LINGUIST List 17.1308

Fri Apr 28 2006

Calls: East Asian Ling/Canada;Cognitive Science/Italy

Editor for this issue: Kevin Burrows <kevinlinguistlist.org>

Directory         1.    Yoonjung Kang, International Conference on East Asian Linguistics
         2.    Paul Vogt, Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic Communication
Message 1: International Conference on East Asian Linguistics
Date: 27-Apr-2006
From: Yoonjung Kang <yoonjung.kangutoronto.ca>
Subject: International Conference on East Asian Linguistics



Full Title: International Conference on East Asian Linguistics Short Title: ICEAL
Date: 10-Nov-2006 - 12-Nov-2006 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada Contact Person: Yoonjung Kang
Meeting Email: < click here to access email >
Web Site: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/iceal
Linguistic Field(s): General Linguistics

Subject Language(s): Chinese, Mandarin; Japanese; Korean

Call Deadline: 15-Jul-2006

Meeting Description:

The Department of Linguistics at the University of Toronto is pleased to invite abstracts for submission to the International Conference on East Asian Linguistics to be held at the University of Toronto, November 10-12, 2006. Abstracts are invited for 20 minute presentations (plus 10 minutes for discussion, for a total of 30 minutes) on all aspects of formal linguistics of Chinese, Korean, and/or Japanese. In additional to regular conference sessions, there will be a special session on loanwords. There will be an award of a modest sum for the best student abstract.

Invited Speakers: Keynote speakers: San Duanmu (University of Michigan)Chung-hye Han (Simon Fraser University) C.-T. James Huang (Harvard University) Michael Kenstowicz (MIT) Mamoru Saito (Nanzan University)Jen Smith (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) John Whitman (Cornell University) Student speaker: Shigeto Kawahara (University of Massachusetts, Amherst)

Abstracts are not to exceed one page in letter-size (8.5'' × 11'') paper with 1'' margins on all sides and 12pt font size, with an optional additional page for data and references. The abstract should have a clear title but should not identify the author(s). The abstract must be sent to icealchass.utoronto.ca in .pdf format. The name of the .pdf file should be the last name of the (first) author (e.g., Johnson.pdf, not abstract.pdf).

Please include the following information in the body of the email:

1. title of paper2. language(s) to be discussed (Chinese, Japanese, and/or Korean)3. area of linguistics (e.g., syntax, phonology…)4. name of the author(s)5. affiliation6. e-mail address7. student (yes/no)

Submission deadline: July 15, 2006Notification of acceptance: September 1, 2006


Message 2: Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic Communication
Date: 26-Apr-2006
From: Paul Vogt <p.a.vogtuvt.nl>
Subject: Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic Communication



Full Title: Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic Communication Short Title: EELC
Date: 30-Sep-2006 - 01-Oct-2006 Location: Rome, Italy Contact Person: Paul Vogt
Meeting Email: < click here to access email >
Web Site: http://bdc.brain.riken.go.jp/eelc2006/
Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science; Computational Linguistics; Language Acquisition

Call Deadline: 07-May-2006

Meeting Description:

Third Intl. Symposium on the Emergence and Evolution of Linguistic Communication (EELC III). http://bdc.brain.riken.go.jp/eelc2006/

Rome, Italy, 30 Sept. - 1 Oct. 2006.

As part of the Simulation of Adaptive Behavior (SAB) conference http://www.sab06.org/

Invited Speakers:Peter Gardenfors (Lund University, Sweden), Naoto Iwahashi (ATR, Japan), Elena Lieven (Max Planck Institute, Germany), Eörs Szathmáry (Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary)

Scope of the WorkshopLanguage is generally considered as the hallmark of human intelligence. One important way to study why this is the case, is to investigate how linguistic communication has evolved. In the past decade, this research area has received a lot of attention from the scientific community and could be considered as one of the main areas of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science. The EELC III workshop will focus on empirical and modelling research on the emergence of symbol grounding and other aspects of linguistic communication in language evolution and language acquisition. The key questions relate to how symbolic communication can emerge from interactions of individuals with their environment, including other individuals, and how such communication can become meaningful to the individual or population. Research methods that are used to study these issues include experimental and observational studies on child language acquisition and animal communication; theoretical and computational modelling; and (robotic) simulations of adaptive behaviour. The workshop aims to provide leading scientists in the interdisciplinary area of language evolution and language acquisition a platform to present their latest results and discuss areas of further research.

Until about 15 years ago, there was very little productive research in the study of language evolution. However, with the increased advancements of computational techniques and other empirical methods, the field of language evolution has grown to become one of the major research areas in cognitive science. While the field is largely interdisciplinary with contributions from linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, biology, anthropology, philosophy and computer science, the latter has proven to be among the most influential disciplines. A reason for this is that empirical evidence on language evolution is scarce and computer simulations offer a good testbed for investigating hypotheses. One of the major driving forces for language evolution is often considered to be language acquisition. Language can be transmitted over subsequent generations if individuals can learn language.

Moreover, it has been claimed that the stages of children’s language acquisition mirrors the stages of language evolution. So, the current EELC will not only look at studies on the evolution of language, but also at studies on language acquisition.

Although many computer simulations take the emergence of symbol grounding for granted, recently there has been an increase in studies that focus on issues relating to the emergence of grounded communication systems. The EELC III will therefore have 'adaptive approaches to symbol grounding and beyond' as its central theme, though contributions are not limited to this theme.

Submissions are invited covering all aspects of the emergence and evolution of language. All accepted papers will be published in a Springer LNCS/LNAI Series. For more information and details on submission, consult the workshop's homepage, http://bdc.brain.riken.go.jp/eelc2006/.

Extended deadline: 7 May 2006Notification of acceptance: 2 June 2006Camera ready submissions: 30 June 2006Workshop date: 30 Sept. - 1 Oct. 2006