Enschede, the Netherlands. Hotel
accommodation is available at the campus and in two nearby
cities.

IMPORTANT DATES
March 1: Deadline for submitted abstracts
March 15: Notification of acceptance, Instruction for
 authors, Information on accommodation
April 15: Dead-line for camera-ready papers
May 19-21: Workshop

FURTHER INFORMATION
For further information, please contact Olaf Donk
(donkcs.utwente.nl). Updated information will also be
available at http://wwwseti.cs.utwente.nl/Parlevink/
Conferences/twlt15.html