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NL-KR Digest Volume 06 No. 27
NL-KR Digest (Mon Jun 5 09:29:09 1989) Volume 6 No. 27
Today's Topics:
New Welcome Message
Conference on Dictionaries in the Electronic Age
CSLI Calendar, June 1, 4:29
CSLI Calendar, May 25, 4:28
Submissions: nl-kr@cs.rpi.edu
Requests, policy: nl-kr-request@cs.rpi.edu
Back issues are available from host archive.cs.rpi.edu [128.213.1.10] 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.
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To: nl-kr@cs.rpi.edu
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 89 09:30:24 EDT
From: weltyc (Christopher A. Welty)
Subject: New Welcome Message
[This is an updated version of the `welcome' message that gets sent to
all new subscribers. Since we had so many and since there were a few
changes, I figured I send it to the whole list.]
Welcome to the NL-KR mailing list, a digest form mailing list
for discussion and announcements relating to the fields of Natural
Language and Knowledge Representation.
I am the moderator of this list, and therefore I am responsible for
composing the digest from pending submissions, controlling the daily volume
of mail, keeping an archive, and answering administrative requests. Expect
NL-KR to be published weekly, at a minimum.
You may submit material for the digest to nl-kr@cs.rpi.edu.
Digests are sent to InterNET, BITNET, and to USENET readers as
appropriate. (FYI: BITNET readers: your digest is being redistributed
at by Anil Khullar, a PhD student at CUNY, who does a smashing job. If
you are a BITNET subscriber, faster response to admin (add/delete) requests
should go to nl_kr_bitnet@cunyvms1). Digests are also posted to the USENET
News group comp.ai.nlang-know-rep.
Administrative requests should be sent to
nl-kr-request@cs.rpi.edu. Archival copies of all digests will be kept
and are available via anonymous FTP from archive.cs.rpi.edu
[128.213.1.10] in the files nl-kr/Vxx/Nnn, where xx is the Volume number
and nn is the issue number (numbers start with 01 not 1, ie V01/N01);
if you don't have FTP access, ask for back issues from nl-kr-request,
but don't expect a quick answer.
NL-KR is open to discussion of any topic related to natural
language (both understanding and generation) and knowledge representation,
both as subfields of AI. My own related interests are primarily in
Knowledge Representation, Knowledge Engineering, Planning, KR applied to
Software Engineering, and especially education.
Contributions are also welcome on topics such as
Cognitive Psychology (as related to NL/KR)
Human Perception (same)
Linguistics
Machine Translation
Computer and Information Science (as may be used to implement
various NL systems)
Logic Programming (same)
Contributions may be anything from tutorials to speculation. In particular,
the following are sought:
Abstracts Reviews
Lab Descriptions Research Overviews
Work Planned or in Progress Half-Baked Ideas
Conference Announcements Conference Reports
Bibliographies History of NL/KR
Puzzles and Unsolved Problems Anecdotes, Jokes, and Poems
Queries and Requests Other NL/KR announcements
This list is in some sense a spin-off of the AIList, and as such, a
certain amount of overlap is expected. The primary concentration of this
list should be NL and KR, that is, natural language (be it understanding,
generation, recognition, parsing, semantics, pragmatics, etc.) and how we
should represent knowledge (aquisition, access, completeness, etc. are all
valid issues). Topics I deem to be outside the general scope of this list
will be forwarded to AIList@AI.AI.MIT.EDU (or other more appropriate list,
such as IRlist, addressed at fox%vtopus.cs.vt.edu which is on information
retrieval) or rejected. I will certainly reject no article without
informing the poster.
NL-KR is a public information service provided to the Arpanet
community and others though my own efforts, indirect support from my
university, and the help of individuals and organizations at other sites.
Readers are advised not to submit any material that is export controlled or
classified. As moderator, I must assume that individuals have obtained all
required clearances for their submissions to the list (and for the
university bboard messages that NL-KR occasionally reprints). The export
control laws are both broad and vague, but material that could be published
in news magazines or publicly available scientific journals is probably
safe. Scientific information "without engineering or military significance"
is always permissible, but technical details of specific military or
government-controlled systems should not be discussed in this forum.
I have no objection to distributing material that is destined for
conference proceedings or any other publication. You may want to send
copies of your submissions to SIGART@ECLC.USC.EDU, ACL@CS.ROCHESTER.EDU
(possibly WEISCHEDEL@G.BBN.COM depending on the type of submission, see the
front cover of any recent issue of Computational Linguistics) or to the AI
Magazine (currently Engelmore@SUMEX.STANFORD.EDU) for hardcopy publication.
