nl-kr-request@CS.RPI.EDU (NL-KR Moderator Chris Welty) (04/12/91)
NL-KR Digest (Thu Apr 11 13:34:09 1991) Volume 8 No. 16 Today's Topics: Summer School in NLP Informal Computing Workshop ACL-91 Annual Meeting -- summary description CFP (2nd call) - ASIS SIG/CR Classification Research Workshop NL Software Registry CILS Calendar Submissions: nl-kr@cs.rpi.edu Requests, policy: nl-kr-request@cs.rpi.edu Back issues are available from host archive.cs.rpi.edu [128.213.10.18] in the files nl-kr/Vxx/Nyy (ie nl-kr/V01/N01 for V1#1), mail requests will not be promptly satisfied. If you can't reach `cs.rpi.edu' you may want to use `turing.cs.rpi.edu' instead. BITNET subscribers: we now have a LISTSERVer for nl-kr. You may send submissions to NL-KR@RPIECS and any listserv-style administrative requests to LISTSERV@RPIECS. ----------------------------------------------------------------- To: nl-kr@cs.rpi.edu Date: Thu, 14 Mar 1991 10:26:07 +0100 >From: Michael Hess <hess@divsun.unige.ch> Subject: Summer School in NLP FIRST SWISS SUMMER SCHOOL IN NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING 23 - 27 September 1991 Lugano (Switzerland) The Special Interest Group in Natural Language Processing of the Swiss Group of Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science (SGAICO), in collaboration with the University of Geneva, is organising a Summer School in Natural Language Processing this autumn. The intended audience is, on the one hand, students of linguis- tics who have no opportunity to take classes in NLP at their home universities and, on the other hand, people from industry working in a specialised field of NLP (e.g. speech processing, Machine Translation) but without too much background in general linguis- tics. Lectures will therefore not presuppose too much in the line of factual NLP knowledge but they will otherwise be fairly demanding. In many respects the School is intended to be a com- plement to the European Summer Schools in Language, Logic and Information, which are oriented exclusively towards the scien- tific aspects of the field. Our intention is to give the dif- ferent applications of NLP considerably more weight. The School will therefore consist of two types of courses: Four longer courses covering the fundamental aspects of NLP (between 10 lessons of 45 minutes to 4 lessons of 60 minutes), and five shorter courses covering more specialised and application oriented aspects of the field (1 or 2 lessons of 60 minutes). Courses will, if possible at all, not run in parallel so that participants will be able to take in the full programme of approx. 48 hours. Speakers are well-known specialists in the field of NLP, mostly from outside Switzerland. The language of the School will be English. We hope this will make the School attractive for people from universities and industry from all over Europe. Programme Fundamental Aspects: Martin Kay (Stanford Univ.): Natural Language Processing - the Foundations Barbara Grosz (Harvard Univ.): Pragmatics and Discourse Processing Manfred Pinkal (Saarbru"cken Univ.): Recent Semantic Models for NLP Klaus Netter (Saarbru"cken Univ.): Constraint-Based Grammar Formalisms Specific Aspects: Ken Church (Bell Labs): NLP Techniques and Text Retrieval Eric Wehrli (Geneva Univ.): Interactive Tools for Parsing and Translation Maghi King (ISSCO): Evaluation of NLP Products Graham Russell (ISSCO): Language Technology and Applications Michael Hess (Zurich Univ.): Discourse Representation Theories Costs: sFr. 100.- for full-time students, around sFr. 200.- for participants from academic institutions, around sFr. 400.- for participants from commercial or governmental institutions (exact fees for non-students will be known in about one month's time). The fee does not include meals or accommodation. A limited number of grants for students will be available. Accommodation: A limited number of hotel rooms can be booked through IDSIA Deadlines: The deadline for early registration is 15th June 1991. After this date a late fee of sFr. 20.- will be added to the invoice. On-site late registration for courses (without hotel reservation) will also be possible. The deadline for hotel reser- vations through IDSIA is 15th July 1991. Cancellation: If you cancel registration for the School before 31st July 1991 you will be reimbursed 50% of the fee. Cancella- tion of hotel bookings must be arranged with the hotel direct. Address of local organiser: For general information about the School contact: Mike Rosner (SGAICO NLP) Michael Hess (SGAICO NLP) Istituto Dalle Molle IDSIA ISSCO Corso Elvezia 36 54, rte des Acacias CH-6900 Lugano CH-1227 Gene`ve Fax: +41 91 22 89 94 Fax: +41 22 300 10 86 Tel.: +41 91 22 88 81 Tel.: +41 22 705 71 16 E-mail: mike@idsia.uu.ch E-mail: hess@divsun.unige.ch - -------------------------- CUT HERE ----------------------------- REGISTRATION AND REQUEST FOR INFORMATION ( ) I want more detailed information about the School (in approx. one month) I register for the First Swiss Summer School in Natural Language Processing as ( ) a full-time student (please