* Call for Papers *
Workshop on
Semantic Approximation, Granularity, and Vagueness
April 11, 2000
A Workshop of the Seventh International Conference on
Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning
April 12-16
Breckenridge, Colorado, USA
http://www.citizen.infi.net/~ledragon/KR-2000sem_approx_workshop.html
DESCRIPTION
It has been recognized in recent years that similar issues, problems,
and approaches underlie research on semantic approximation, partiality,
granularity (abstraction, precisification), and vagueness in four
fields:
· knowledge representation in artificial intelligence (formalization of
context, spatial and temporal knowledge bases)
· formal modeling (including denotational semantics, finite model theory
and descriptive complexity) in computer science
· formal ontology in analytical philosophy
· formal semantics and pragmatics in natural language (discourse
interpretation, semantics of plurals, tense, aspect, underspecification,
etc.)
Some commonalities include the use of modal, temporal, and higher-order
logics and possible worlds semantics for characterizing the dynamic
interpretation of context, the employment of mereological and
topological methods for modeling concepts and domains, theories of
semantic abstraction and precisification, domain modeling using
structured formal constructs such as partially ordered sets, lattices,
boolean algebras, categories, topoi, etc.
It might also be said that the notion of similarity requires a notion of
semantic approximation, that one gauge of semantic approximation is
location on a scale from more precise (or concrete or specific) to less
precise (or abstract or general), but that such a gauge is inherently
multidimensional. In addition, the notion of a boundary region between
conceptually approximate objects may have to be explicated: How does one
know that A is approximately but not quite B? How does one determine
with increasing confidence an object to be in the extension of one
predicate rather than another, for example, that an object is tall or is
red? How should we interpret the formal constructs we use to
characterize these notions of approximation, granularity, and
abstraction, i.e., linguistically (as technical vocabulary only) or
ontologically (the formal objects have real existence), and what are the
implications of how we interpret these?
This workshop intends to bring together researchers in the computer
science, artificial intelligence, linguistics, and philosophy
communities for the exchange of ideas and approaches to address issues
they may have in common, such as:
· Approximation, Partiality, Indefiniteness, and Vagueness
· Similarity, Commonality, Accessibility
· Abstraction and Precision: Notions of Semantic/Pragmatic Granularity
· Dynamic Interpretation and Incremental Meaning
· Formal Structures for Domain Models of Approximation
· Imprecise Ontologies
· Computational Implementations and Applications
Potential applications where the ideas of this workshop can be utilized
include information integration on the web, knowledge management,
multi-agent systems, software component composition, text summarization,
and natural language understanding.
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Leo Obrst, Artificial Intelligence Center, The MITRE Corporation,
McLean, Virginia, USA, co-chair (obrst@mitre.org)
Inderjeet Mani, Artificial Intelligence Center, The MITRE Corporation,
McLean, Virginia, USA, co-chair (imani@mitre.org)
Paolo Bouquet, Mechanized Reasoning Group, Department of Computer and
Management Sciences, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
Pat Hayes, Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, University of West
Florida, Pensacola, Florida, USA
Aris M. Ouksel, College of Business Administration, The University of
Illinois at Chicago, Illinois, USA
Maarten de Rijke, Institute for Logic, Language, and Computation,
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Gérard Becher, GREYC, Université de Caen, Caen, France
Massimo Benerecetti, Department of Computer and Management Sciences,
University of Trento, and IRST, Trento, Italy
Brandon Bennett, Division of Artificial Intelligence, School of Computer
Studies, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
Patrick Cousot, Département de Mathématiques et Informatique (DMI),
École Normale Supérieure (ENS), Paris, France
Chiara Ghidini, Department of Computing and Mathematics, Manchester
Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
Angelo Montanari, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science,
University of Udine, Udine, Italy
Manfred Pinkal, Department of Computational Linguistics, University of
Saarbruecken, Saarbruecken, Germany
Paul Portner, Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University,
Washington, DC, USA
James Pustejovsky, Department of Computer Science and Volen Center for
Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA
Barry Smith, Department of Philosophy, University of New York at
Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, USA
Achille C. Varzi, Department of Philosophy, Columbia University, USA
Henk Verkuyl, Utrecht Institute for Linguistics OTS, University of
Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
PAPER SUBMISSION
Authors should submit papers on one of the topics addressed by the
workshop or a related topic, with a maximum length of 10 pages
(excluding references). Papers should be submitted electronically (in
postscript format) to KRSemApp@citizen.infi.net no later than January
15, 2000. Author names, affiliations, and primary author contact
information should accompany the submission. Note also that we are
negotiating with a major publisher for possible post-workshop
publication of selected and revised papers.
IMPORTANT DATES
January 15, 2000 Submission deadline
February 15, 2000 Notification of acceptance
March 8, 2000 Camera-ready copy due
April 11, 2000 Workshop