[news.announce.conferences] CFP: SYMPOSIUM ON DISCONTINUOUS CONSTITUENCY

horck@itksu2 (06/27/89)

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	  ADVANCE NOTICE  AND CALL FOR PAPERS
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The Institute for Language Technology and Artificial Intelligence ITK, recently founded at Tilburg University, The Netherlands, will be fostering a

	 SYMPOSIUM ON DISCONTINUOUS CONSTITUENCY
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DATE:

    January 25-27, 1990.


PLACE:

    Tilburg University, The Netherlands.


GUESTSPEAKERS:

    David Dowty, Ohio State University;
    Richard Kayne, CUNY;
    James McCawley, University of Chicago;
    Carl Pollard, Carnegie-Mellon University;
    Jan Koster, Groningen University.




ITK:

    The Institute for Language Technology and Artificial
    Intelligence ITK was founded in spring 1988 at Tilburg
    University to further research and development of integrated
    theories of language, knowledge and computation.

    ITK brings together the research programme on natural
    language processing and artificial intelligence at the
    department of Language and Computer Science in the Faculty
    of Arts, and the research programme on data base technology,
    artificial intelligence and expert systems at the department
    of Computer Science in the Faculty of Economics, both at
    Tilburg University. ITK is also the centre of activity in
    the national university-industry research programme
    'Human-computer communication using natural lanuguage'. In
    addition, ITK initiates new research in language processing,
    data base technology and artificial intelligence.

    ITK was founded through grants from the Dutch government
    and Tilburg University and receives support from several
    computer firms.




HUMAN-COMPUTER COMMUNICATION:

    The possibility to use natural language in human interfaces
    to computer systems constitutes a target of ITK research.
    This target is a source of challenging research questions
    of a fundamental nature and holds the promise of a wide
    variety of exciting applications. It forms the theme of the
    reserach programme 'Human-computer communication using
    natural language'. in which several universities and
    industries cooperate with financial support from the
    Dutch government through teh SPIN agency. The programme
    has been designed and will be carried out by ITK
    together with the section Language Technology in the
    department of Psychology at the University of Nijmegen
    the Language and Speech Technology group in the R&D
    department of Oce-Nederland, and the Institute for
    Perception Research IPO (a joint institute of Philips
    Research and Eindhoven Technical University). The programme
    is coordinated at ITK.


THE SYMPOSIUM:

    Discontinuous constituency, a phenomenon found in many languages,
    presents problems for its description in formal grammars. Manifold
    are the syntactic solutions to the problem that have been
    suggested. These vary from transformations to metarules, and from
    crossing branches to representations in c- and f-structures. Of
    course there are also semantic problems involved; there is for
    instance the problem that discontinuous constituency raises for
    the principle of compositionality.

    In the symposium three questions will occupy a central position:

       - How can discontinuous constituency be accounted for in
	 syntactic terms;

       - Given a syntactic analysis, how can a semantic analysis be
	 formulated;

       - What are the computational implications of the answers
	 formulated to the first two questions.


INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS:

    Three copies of extended abstracts (4 to 5 pages,
    double-spaced) should be submitted before
    SEPTEMBER 15, 1989 to:


	   Wietske Sijtsma and/or Arthur van Horck
	   Tilburg University, ITK
	   P.O. Box 90153
	   5000 LE Tilburg
	   The Netherlands.



    All papers, both written and oral versions, should be
    in English. The Conference Proceedings will be distributed
    to the conference participants.



REFEREES:

    Riny Huybregts, Tilburg University;
    Reinhard Muskens, Tilburg University;
    Henk van Riemsdijk, Tilburg University
    Elias Thijsse, Tilburg University;
    Frans Zwarts, Groningen University.



OTHER IMPORTANT DATES:

    November 1, 1989 - notification of acceptance.

    December 15, 1989 - camera-ready copies due.


REGISTRATION:


    The following registration fees are due:

				     Students	Non-students
				     --------	------------
    (amounts in Dfl.)

    - Conference attendance (3 days)	 40	     140
      (incl. Conference Proceedings,
       coffee, tea)

    - Lunch (3 days)			 35	      35

    - Dinner/buffet			 35	      35





    Registration will be accepted until December 1, 1989.


MORE INFORMATION:

    For more information and/or application forms, please contact:


	Wietske Sijtsma and/or Arthur van Horck
	Tilburg University, ITK
	P.O. Box 90153
	5000 LE Tilburg
	The Netherlands.
	email: wietske@htikub5.bitnet
	       or
	       {hp4nl}!itksu2!horck