enclose proof of enrollment) ( ) an employee of an academic organisation ( ) an employee of a commercial or governmental organisation ( ) and want also more detailed information ( ) and I will want to book a hotel room through IDSIA ( ) I have registered as a full-time student and apply for a grant Place, Date, Signature: ...................................................... Name/First Name _________________________________________________ Affiliation _________________________________________________ Address _________________________________________________ _________________________________________________ Phone/E-mail _________________________________________________ Please send this form, by snail-mail, e-mail or fax, to the local organiser at the address given above ------------------------------ To: nl-kr@cs.rpi.edu Subject: Informal Computing Workshop Date: Mon, 01 Apr 91 17:23:46 -0500 >From: Jon Shultis <jon@incsys.com> Workshop on Informal Computing 29-31 May 1991 Santa Cruz, California Fundamental questions about the nature of informality are gaining importance in computer science. What is informal understanding? What is the nature of informal reasoning? Why is it so powerful and efficient? How are the inconsistency, vagueness, and incompleteness of informal thought managed? How does natural language manage to communicate informal knowledge and reasoning? Computer applications in many fields, ranging from economics and medicine to software engineering and artificial intelligence, demand effective and cognitively accurate answers to these questions in order to capture, represent, and process informal information in computer systems. Inspired by trends toward formalization in logic, mathematics, linguistics, and philosophy, computer scientists historically have tended to regard informal processes as approximate, or imperfect, realizations of formal ideals. Increasingly, however, the idea that informal languages, ontology, and reasoning can (or should) be reduced to (or supplanted by) regimented and "perfected" formalisms is being challenged. Far from being flawed formalisms, informal processes are emerging as fundamental to human understanding and language. From the "informalist" perspective, formalism has been mistaken for the paradigm of intelligence, rather than simply a useful outgrowth of intelligence. The purpose of the Workshop on Informal Computing is to define the study of Informalism, and to begin a coordinated attack on the fundamental issues and problems of the field, bringing together the insights and experience of those who have been working to understand informality in specialized domains. Discussion at the workshop will focus on three major themes: informal knowledge and reasoning; modelling and interpretation; and conversational computing and adaptive languages. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to: intentionality and consciousness; dialogue management; informal meaning and pragmatics; evidential reasoning and belief; resource- and information-limited reasoning; neurocomputation; lessons and techniques from computational linguistics; dynamical and chaotic representations and reasoning; and philosophy of language. The program will be divided between hour-long presentations by invited speakers, and discussion sessions aimed at defining and clarifying informal computing issues, and at identifying promising directions and approaches for future research. The discussion sessions should provide ample opportunity for participants to exchange views, and the schedule will be flexible enough to permit impromptu presentations as appropriate. Also, a follow-up conference may be organized if there is sufficient interest. We are busy making arrangements for speakers and drawing up the schedule, but the basic plan is to devote one day to each of the three themes mentioned above. A preliminary list of speakers includes Bruce d'Ambrosio (Oregon State University) Sandra Carberry (University of Delaware) David Fisher (Incremental Systems) Donald Good (Computational Logic) David Mundie (Incremental Systems) Larry Reeker (IDA) Jeff Rothenberg (RAND) Jon Shultis (Incremental Systems) Tim Standish (University of California at Irvine) Edward Zalta (Stanford University) The final program will be announced on or before 8 May 1991. If you are interested in participating in the workshop, please submit, by 12 April 1991, a brief summary of your interests, and previous or ongoing research that is relevant to the workshop themes. The summaries will be reviewed, and notices of acceptance sent out on 26 April 1991, together with local arrangements information. Summaries should be sent to Jon Shultis Incremental Systems Corporation 319 South Craig Street Pittsburgh, PA 15213 e-mail: jon@incsys.com tel: (412) 621-8888 FAX: (412) 621-0259 Funding for the Workshop on Informal Computing is being provided by DARPA/ISTO in conjunction with ongoing research at Incremental Systems Corporation on adaptive languages for software engineering. ------------------------------ To: nl-kr@cs.rpi.edu Date: Fri, 