List items should be considered unrefereed working papers, and opinions to
be those of the author and not of any organization. Copies of list items
should credit the original author, not necessarily the NL-KR List.
The list does not assume copyright, nor does it accept any liability
arising from remailing of submitted material. As moderator of the list,
however, I do bear some personal responsibility for anything that I
broadcast. Please do not submit copyrighted material in any form that the
copyright holder might object to, particularly newswire copy. I reserve the
right to refuse to remail any contribution that I judge to be inappropriate.
I and other readers frequently forward items from other digests and
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...], please be aware that he may not know that his posting has propagated
beyond his local system. In general, permission should be sought for such
repostings, but again, I cannot assume such responsibility for material sent
to the list by someone else.
I suggest that you "sign" submissions longer than a paragraph so
that readers don't have to scroll backwards to see the FROM line. Editing
of contributions will usually be limited to text justifications and spelling
corrections; editorial remarks and elisions will be marked with square
brackets. The author will be contacted if significant editing is required
(normally only if some policy problem exists, as in the case of a lab
description combined with a job posting).
If you leave your current net address, please notify me or the
person in charge of redistribution at your site. It is difficult for me to
distinguish an abandoned address from ordinary mailer trouble, and tracing
the source of mailer problems takes a fair amount of effort.
Please contribute freely. I would rather deal with too much
material than with too little. Replies to public requests for information
should be sent, at least in "carbon" form, to this list unless the request
states otherwise.
When submitting, please try to make the subject line of any article you post
informative. It is the subject line that appears in the table of contents
section of the digest. Try not to post very large messages, in general I
try to keep the size of the digest around 20K or less, and anything over
30K I won't post in full but will make available in the archives.
If you have any suggestions, please let me know. If you like or dislike
something, the feedback is very useful. There are over 500 addresses on
my site, meaning approximately 600 readers not counting the immeasurable
number who read the news group.
-Chris
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To: nl-kr@cs.rpi.edu
Date: Thu, 1 Jun 89 23:36:13 EDT
From: walker@flash.bellcore.com (Donald E Walker)
Subject: Conference on Dictionaries in the Electronic Age
DICTIONARIES IN THE ELECTRONIC AGE
Fifth Annual Conference of the University of Waterloo Centre for the New OED
Jointly presented by Oxford University Press
Oxford University Computing Service
University of Waterloo
St. Catherine's College, Oxford, England -- 18-19 September 1989
(For associated workshops on Dictionary Assessment and Criticism and on
Developing Lexical Resources, see below.)
"The complete Oxford English Dictionary ... likely to be very
manageable indeed when compressed into the electronic microstructure
of a chip."
- Christopher Evans, "The Mighty Micro", 1979
Once it had become clear that computers could be used in the
composition, analysis, and transmission of written texts, it was
a natural step to try to yoke them together with dictionaries, the
most complex of texts both to compile and to analyse. Pioneering
early efforts were made during the 1950s and 1960s, when storage
was limited and data entry was by punched card. The first dictionaries
actually compiled in the form of a computer database appeared in
the late 1970s. By this time professional analysts of language
such as linguists and computer scientists had begun to realize that
the dictionary was a ready-made mine of language. If it could be
electronically analysed they would be freed from much of the labour
of collecting or introspecting linguistic patterns. During the
1980s a fruitful symbiosis has grown up between lexicography,
computing, and linguistics. Increasingly, dictionaries are designed
as computer databases and compiled with the assistance of textual
corpora. The lexicographer's desk has been reinterpreted as a
multi- functional workstation. Linguists are exploiting the full
resources of machine-readable dictionaries in order to build
comprehensive models of linguistic data. Computer scientists are
able to take over the information network built into the dictionary
as a kind of ready-made expert system.
In 1984 the "Oxford English Dictionary" became the first large
dictionary to be converted from printed format into a machine-readable
database. In March this year the second edition of the OED was
published, the offspring of a successful marriage of lexicography
and computer technology. To mark this achievement this Fifth Annual
Conference is being held at Oxford rather than at Waterloo. The
publication of the new edition of the OED, together with the
development, at the University of Waterloo Centre for the New OED,
of programs for the rapid searching of large textual databases like
the OED, and the appearance of a CD-ROM version of the first edition
of the OED, are pointers towards the fulfilment of Evans's prediction.
