LINGUIST List 13.2855

Tue Nov 5 2002

Calls: Error Handling/Comparative Diachronic Syntax

Editor for this issue: Karolina Owczarzak <karolinalinguistlist.org>



As a matter of policy, LINGUIST discourages the use of abbreviations or acronyms in conference announcements unless they are explained in the text.

Directory

  • Swerts, M.G.J., ISCA Workshop on Error Handling in Spoken Dialogue Systems
  • Jeroen van de Weijer, Comparative Diachronic Syntax

    Message 1: ISCA Workshop on Error Handling in Spoken Dialogue Systems

     Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2002 12:11:18 +0100
    From: Swerts, M.G.J. <m.g.j.swertstue.nl>
    Subject: ISCA Workshop on Error Handling in Spoken Dialogue Systems


    ISCA Tutorial and Research Workshop International Speech Communication Association

    Error Handling in Spoken Dialogue Systems

    Preliminary Call for Participation

    Location: Hotel Roc et Neige http://www.cm.be/images/intersoc/Chateau/chateaug.htm Chateau-d'Oex-Vaud, Switzerland http://www.skiswitzerland.com/chateau/chateau.htm

    August 28-31, 2003

    Workshop website: http://www.speech.kth.se/error/ Webmaster: Gabriel Skantze Email contact: errorworkshopspeech.kth.se

    Supported by:

    CLIF (Computational Linguistics in Flanders) SIGDIAL

    Aims:

    Spoken dialogue systems in real applications as well as research have attracted increased attention in recent years. With the limitations of current speech technologies, both for recognition and understanding and for speech generation, this interest in `real' systems has led to an increased awareness in the problems raised by system errors, especially in recognizing user input, and the consequent confusion they may lead to for both users and the system itself over the dialogue. The need to devise better strategies for detecting problems in human-machine dialogues and then dealing with them gracefully has become paramount for spoken dialogue systems.

    This workshop will consider all aspects of how systems can detect and recover from problems in spoken dialogue systems. We will address questions such as:

    What can we learn from errors in human-human and wizard-of-Oz systems that will help us to handle error in human-machine dialogue systems?

    How do systems detect when a dialogue is 'going wrong'? How do they define such conditions? What factors are the key contributors to and indicators of 'bad' dialogues?

    How do systems identify their own errors? What are the most important causes of such errors, from the user side (e.g. non-native accent, hyperarticulated speaking style, gender, age) and from the system side (e.g. inappropriate prompts)? How difficult is it to determine the causes of particular error?

    How can we predict which dialogues will be successful? How should we define 'success'? What features can best predict it?

    What mechanisms can be devised to allow systems to recover from error gracefully? Can we devise adaptive strategies to identify patterns of error and respond accordingly?

    What sorts of behavior do users exhibit when faced with system errors? Can these be taken into account in error handling?

    What measures (better prompts, anticipation of likely error, better help information) can be taken to minimize possible errors?

    Papers are invited on innovations in ways that systems can detect their own errors (e.g. through features such as ASR confidence scores); on methods for evaluating spoken dialogue systems that include system errors and error recovery as a major component; on strategies for determining on-line when dialogues are 'going wrong'; on mechanisms for recovering once errors are detected; on laboratory and corpus-based studies of human behavior relevant to human-machine problem detection/recovery; on methods for minimizing dialogue problems (e.g. by varying dialogue strategy, system prompts). Position papers are also invited for a special session on aspects of error handling are most in need of additional attention and to propose research approaches in such areas.

    Invited Speakers:

    Herb Clark, Stanford University Emiel Krahmer, Tillburg University Mike Phillips, Speechworks Atsushi Shimojima, JAIST

    Important Dates:

    Submissions due: March 1, 2003. Notification of Acceptance: April 15, 2003. Deadline for Early Registration: May 1, 2003 Deadline for Regular Registration: June 1, 2003 Deadline for Final Papers: June 1, 2003 Workshop: August 28-31, 2003.

    Submission requirements:

    Abstracts of no more than 800 words in length (please state whether this is a submission to a regular session or to the special session on future research) should be submitted electronically by March 1. Details for submssion will be available at http://www.speech.kth.se/error/

    Workshop Location:

    Hotel Roc et Neige (http://www.cm.be/images/intersoc/Chateau/chateaug.htm) in the town of Chateau-d'Oex-Vaud (http://www.skiswitzerland.com/chateau/chateau.htm) in the 'alpes vaudoises' in the Lake Geneva region of Switzerland.