5 Apr 91 11:45:20 -0500 >From: walker@flash.bellcore.com (Don Walker) Subject: ACL-91 Annual Meeting -- summary description ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS 29th Annual Meeting 17-21 June 1991 University of California, Berkeley, California, USA The program for the Annual Meeting itself, which will take place on 19-21 June, features papers on all aspects of computational linguistics. Two invited lectures will be given during the meeting: "Linguistic Problems and Extra-Linguistic Problems in Machine Translation" by Jun-ichi Tsujii, UMIST; and "Word Meaning: Starting where the MRDs Stop" by Charles Fillmore, University of California, Berkeley and Sue Atkins, Oxford University Press. In addition, there are a special set of Student Sessions featuring papers that describe `work in progress' so that students can receive feedback from other members of the computational linguistics community. The Annual Meeting is preceded on 18 June by a set of tutorials: "Natural Language Generation" by Kathleen McCoy and Johanna Moore; "Intonation in Spoken Language Systems" by Julia Hirschberg; "Computational Linguistics Methodologies for Humanities Computing" by Nancy M. Ide; and "Machine Translation: An In-Depth Tutorial" by Jaime Carbonell and Yorick Wilks. There are also three preconference workshops: (1) "Lexical Semantics and Knowledge Representation" (17 June), sponsored by the ACL Special Interest Group on the Lexicon (SIGLEX). For more information, contact James Pustejovsky, Computer Science Department, Ford Hall, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA 02254-9110, USA; (+1-617)736-2709; jamesp@chaos.cs.brandeis.edu. (2) Reversible Grammar in Natural Language Processing (17 June), sponsored by the ACL Special Interest Groups on Generation (SIGGEN) and Parsing (SIGPARSE). For more information, contact Tomek Strzalkowski, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, 715 Broadway, Room 704, New York, NY 10003, USA; (+1-212)998-3496; tomek@cs.nyu.edu. (3) Evaluation of Natural Language Processing Systems (18 June). For more information, contact Jeannette G. Neal, Calspan Corporation, P.O. Box 400, Buffalo, NY 14225, USA; (+1-716)631-6844; neal@cs.buffalo.edu. Lexical Semantics and Knowledge Representation CONFERENCE INFORMATION The Program Committee was chaired by Douglas Appelt, SRI International. The Tutorials were organized by Cecile Paris, USC/ISI. The exhibits and demonstrations are being arranged by Sandra Newton, Brown Bear Consulting, 3842 Louis Road, Palo Alto, CA 94303, USA; (+1-415)856-6506; newton@decwrl.dec.com. Local arrangements are being handled by Peter Norvig, Division of Computer Science, University of California, 573 Evans Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; (+1-415)642-9533; norvig@teak.berkeley.edu. For program and registration brochures and other information on the conference and on the ACL more generally, contact Don Walker (ACL), Bellcore, MRE 2A379, 445 South Street, Box 1910, Morristown, NJ 07960-1910, USA; (+1 201)829-4312; walker@flash.bellcore.com. ------------------------------ To: nl-kr@cs.rpi.edu Newsgroups: comp.ai.nlang-know-rep >From: humphrey@suesun.nlm.nih.gov (Susanne M Humphrey) Subject: CFP (2nd call) - ASIS SIG/CR Classification Research Workshop Date: Fri, 5 Apr 91 23:43:10 GMT 2nd ASIS Workshop on Classification Research Organized by the ASIS Special Interest Group on Classification Research (SIG/CR) Call for Participation The American Society for Information Science Special Interest Group on Classification Research (ASIS SIG/CR) invites submissions for the 2nd ASIS Classification Research (CR) Workshop, to be held at the 54th Annual Meeting of ASIS in Washington, DC. The Workshop will take place Sunday, October 27th, 1991, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. ASIS '91 continues through Thursday, October 31. The CR Workshop is designed to be an exchange of ideas among those engaged in active research or practice in the creation, development, management, representation, display, comparison, compatibility, theory, and application of classification schemes. Emphasis will be on semantic classification, in contrast to statistically-based schemes. Topics include, but are not limited to: - Warrant for concepts in classification schemes. - Concept acquisition. - Basis for semantic classes. - Automated techniques to assist in creating classification schemes. - Statistical techniques used for developing explicit, nonstatistically-based semantic classes. - Relations and their properties. - Inheritance and subsumption. - Knowledge representation schemes. - Classification algorithms. - Procedural knowledge in classification schemes. - Reasoning with classification schemes. - Software for managing classification schemes. - Data structures and programming languages for classification schemes. - Comparison and compatibility between classification schemes. - Previously-named topics, highlighting specific applications such as subject analysis, database navigation, information retrieval, natural language