CONFERENCE PROGRAMME
Sunday, 17 September
2.00-6.00 p.m. Registration, Porter's Lodge
6.00 p.m. Registration and Reception, Junior Common Room
7.00 p.m. Dinner, Dining Hall
Monday, 18 September
8.30 a.m. Registration
SESSION I
Developing Lexical Resources
Donald E. Walker, Bellcore
Editing the OED in the Electronic Age
Edmund S.C. Weiner, Oxford University Press
Demonstration: Lexicographical Workstations
Nicoletta Calzolari and Eugenio Picchi, Istituto di Linguistica Computazionale
SESSION II
La Constitution de la documentation du Tresor de la langue francaise:
problemes et methodes
Gerard Gorcy, Institut National de la Langue Francaise
The Corpus of the Dictionary of Old English: Its Delimitation,
Compilation and Application
Ashley Crandell Amos, University of Toronto
7.00 p.m. Banquet, Dining Hall
Guest speaker: Sir Randolph Quirk,
University College London
Tuesday, 19 September
SESSION III
The Concrete Lexicon and the Abstract Dictionary
Martin Kay, Xerox PARC
Lexicons for Computer Programs and Lexicons for People
Sergei Nirenburg, Carnegie-Mellon University
SESSION IV
Discovering Relationships Among Word Senses
Roy J. Byrd, IBM Research Center
What is Text?
Frank W. Tompa, University of Waterloo
SESSION V
Panel Discussion: Present and Future Challenges
Panelists: Gaston H. Gonnet (Introducer), University of Waterloo
Beryl T.S. Atkins, Oxford University Press
Reinhard R.K. Hartmann, University of Exeter
Michael E. Lesk, Bellcore
Conference Chairman: Timothy J. Benbow, Oxford University Press
Nominating Committee Chairman: Gaston H. Gonnet, University of Waterloo
CONFERENCE ARRANGEMENTS: All Conference activities will take place
at St Catherine's College, Oxford, with the main sessions taking
place in the Bernard Sunley Building.
ACCOMMODATION: Conference and workshop accommodation will be arranged
in single study-bedrooms in St Catherine's College, Oxford. Most
of these bedrooms have wash-basins, and there are washing and shower
facilities on each floor. Soap, linen, and hand- towels are
provided.
TRANSPORT: There is a frequent coach service to Oxford from both
Gatwick and Heathrow airports, and many trains (Paddington station)
and coaches (Victoria coach station) from London. Timetables will
be forwarded with the Conference information package to those who
register.
CONFERENCE FEES (in pound sterling):
Basic fees cover all conference sessions, one copy of the conference
proceedings, the reception, two lunches (Mon. and Tues.), two
dinners (Sun. and Tues.), mid-session refreshments, and the banquet
on Monday evening.
Resident fees include the basic fees plus Sunday, Monday and Tuesday
night bed and breakfast at St Catherine's College.
All optional fees (see below) are additional to the conference fees.
Registration must be received by 31 August 1989. If space permits,
late registration will be available at an additional cost of L20.00.
All fees must be paid in pounds sterling. Please make cheques
payable to Oxford University Press. Access, Visa, and Barclaycard
(MasterCard) credit cards will be accepted.
The conference information package will be forwarded upon receipt
of registration.
Basic fees: Academic L149.50 Non-academic L287.50
Resident fees: Academic L207.00 Non-academic L345.00
There will be a late registration fee (after 31 August) of L20.00.
Note: All charges include 15 per cent UK Value Added Tax where applicable.
Additional conference proceedings will be available at L10.00 per copy.
ASSOCIATED WORKSHOPS
Both workshops will be held at St Catherine's College, Oxford.
DICTIONARY ASSESSMENT AND CRITICISM
Sunday, 17 September 1989: 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
Organized by EURALEX
Participants at the 1988 biennial EURALEX General Meeting in Budapest
will recall requests for a more practical and explicitly lexicographical
orientation to the Association's activities. Thus, this workshop
has been organized to:
1. provide an introduction to the topic and to allow participants
to work in small groups at an assessment of one dictionary
and/or a comparison of two or more works, and
2. make suggestions for the structure and contents of the section
on Dictionary Assessment and Criticism at the next EURALEX
International Congress, in Malaga, August 28- September 2,
1990.
The workshop should prove of interest to lexicographers, publishers,
language teachers, linguists, researchers, reviewers and anyone
else who uses dictionaries: in fact, to all types of dictionary
producers and consumers.
