The Third Midwest Computational Linguistics Colloquium
MCLC-2006
The Language and Speech
Program at The University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign is pleased to announce the third meeting of the Midwest
Computational Linguistics Colloquium (MCLC). This colloquium offers a less
formal forum for computational linguistics researchers to get together and
present ideas and work. It is intended to be primarily for researchers from
the Midwest region, but applications from all regions are welcome.
The MCLC meeting is hosted by the Departments of
Computer Science and
Linguistics at
The University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign at its home, the
Siebel Center for Computer
Science.
Notice: The submission deadline has been extended to April 14, 2006.
Notice: The final paper submission deadline has been extended to May 15,
2006.
Notice: If you plan on attending, please register (at no
cost) by following the link at left.
Venue
Thomas M. Siebel Center for Computer Science
Room 2405
201 N Goodwin Ave
Urbana, IL 61801-2302
Invited Speaker
Partha Niyogi, University of Chicago
"The Computational Nature of Language Learning and Evolution"
Abstract:
Humans are distinguished by the ability to acquire and use language. This
ability allows us to transmit information in a non-genetic manner across
generations. As a result it becomes possible for us to have a sense of
history, culture, and tradition. Curiously enough, language may be viewed as a
formal object with syllables, morphemes, phrases, and their associated
grammatical rules. Language learning may then be viewed as a procedure that
maps linguistic experience (data) onto linguistic knowledge (grammar). This
allows one to take a computational view of language acquisition and indeed,
this view has dominated current thinking in artificial intelligence, cognitive
science, and linguistics.
Now language learning is the mechanism by which language is transmitted
from one generation to the next --- children acquire the language of the
mature speakers in the population. In this talk, we consider the interplay
between learning by individuals and language change and evolution by
populations. By considering an ensemble of language learners, one can derive
various dynamical systems that show how the population might evolve under
those assumptions. We will consider several such dynamical systems and see how
they might shed light on questions such as dialect formation, language
evolution, convergence on shared languages and so on. Along the way, the
mathematical framework will be elaborated and connections to other disciplines
will be emphasized.
Program Chairs
- Dan Roth, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Richard Sproat, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Program Committee
| Joyce Y. Chai |
Michigan State University |
jchai AT cse DOT msu DOT edu |
| Damir Cavar |
Indiana University |
dcavar AT indiana DOT edu |
| Eric Fosler-Lussier |
The Ohio State University |
fosler AT cse DOT ohio-state DOT edu |
| Roxana Girju |
University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign |
girju AT uiuc DOT edu |
| John Hale |
Michigan State University |
jthale AT msu DOT edu |
| John Lawler |
University of Michigan
Western Washington University, Bellingham
|
jlawler AT umich DOT edu |
| Marc Light |
University of Iowa |
marc-light AT uiowa DOT edu |
| Gina Levow |
University of Chicago |
levow AT cs DOT uchicago DOT edu |
| Dragomir Radev |
University of Michigan |
radev AT umich DOT edu |
| Victor Raskin |
Purdue University |
vraskin AT purdue DOT edu |
| Chilin Shih |
University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign |
cls AT uiuc DOT edu |
| ChengXiang Zhai |
University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign |
czhai AT cs DOT uiuc DOT edu |
Important Dates
- Abstract submission deadline: April 14, 2006
- Notification of acceptance: April 28, 2006
- Final papers due: May 15, 2006
- Colloquium: May 20-21, 2006
Contact
mclc06 AT cs DOT uiuc DOT edu
Links
The Language and Speech
Program at UIUC
|