understanding, expert systems, and image processing. The CR Workshop welcomes submissions from various disciplines. Attendance will be by invitation only. Those interested in participating are invited to submit a short (1-2 page single-spaced) position paper, summarizing their substantive work in the above areas or other areas related to semantic classification schemes, and a statement briefly outlining the reason for wanting to participate in the workshop. Submissions may include background papers as attachments. Those selected as presenters will be invited to submit expanded versions of their position papers and to speak to those papers in brief presentations during the workshop. All position papers (both expanded and short papers) will be published in proceedings to be distributed prior to the workshop. The workshop registration fee is $30.00 per person, and includes a copy of the proceedings and lunch and refreshments. Submissions should be sent by email, or diskette accompanied by paper copy, or paper copy only (fax or postal), to arrive by May 1, 1991, to Barbara Kwasnik: Barbara Kwasnik, Co-Chair Raya Fidel, Co-Chair School of Information Studies Graduate School of Library and 4-206 Center for Science and Technology Information Science Syracuse University University of Washington, FM-30 Syracuse, NY 13244 Seattle, WA 98195 Internet: bkwasnik@suvm.acs.syr.edu Internet: fidelr@vax1.u.washington.edu Phone: (315) 443-2911 Phone: (206) 543-1888 Fax: (315) 443-5806 ------------------------------ To: nl-kr@cs.rpi.edu Date: Wed, 10 Apr 91 15:15:42 -0500 >From: Computational Linguists <registry@tira.uchicago.edu> Subject: NL Software Registry NATURAL LANGUAGE SOFTWARE REGISTRY The Natural Language Software Registry is a catalogue of software implementing core natural language processing techniques, whether available on a commercial or noncommercial basis. The current version includes + speech signal processors, such as the Computerized Speech Lab (Kay Electronics) + morphological analyzers, such as PC-KIMMO (Summer Institute for Linguistics) + parsers, such as Alveytools (University of Edinburgh) + knowledge representation systems, such as Rhet (University of Rochester) + multicomponent systems, such as ELU (ISSCO), PENMAN (ISI), Pundit (UNISYS), SNePS (SUNY Buffalo), + applications programs (misc.) This document is available on-line via anonymous ftp to tira.uchicago.edu (IP 128.135.96.31), by email to registry@tira.uchicago.edu, and by physical mail to the address below. If you have developed a piece of software for natural language processing that other researchers might find useful, you can include it by returning the description form, available from the same sources. Elizabeth Hinkelman, Director (registry@tira.uchicago.edu) NL Software Registry Center for Information and Language Studies 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, IL 60637, USA - ---------------------- Authors: Person to contact for software (if different): Institution: Department: Street: City/State/Zip: Country: Phone (with country & area codes): Email network & address: Name of system: Type of system: research system / commercial product / other (specify) Primary task of system: linguistic analysis / test of linguistic theory (specify) / text generation / machine translation / text proofing / database interface / other (specify) Components: phonological analyzer/generator morphological analyzer/generator parser/generator semantic interpreter knowledge representation discourse structure pragmatic features other (specify) Components available as independent modules: (subsequent questions may need a separate answer for each) Components can be extended by: the developer / computational linguist / linguist / programmer / experienced user / new user Data components are: firmly embedded in program / independent of program Data provided: (give size, features and language as in the examples) 120,000 entry wordlist for French 5,000 word LFG lexicon of basic Swahili w/ affixes, English gloss 15 rule transformational grammar for Dutch cross-serial dependencies 200 node knowledge base for AIDS case histories w/ 10 30-node cases. Data components can be extended by: the developer / computational linguist / linguist / programmer / experienced user / new user Character set used for language data: programmable (describe) fixed, 16-bit -- Unicode fixed, 8-bit -- ISO (specify, eg ASCII+Latin II) / proprietary ASCII fixed, 7-bit -- ISO (specify, eg US ASCII) / extended ASCII (specify) other (specify) Range of applicable natural languages: (give theoretical or technical limits) Approximate number of examples processed successfully, as a power of 10: Specify example type: words / sentences / paragraphs / other Its coverage level is now: demonstration / small research / large research / production quality / high volume Size of system: lines of source code, kilobytes of executable Programming language: Operating system or hardware: Is there a stable version of the system? Is there continuing development? Summarize the main goals and ideas. Indicate