LINGUIST List 13.3225

Fri Dec 6 2002

Calls: Human Sentence Processing/Direct Reference

Editor for this issue: Karolina Owczarzak <karolinalinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. pearlmutter, Human Sentence Processing, Cambridge, MA USA
2. klaus.heusinger, Direct Reference and Specificity, Vienna Austria

16th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing
Short Title: CUNY 2003
Location: Cambridge, MA USA
Date: 27-Mar-2003 - 29-Mar-2003 
Call Deadline: 16-Dec-2002

Web Site: http://tedlab.mit.edu/CUNY2003/
Contact Person: Neal Pearlmutter
Meeting Email: cunytedlab.mit.edu
Linguistic Subfield(s): Psycholinguistics 

Meeting Description: 

The 16th Annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference will be held March
27-29, 2003, at MIT in Cambridge, MA, co-organized by Neal Pearlmutter
of Northeastern University and Ted Gibson of MIT. The conference will
feature papers and posters on theoretical, experimental, and
computational research on various aspects of human sentence
processing. CUNY 2003 Call for Submissions

The 16th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing solicits
abstracts for papers and posters presenting theoretical, experimental,
and/or computational research on any aspect of human sentence
processing. Abstracts will be reviewed anonymously, and will be
considered for both the general conference sessions and the special
session on the processing and acquisition of reference. (See below for
more details of this session.)

Conference email: cunytedlab.mit.edu
Website: http://tedlab.mit.edu/CUNY2003/

SUBMISSION DEADLINE

Monday, December 16, 2002. (Note: This is extended from the original
deadline of December 2.)

This submission deadline applies to all submissions, whether for paper
or poster presentation. We envisage making notifications concerning
acceptance/rejection by mid January, 2003.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACT

Abstracts must be submitted using the form provided at the conference
website: http://tedlab.mit.edu/CUNY2003/

WHAT TO SUBMIT IN YOUR ABSTRACT

All abstracts must be in ASCII format. At the time of submission, you
will be asked to indicate whether you wish your abstract to be
considered for paper only, poster only, or paper or poster. You will
also be asked to indicate whether you would like your abstract
considered for the special session on the processing and acquisition
of reference.

Abstracts can be at most 400 words of text. You may also include
examples, references and data summaries (but no data charts or
diagrams). This additional material, taken together, should not exceed
15 lines of text.

The abstract submission form will be available on the website by
December 1, 2002.

If you submit more than one abstract, each must be submitted separately.

INFORMATION ON THE SPECIAL SESSION

There will be a special session entitled, ''The processing and
acquisition of reference,'' to be held on Friday March 28, in
conjunction with the 16th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence
Processing, March 27-29, 2003, in Cambridge, MA. The goal of the
proposed special session is to help connect the fields of language
acquisition and language processing. Linguistic reference is
particularly well-suited to connecting the fields of acquisition and
processing because (1) it is being actively examined from a linguistic
and a psycholinguistic perspective; (2) it has already begun to be
studied in both children and adults; and (3) it is particularly
amenable to investigation using recently developed head-mounted
eye-tracking methods (Tanenhaus et al., 1995; Trueswell et al., 1999),
which have enabled use of identical designs with children and adults,
and direct investigation of the referential process. The special
session will therefore concentrate on the processing and acquis!
ition of reference. The special session will focus on four primary
themes: (1) The semantics and pragmatics of reference in linguistic
theory; (2) Psycholinguistic theories of reference from the sentence
and discourse processing literature; (3) The acquisition of reference
and referential constraints by children; and (4) The use of
lightweight head-mounted eye-trackers as an important new method for
investigating reference in both adults and children.

Direct Reference and Specificity

Short Title: DirRefSpec
Location: Vienna, Austria
Date: 18-Aug-2003 - 22-Aug-2003 
Call Deadline: 15-Mar-2003

Web Site: http://ling.uni-konstanz.de/DirRefSpec/
Contact Person: Klaus von Heusinger
Meeting Email: klaus.heusingeruni-konstanz.de
Linguistic Subfield(s): General Linguistics 

Meeting Description: 

The workshop's aim is to bring together perspectives and results from
linguistics and philosophy on the related subjects of direct reference
and specificity. 

ORGANIZORS
	Klaus von Heusinger, University of Konstanz
	Hans Kamp, University of Stuttgart

INVITED SPEAKERS
	Barbara Abbott (confirmed)
	Donka Farkas (confirmed)
	Bart Geurts (confirmed)
	Philippe Schlenker (confirmed)
	Ede Zimmermann (confirmed)

DESCRIPTION

Direct reference has been a central concern within the Philosophy of
Language since the path-breaking work of Kaplan and Kripke in the late
60s and early 70s. The concept is equally important for Linguistics,
however, as it enters into the interpretation process of certain
natural language expressions (definite NPs such as proper names,
demonstratives and definite descriptions). Specificity, on the other
hand, is a more recent concept in the semantics of indefinite NPs. The
concepts have much in common, however, and each is important for both
Linguistics and Philosophy of Language and Logic. The workshop will
focus on these similarities (as well as on the differences).
	
Suggested topics:
- Is specificity the ''direct-reference''-mood for indefinites?
- What can we learn from the analysis of specific indefinites for the
referential properties of various definite NPs?
- What are the linguistic (universal or language particular) means to
mark direct reference /specificity?
- How are direct reference/specificity with questions of mental representation?

ABSTRACT SUBMISSION
Abstracts are invited for forty-five-minute talks (thirty minutes for
presentation plus fifteen minutes for discussion). Please submit an
abstract (not more than four pages), preferably by email (pdf, ps and
word-files are accepted). Send submissions to: Klaus von Heusinger, FB
Sprachwissenschaft, Universitaet Konstanz, Fach D 185, D-78457
Konstanz, Germany, e-mail to: klaus.heusingeruni-konstanz.de

DEADLINE
	All submissions must be received by March 15st, 2003.
	Notification of acceptance will be emailed by the end of April.

IMPORTANT DATES

15 March 2003	deadline for abstracts
30 April 2003	notification of acceptance
June 2003		final program
18-22 August 	workshop

See also the workshop-homepage: ling.uni-konstanz.de/DirRefSpec/

LOCAL INFORMATION
Please note that all workshop participants must register for
ESSLLI2003. Early registration fees apply to authors of accepted
papers. For further information about the upcoming ESSLLI 2003, please
contact the Organizing Committee in Vienna:

Norbert Preining, Kurt Goedel Society, c/o Institut fuer Computersprachen
Technische Universitaet Wien, Favoritenstrasse 9, A - 1040 Vienna, Austria
Tel. +43-1-58801-18503, Fax +43-1-58801-18597, email: esslli03logic.at 
http://www.logic.at/esslli03/contact.php