E-CAP 2005 TRACK ON COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS

Final Call for Papers, with extended deadline

TRACK ON COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS

http://www.ling.gu.se/dialoglab/e-cap-cfp.html

Track chair: Staffan Larsson, sl@ling.gu.se

as part of

COMPUTING AND PHILOSOPHY

E-CAP2005@MDH SWEDEN

Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden, June 2-4, 2005
Chair: Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic gordana.dodig-crnkovic@mdh.se

http://www.idt.mdh.se/ECAP-2005/

Computational Linguistics and Philosophy

This track is intended an interdisciplinary and open-ended initiation to a discussion of philosophical and other issues related to language technology and computational linguistics. As these issues have so far not recieved a lot of attention, we encourage anyone who is interested to submit a paper even if it does not report on a major research effort. We are open to all kinds of papers including philosophical and conceptual discussions as well as empirical and system-building efforts.

Possible topics include but are by no means limited to:

The Philosophy of Computational Linguistics
Philosophical aspects of current research in computational linguistics
Embodied, interactive and emergent approaches to computational linguistics
The interaction between computational linguistics and philosophy
Current research on the border between philosophy and computational linguistics
Computational Linguistics as science vs. technology
Computational Linguistics, Language Technology, and Society
Cyberlinguistics? Language Technology devices as prostheses

See below for further notes about these topics.

Important dates

March 4, 2005: Submission of extended abstracts; NOTE EXTENDED DEADLINE FOR THIS TRACK; Note also that this is a different deadline than for E-CAP in general
April 4, 2005: Notification of acceptance (changed from April 1)
May 7, 2005: Early registration deadline
Jun 2-4, 2005: Conference
August 25, 2005: Camera-ready paper

General information

From Thursday 2 to Saturday 4 June 2005 the International European Conference COMPUTING AND PHILOSOPHY will be held at the Mälardalen University, Västerås (near Stockholm, Sweden).

Track on Computational Linguistics

The track on computational linguistics welcomes contributions in all areas of computational linguistics, and especially contributions relating to philosophy and/or stretching the boundaries of computational linguistics as standardly percieved.

Possible topics include but are by no means limited to:

The Philosophy of computational linguistics
What are the philosophical underpinnings of computational linguistics? Are they (still) the right ones, or do they need to be replaced? If so, by what?
Philosophical aspects of current research in computational linguistics
A lot of work in computational linguistics have implications for philosophical issues such as the philosophy of language, mind and consciousness. For example, model-theoretical and proof-theoretical formal semantics are arguably based on different and opposing assumptions on the relation between language, mind and the world. However, such issues are usually not the focus of presentations of research. So, what are the philosophical implications of your current research?
Embodied, interactive and emergent approaches to computational linguistics
Over the last decade or so, alternative approaches such as Brook's three-layered architecture for embodied agents have become important in cognitive science and related disciplines. How can these "new" approaches to AI be used in computational linguistics? What is the role of "Good Old-fashioned AI" (symbol manipulation) in the CL community? What is the role of statistical methods in relation to symbol manipulation and the "new" approaches?
The interaction between computational linguistics and philosophy
How has computational linguistics affected philosophy, e.g. the philosophy of language and mind, and linguistics in general? How has philosophy affected computational linguistics?
Current research on the border between philosophy and computational linguistics
Traditionally, a lot of computational linguistics research have built on work in philosophy and logic. Examples include formal semantics, quantification and logic, pragmatics and dialogue systems, as well as formal grammar and the existence of a universal grammar. Researcher are invited to report on work which involves both computational linguistics and philosophical issues and approaches.
Computational linguistics as science vs. technology
Should CL be regarded as practically oriented human-computer interface engineering, or as a science? If the latter, what is the subject matter of this science? Human language? Human cognition? Language in general (including formal languages)? Abstract mathematical objects? How are all these viewpoints related?
Computational linguistics, Language Technology, and Society
New technologies affect humans and human societies on many levels, metaphorical as well as practical. What happens to us humans and our society when machines start using language and speaking (sort of) like us?
Cyberlinguistics? Language Technology devices as prostheses
New technologies are constantly increasing the reach of man, and one can take a perspective (often referred to as "posthumanism") where human plus technology is regarded as a single organism - a cyborg. Is this a useful perspective on Language Technologies?

General Program

The conference (of which this CFP concerns a track) will deal with all aspects of the "computational turn" that is occurring through the interaction of disciplines of philosophy and computing.

Submission of papers

Authors should submit an electronic version of an extended abstract (total word count approximately 1000 words). The file should also contain a 300 word abstract that will be used for the conference web site/booklet. Final papers must not exceed a total word count of 3500 words and an abstract of not more than 500 words. The submissions should be made electronically, either as PDF, rtf or Word format.

To submit papers visit http://www.idt.mdh.se/ECAP-2005/submit The extended abstract submission deadline is Friday 28th January 2005.

For information about paper submission and the program that is not available on the web site, please contact the program chair.

Registration

Registration fee before/after 7 May 2005:
Standard: EURO 200/250 (all the activities of the Conference, Reception Included)
Phd Students: EURO 100/150
Students: Free

One day only: EURO 100,0
No refunds will be granted after May 12th, 2005

For registration please visit the conference web site:
http://www.idt.mdh.se/ECAP-2005/registration.htm

Accommodation

To book accommodation, please visit the conference web site: http://www.idt.mdh.se/ECAP-2005/local_information.htm

Organization

Gordana Dodig-Crnkovic, Mälardalen University, Sweden (Program chair)

Program Committee

Göran Collste (LiU, Sweden)
Chris Dobbyn (Open University, UK)
Luciano Floridi (U-Bari, Italy and U-Oxford, UK)
Lars-Göran Johansson (Uppsala-U, Sweden)
Staffan Larsson (Göteborg-U, Sweden)
Lorenzo Magnani (U-Pavia, Italy)
Colin Schmidt (Le Mans-U and Sorbonne-U, France)
Susan Stuart (Glasgow-U, United Kingdom)
May Thorseth (NTNU, Norway)
Lena Trojer (BIT, Sweden)
Tom Ziemke (U-Skövde, Sweden)
Pedro C. Marijuan (U-Zaragoza, Spain)
Sören Brier (CBS, Denmark)

Local Organizer

Ms Ylva Boivie, Mälardalen University, Sweden
E-mail ylva.boivie@mdh.se
Tel +46 21-107093

Venue

Västerås is Sweden's sixth largest city. Located on beautiful Lake Mälaren, it offers all the amenities of a large city while maintaining a small town feel. The journey between Västerås and Stockholm takes 50 minutes by trains which run twice an hour from early morning to late at night.