LINGUIST List 13.749

Thu Mar 21 2002

FYI: Proper Names, MA Programs, Corpus Courses

Editor for this issue: Marie Klopfenstein <marielinguistlist.org>

Directory

Ariadna Font Llitjos, Pronunciation of Proper Names site

John Sinclair, The Tuscan Word Centre Courses 2002

Message 1: Pronunciation of Proper Names site

Date: Tue, 12 Mar 2002 14:41:49 -0500 (EST)
From: Ariadna Font Llitjos <aria+cs.cmu.edu>
Subject: Pronunciation of Proper Names site

We have just put up a site which allows us to evaluate our current US pronunciation models for proper names as well as to collect data to train new pronunciation models:

http://www.pronounce-names.org

This site allows users to type in their names, and uses Edinburgh University's Festival to generate the phonetic transcription as well as an audio file according to (i) the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, (ii) a baseline, ngram-based pronunciation model and (iii) a model incorporating language origin information.

Having listened to the audio files, the user is then asked to determine whether the pronunciations generated are correct, acceptable or unacceptable. If none of the pronunciations presented are acceptable, the user can enter the correct phonetic transcription (a phonetic table is provided as well as some transcription examples), and the corresponding audio file gets generated and presented to the user, so that s/he can confirm that it is indeed the correct pronunciation.

Therefore, in this early stage of the project, we are effectively getting humans to evaluate our pronunciation models. At later stages, our site will be able to present users with statistics on how people pronounce their names, and thus it will become a useful resource on proper names pronunciation.

Please take a minute to visit our site:

http://www.pronounce-names.org

If you don't know what name to type in, you can go to:

http://www.pronounce-names.org/eval

We have set up a site with 10 different names and their pronunciations which you're asked to evaluate. We'll use this data to establish interlabeler agreement.

To find out about the details of our current pronunciation models, see [Font Llitjos, 2001] (http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~aria/mthesis-cmu.htm).

Feel free to send any comments and suggestions.

Thank you.

Ariadna

Ariadna Font Llitjos Language Technologies Institute Carnegie Mellon University 4533 Newell Simon Hall 5000 Forbes Ave. phone (412) 268-9515 Pittsburgh, PA 15213 aria+cs.cmu.edu http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~aria/

Message 2: New MA Programs

Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2002 11:32:40 -0000
From: Hans van de Koot <hanslinguistics.ucl.ac.uk>
Subject: New MA Programs

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NEW MA PROGRAMMES IN LINGUISTICS AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON

>From September 2002, the department of Phonetics and Linguistics at UCL (http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk) will be offering an MA in Phonology and an MA in Syntax alongside its existing MA in Linguistics:

MA PHONOLOGY (http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/educ/pg/phonology.htm) MA SYNTAX (http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/educ/pg/syntax.htm) MA LINGUISTICS (http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/educ/pg/linguistics.htm)

The MA SYNTAX and the MA PHONOLOGY are more advanced programmes intended for applicants who already have a BA in Linguistics or similar degree and who are looking for a course specially designed to prepare them for PhD research in their chosen field of study.The MA in LINGUISTICS is intended for applicants with very little background in linguistics.

The MA PHONOLOGY and the MA SYNTAX consists of four courses in the chosen specialization (phonology or syntax), a research seminar in the relevant area and an additional option, chosen by the student in consultation with their advisor. In addition, since phenomena in one area can often only be understood in a larger linguistic context, students specializing in syntax must take one course each in phonology and pragmatics/semantics, while students specializing in phonology must take one course each in syntax and pragmatics/semantics.

The MA programmes can be taken full-time over 12 months or part-time over two years.

For further details, including course descriptions, assessment and information about scholarships and about how to apply, please visit the web sites listed above.

For details about our department and staff please visit http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk

Message 3: The Tuscan Word Centre Courses 2002

Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 00:20:50 +0100
From: John Sinclair <jmstwc.it>
Subject: The Tuscan Word Centre Courses 2002

Courses at The Tuscan Word Centre 2002 There will be two short intensive courses at TWC in June 2002 17th-20th June HOW TO USE CORPORA IN LANGUAGE WORK 24th-27th June HOW TO USE CORPORA IN LANGUAGE TEACHING ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ HOW TO USE CORPORA IN LANGUAGE WORK 17th-20th June inclusive (arrive 16th, depart 21st) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ TWC runs such a course every year; it is open to advanced students and researchers, and workers in the language industries, and it is relevant to all who are interested in the present state of corpus work and the potential for the future. Topic Leaders: Prof G�ran Kjellmer, University of Gothenburg Mr Frank Mueller, University of Tuebingen Dr Pernilla Daniellson, University of Birmingham Prof Elena Tognini Bonelli, University of Lecce Prof John Sinclair, The Tuscan Word Centre Topics include: Syntax studies with annotated and unannotated corpora Syntactic class differences as mirrored in corpora. Corpora in a historical perspective Functionally-complete Units in a contextual theory of meaning Corpus-based and corpus-driven linguistics Shallow parsing:how it's done and what you can do with it Linguistic data structures in language corpora Software for corpus access and analysis Annotation and corpus interrogation Multilingual and parallel corpora The lexical item Lexicogrammar and Phraseology ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,, ,,,,,,,, For further information about the course, about TWC, its superb location and facilities, refer to the website http://www.twc.it or send an e-mail to mailto:coursestwc.it The overall cost of this course, including participation, accommodation, all meals and local transport is 1500 euros. There is a strict limit on the number of places, so please apply early. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ HOW TO USE CORPORA IN LANGUAGE TEACHING 24th-27th June inclusive (arrive 23rd, depart 28th) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The Tuscan Word Centre Intensive Course June 17th-20th 2002 inclusive Corpora are already an important source of ideas, models, examples and descriptions for language teaching, and will gradually affect the work of all the teachers, and the managers, researchers and materials developers in t he language teaching industry. Language teachers and their colleagues should be aware of the range of activities that are taking place all over the world, should be in command of the routines of access to corpora and the retrieval of useful results, and should be able to plan uses of corpora in their own practice and in their own institutions. A very successful course on this theme was held at TWC in October 2001, and a book will shortly be published recording the main presentations that were made. Topic Leaders: Prof. Sylviane Granger, University of Louvain Dr. Susan Hunston, University of Birmingham Dott.ssa Silvia Bernardini, University of Forl� Dr. Pernilla Danielsson, University of Birmingham Prof.ssa Elena Tognini Bonelli, University of Lecce Prof. John Sinclair, The Tuscan Word Centre Topics include: Learner Corpora: design, analysis and applications Annotation, part-of-speech tagging and error tagging Pedagogical and NLP applications The use of corpus evidence Phraseology, pattern, and meaning Corpus evidence applied to a text Paradigm and syntagm in language Technology serves pedagogic needs? Corpora in the classroom: - in the acquisition of new languages - in the training of translators data-driven learning meaning-focused learning tasks Corpus, text and discourse in LSP Discourse of subject areas: Monolingual economics Bilingual - tourism. Software for corpus access and analysis Parallel corpora Annotation, phrase building Text-oriented programming New priorities in theory Facts and observation The sheltered classroom and the big wide world ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,, ,,,,,,, For further information about the course, about TWC, its superb location and facilities, refer to the website http://www.twc.it or send an e-mail to mailto:coursestwc.it The overall cost of this course, including participation, accommodation, all meals and local transport is 1500 euros. There is a strict limit on the number of places, so please apply early. John Sinclair The Tuscan Word Centre Vellano 409 51010 Pescia (PT) Italia Telephone: +39 (0)572 409251 Fax: 409253 Office: 409900 web page http://www.twc.it