    Accommodation and Registration Fees: TBA

    Proceedings:

    Workshop proceedings will be available upon registration at the conference center and subsequently on the workshop web site.

    Language:

    The official language of the workshop will be English.

    ISCA

    The International Speech Communication Association (ISCA) is a non-profit organization for promoting Speech Communication Science and Technology internationally. For membership and other information, please contact the ISCA secretariat at:

    c/o Institut fuer Communikationsforschung und Phonetik Universitaet Bonn Poppelsdorfer Allee 47 D-53115 Bonn, Germany Tel: (+49) 228-735638 Fax: (+49) 228-735639 Email: infoisca-speech.org URL: http://www.isca-speech.org

    This workshop is endorsed by SIGdial (www.sigdial.org) and CLIF

    Organizing Committee:

    Rolf Carlson, KTH Julia Hirschberg, Columbia University and AT&T Labs -- Research Marc Swerts, University of Antwerp and Technische Universiteit Eindhoven

    International Scientific Committee:

    Linda Bell, Telia Research Lou Boves, Nijmegen University Susan Brennan, SUNY Stony Brook Jim Glass, MIT Yasuhiro Katagiri, ATR Emiel Krahmer, Tillburg University Diane Litman, University of Pittsburgh Elmar Noeth, Erlangen University Norbert Reithinger, DFKI Sophie Rosset, LIMSI Alex Rudnicky, CMU Elizabeth Shriberg, SRI Marilyn Walker, AT&T Labs--Research

    Message 2: Comparative Diachronic Syntax

     Date: Tue, 5 Nov 2002 14:33:30 +0000
    From: Jeroen van de Weijer <j.m.van.de.weijerlet.leidenuniv.nl>
    Subject: Comparative Diachronic Syntax


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    S E C O N D C A L L

    Conference on Comparative Diachronic Syntax

    University of Leiden Centre for Linguistics (ULCL), 29-30 August 2003

    Description of Conference Topic

    In the synchronic study of syntax, the comparative approach has been highly successful in uncovering insights into the nature of syntactic principles and the variation that they allow. In fact, it may not be an overstatement to say that modern syntax is to a large extent based on comparative work. It is certainly true that any analysis of language-specific data will not be considered successful if it cannot be made responsive to data from other languages.

    In the diachronic study of syntax, the role of cross-linguistic comparative concerns is somewhat less clear. While diachronic investigation focusing on typology and grammaticalisation has produced an important body of comparative work, it is sometimes rough-grained and often neglects issues of syntactic structure. Diachronic study from other perspectives, while it may be more fine-grained and structure-conscious, tends to ignore questions of cross-linguistic comparison.

    It therefore appears that there is still a need to explore the implications of a principled comparative stance to historical syntactic change. This conference hopes to stimulate discussion of the possibilities and problems that such a stance would create, with reference to specific case histories or more general issues in the study of syntactic change. Among the questions that could be addressed are the following:

    -what can a comparative perspective contribute to our understanding of some specific syntactic change or set of changes in a language?

    -what is the exact contribution that models of comparative synchronic syntax can make to the study of diachrony?

    -are there types of diachronic syntactic phenomena that may be particularly well or ill suited to comparative analysis?

    -does comparative diachronic analyis place special demands on the kinds of data that are required?

    Call for papers

    Key-note speaker at the conference will be Professor Ian Roberts (University of Cambridge; confirmed). There are ten to twelve slots for further papers on the conference topic.

    Abstracts are invited for 40-minute papers (followed by 15 minutes discussion). The abstract should have a maximum length of two pages, including any references, and should reach the address below before 1 January 2003, preferably in the form of an e-mail message or attachment. Notification of acceptance will be sent by e-mail by 1 February 2003.

    Contact address

    Conference on Comparative Diachronic Syntax Dr. Wim van der Wurff Department of English P.O. Box 9515 NL-2300 RA Leiden The Netherlands

    e-mail: w.a.van.der.wurfflet.leidenuniv.nl

    For all further information, see the ULCL website at http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/ulcl/events/compdiachr/

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