what makes the project a useful and interesting tool for research applications. List documents in which the software is described: User documentation: System documentation: Available support: upgrades / source code / consulting / other Format for software distribution: Price: Restrictions on use: If you are willing to have the software reviewed, please send us a version along with this information. We are also interested in reports and documentation, even for software not reviewed. NL Software Registry Center for Information and Language Studies 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, IL 60637, USA registry@tira.uchicago.edu ------------------------------ To: nl-kr@cs.rpi.edu Subject: CILS Calendar X-Mailer: MH 6.6 #5[UCI] Date: Mon, 08 Apr 91 16:41:21 -0500 >From: colleen@tira.uchicago.edu _________________ T H E C I L S C A L E N D A R ________________ The Center for Information and Language Studies Joseph Regenstein Library, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 Subscription requests to: cils@tira.uchicago.edu ____________________________________________________________________ Vol. 1, No. 22 April 8, 1991 ~*~ Upcoming events: 4/8 16:00 Wb 130 Workshop Ronald McClamrock, Philosophy 4/10 16:00 Wb 408 Workshop Seth Katz, English 4/22 14:30 Ry 277 Lecture Lisa Rau, GE Research and Development 4/29 14:30 Ry 277 Lecture Glenn Reid, RightBrain Software - ------------------------------ MONDAY, APRIL 8 4:00 Workshop Wb 130 The Pragmatics of Language Ron McClamrock (gjem@midway) Dept. of Philosophy "EXISTENTIAL SEMANTICS, or LIFE WITHOUT MEANING" Copies of background reading ("Methodological Individualism Considered as a Constitutive Principle of Scientific Inquiry") are available in the Departments of Philosophy (Cl 17), Linguistics (Cl 304), and Computer Science (Ry 152) and at the Center for Information and Language Studies (JRL S-112). The next speaker will be Greg Ward, Northwestern University, on April 22. For more information, please contact Jerrold Sadock, Department of Linguistics (2-8524, sadock@sapir) or Josef Stern, Department of Philosophy (2-8594). __________ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10 4:00 Workshop Wb 408 Language and Thought Seth Katz, English Department "WHO Walks in Beauty?" Mr. Katz will discuss the use of definite noun phrases in lyric poetry. For more information, please contact Paula Schiller (733-0915). New participants welcome. ___________ MONDAY, APRIL 22 Ry 277 Guest Lecture 2:30 p.m. Lisa Rau (rau@sol.crd.ge.com) (518) 387-5059; FAX: (518) 387-6845 Artificial Intelligence Laboratory GE Research and Development Center "CONCEPTUAL INFORMATION EXTRACTION AND RETRIEVAL" Abstract In this talk, I will cover three interacting areas of active research here at GE R&D. First, I will give the history and status of our work in the area of data extraction---extracting fixed-field information from free-form text in constrained domains. Our approach to natural language data extraction centers on a custom lexicon design, innovative methods of parser control, and integrating strategies for language analysis---statistical, syntactic, semantic, phrasal and domain-driven. Second, I will describe the uses we have put our natural language processing software to in improving traditional keyword-based information retrieval applications. Our primary methods have been to disambiguate keywords by the use of separate text database segments, and to extract conceptual relationships in addition to simple words meant to represent concepts. Finally, I will give an overview of a conceptual information retrieval mechanism that has the properties of a distributed representation, but is implemented with a localist representation system. In particular, this method of retrieval uses a modified form of spreading activation and intersection search to support (1) contents addressability, (2) partial and incorrect matching and (3) automatic analysis of the similarities and differences between the input query and the retrieved representations. _________ MONDAY, APRIL 29 2:30 Glenn Reid, RightBrain Software Ry 277 (glenn%heaven.uucp@next.com) "The PostScript Distillery" The `Distillery' is a PostScript program that distills other PostScript programs into a simpler form. It works by intercepting calls to PostScript operators and generating an equivalent program as output. It has many interesting applications, including program optimization and making it possible to turn an arbitrary PostScript program into an editable document. Glenn Reid, the original author of the Distillery, will talk about the program itself, how it works, and some of the concepts behind it. About the speaker: Glenn Reid has worked in the PostScript industry for six years, and has written two books about PostScript, including Adobe's "green book" and a new one entitled "Thinking in PostScript." He recently started a new company to build PostScript-related software products for the NeXT computer. - ----------- End of CILS Calendar ------------------------------ End of NL-KR Digest *******************