[Corpora-List] 2nd CFP: Psycho-computational Models of Human Language Acquisition

From: pcomp@hunter.cuny.edu
Date: Thu Mar 18 2004 - 19:58:27 MET

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    ****************************************************************************
                
                             2nd Call for Papers

                            COLING-2004 Workshop:

           Psycho-computational Models of Human Language Acquisition

                   Geneva Switzerland 28 August 2004

                http://www.colag.cs.hunter.cuny.edu/psychocomp/

    Workshop Topic
    --------------

    The workshop will be devoted to psychologically motivated computational models
    of language acquisition -- models that are compatible with research in
    psycholinguistics, developmental psychology and linguistics -- with particular
    emphasis on the acquisition of syntax.

    Invited panel: Learning Biases in Language Acquisition Models
    ----------------------------------------------------------------
      Walter Daelemans, Antwerp and Tilburg
      Charles D. Yang, Yale

    Invited speaker
    ---------------
      Elan Dresher, Toronto

    Workshop Description and Motivation
    -----------------------------------

    In recent decades there has been a great deal of successful research that
    applies computational learning techniques to emerging natural language
    technologies, along with many meetings, conferences and workshops in which to
    present such research. However, there have been few venues in which psycho-
    computational models of how humans acquire their native language(s) are the
    focus.

    Psycho-computational models of language acquisition are of particular interest
    in light of recent results in developmental psychology which suggest that very
    young infants are adept at detecting statistical patterns in an audible input
    stream. However, this begs the question of whether or not a psychologically
    plausible statistical learning strategy can be successfully exploited in a
    full-
    blown psycho-computational acquisition model. Although there has been a
    significant amount of presented research targeted at modeling the acquisition
    of
    word categories and phonology, research aimed at psychologically motivated
    modeling of syntax acquisition has just begun to emerge.

    The principal goal of the workshop is to bring together researchers who work
    within computational linguistics, formal learning theory, machine learning,
    artificial intelligence, linguistics, psycholinguistics and other fields,
    who have created or are investigating computational models of language
    acquisition. In particular, it will provide a forum for establishing links and
    common themes between diverse paradigms. Although research which directly
    addresses the acquisition of syntax is strongly encouraged, related studies
    that
    inform research on the acquisition of syntax are also welcome.

    Papers are invited on, but not limited to, the following topics:

    * Acquisition models that contain a parsing component
    * Models that have a cross-linguistic or bilingual perspective
    * Models that address the question of learning bias in terms of innate
      linguistic knowledge versus statistical regularity in the input
    * Models that can acquire natural language word-order
    * Hybrid models that cross established paradigms
    * Models that directly make use of or can be used to evaluate existing
      linguistic or developmental theories in a computational framework (e.g. the
      principles & parameters framework or Optimality Theory)
    * Empirical models that make use of child-directed corpora
    * Formal models that incorporate psychologically plausible constraints
    * Comparative surveys, across multiple paradigms, that critique previously
      published studies

    Paper Length: Submissions should be no longer than 8 pages (A4 or the
    equivalent). High-quality short papers or extended abstracts of 4 to 5 pages
    are
    encouraged. Submission and format details are below.

    Lunch session: Word-order acquisition
    --------------------------------------

    The topic of this session will be the acquisition of different natural
    language
    word-orders. The workshop will provide a common test-bed of abstract sentence
    patterns from word order divergent languages. The shared data contains the
    sentence patterns and cross-linguistic fully-specified parses for each
    sentence
    pattern. The patterns are available at:

      www.colag.cs.hunter.cuny.edu/grammar/data/allsentences.zip

    General information and a web interface for perusing the data can be found at:

      www.colag.cs.hunter.cuny.edu/grammar

    Due to the limited amount of time available to work with novel data, pilot
    studies are encouraged. The session will consist of short presentations and
    roundtable discussion. Submissions for this session are limited to 2 pages.

    Those who may be interested in submitting to this session should contact the
    workshop organizer before the submission deadline for further details.

    Dates of submissions

      Submission deadline: 30 March 2004
      Acceptance notification: 14 May 2004
      Camera-ready deadline: 10 June 2004
      Workshop date: 28 August 2004

    Workshop Organizer

      William Gregory Sakas, City University of New York (sakas@hunter.cuny.edu)

    Program Committee

    * Robert Berwick, MIT, USA
    * Antal van den Bosch, Tilburg University, The Netherlands
    * Ted Briscoe, University of Cambridge, UK
    * Damir Cavar, Indiana University, USA
    * Morten H. Christiansen, Cornell University, USA
    * Stephen Clark, University of Edinburgh, UK
    * James Cussens, University of York, UK
    * Walter Daelemans, University of Antwerp, Belgium and Tilburg University,
      The Netherlands
    * Jeffrey Elman, University of California, San Diego, USA
    * Janet Dean Fodor, City University of New York, USA
    * Gerard Kempen, Leiden University, The Netherlands and The Max Planck
      Institute, Nijmegen
    * Vincenzo Lombardo, University of Torino, Italy
    * Larry Moss, University of Indiana, USA
    * Miles Osborne, University of Edinburgh, UK
    * Dan Roth, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
    * Ivan Sag, Stanford University, USA
    * Jeffrey Siskind, Purdue University, USA
    * Mark Steedman, University of Edinburgh, UK
    * Menno van Zaanen, Tilburg University, The Netherlands
    * Charles Yang, Yale University, USA

    Paper Submission
    ----------------

    Length: Submissions should be no more than 8 pages (A4 or equivalent). High-
    quality short papers or extended abstracts of 4 to 5 pages are encouraged.
    Submissions to the lunch session on word-order should be no more than 2
    pages. (If accepted, final camera ready versions may be up to 8 pages or 5
    pages
    for the word-order submissions.)

    Layout: Papers must conform to COLING 2004 formatting guidelines, available at:

      http://www.issco.unige.ch/coling2004/coling2004downloads.html

    Electronic Submission: All submissions will be by email. Reviews will be
    blind,
    so be careful not to disclose authorship or affiliation. PDF submissions are
    preferred and will be required for the final camera-ready copy.

    Submissions should be sent as an attachment to:
      Psycho.Comp@hunter.cuny.edu.
      The subject line must contain the single word: Submission.

    Please be sure to include accurate contact information in the body of the
    email.

    Contact:

    Psycho.Comp@hunter.cuny.edu
       or sakas@hunter.cuny.edu

    http://www.colag.cs.hunter.cuny.edu/psychocomp/

    William Gregory Sakas, PhD
    Computer Science and Linguistics
    Hunter College and The Graduate Center
    City University of New York

    Voice: (212) 772.5211
    Fax: (212) 772.5219
    email: sakas@hunter.cuny.edu
    ----- End forwarded message -----





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