Euralex Workshop Fee: Member L22.00
Non-member L25.00
Includes lunch and refreshment breaks.
DEVELOPING LEXICAL RESOURCES
Wednesday, 20 September 1989, 9.30 a.m.-4 p.m.
Organized by the Association for Computational Linguistics and Bellcore
We need to resolve the conflicts of interest that appear to exist
among publishers, software developers, and the research community.
The research community needs resources to do its work. The publishers
have source materials but are concerned with protecting their
intellectual property rights. The software developers are trying
simultaneously to create tools and a market in which to use them.
This open meeting will present the perspectives of these protagonists
and attempt to work out strategies for resolving the perceived
conflicts in ways that will be beneficial to all parties.
There is no fee for this Workshop. However, please respond on the
Conference registration form if you plan to attend, or contact Don
Walker at the address below.
INFORMATION
For further information about the Conference and the EURALEX Workshop,
contact either Katherine Manville (ext. 4533) or Sandra Johnston
(ext. 4530) at:
Dictionary Department
Oxford University Press
Walton Street
Oxford OX2 6DP England
Telephone: (0865) 56767
International: + 44 865 56767
Internet: oup@watsol.waterloo.edu
For information about the Workshop on Developing Lexical Resources,
contact:
Dr. Donald E. Walker (Oxford)
Bellcore, MRE 2A379
445 South Street, Box 1910
Morristown, NJ 07960-1910, USA
telephone: (+1 201) 829-4312
fax: (+1 201) 292-0067
internet: walker@flash.bellcore.com
usenet: uunet.uu.net!bellcore!walker
------------------------------
To: nl-kr@cs.rpi.edu
Date: Wed, 31 May 89 16:39:21 PDT
From: emma@csli.Stanford.EDU (Emma Pease)
Subject: CSLI Calendar, June 1, 4:29
C S L I C A L E N D A R O F P U B L I C E V E N T S
_____________________________________________________________________________
1 June 1989 Stanford Vol. 4, No. 29
_____________________________________________________________________________
A weekly publication of The Center for the Study of Language and
Information, Ventura Hall, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
____________
CSLI ACTIVITIES FOR THIS THURSDAY, 1 June 1989
12:00 p.m. TINLunch
Cordura Hall Realism in Mathematics
Conference Room Penelope Maddy
Department of Philosophy, U.C. Irvine
Abstract in last week's Calendar
2:15 p.m. CSLI Seminar
Cordura Hall Varieties of Context: Session 9
Conference Room Wrap-up
No abstract
3:30 p.m. Tea
Ventura Hall
4:00 p.m. STASS Seminar
Cordura Hall Ordinary Properties and STASS:
Conference Room Should `Kind of' be a Third Polarity?
Mark Crimmins
(crimmins@csli.stanford.edu)
Abstract in last week's Calendar
____________
CSLI ACTIVITIES FOR NEXT THURSDAY, 8 June 1989
12:00 p.m. TINLunch
Cordura Hall Reading: "Scope and Constituency"
Conference Room by Joseph Aoun and Audrey Li
Peter Sells
(sells@csli.stanford.edu)
Abstract below
3:30 p.m. Tea
Ventura Hall
____________
ANNOUNCEMENT
This will be the last CSLI Calendar of the Academic year. We will
resume publication in late September.
____________
NEXT WEEK'S TINLUNCH
Reading: "Scope and Constituency"
by Joseph Aoun and Audrey Li
(Linguistic Inquiry 20(1989):141-172)
Discussion led by Peter Sells
(sells@csli.stanford.edu)
June 8
In this paper, Aoun and Li discuss differences in relative scope
possibilities of quantified NPs in English and Chinese. They claim
that the interpretive rules for quantifiers are the same in both
languages, attempting to localize the difference in the underlying
structure posited for the two languages. Specifically, they argue
that the subject NP in English is generated inside the VP in the
underlying structure, while it is not in Chinese. They also make a
novel proposal for the analysis of double-object constructions.
____________
SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS FORUM
Does Symbolic Anthropology have Anything to say to Symbolic Systems?
Carol Delaney
Department of Anthropology
Friday, 2 June, 3:15, 60:62N
Professor Delaney will give an introduction to Symbolic Anthropology
through examples of her own work. The principle goal of the talk is
to begin an answer to the following question: While both Symbolic
Systems and Symbolic Anthropology use many of the same terms (the most
notable being symbols and systems of symbols, along with a concept of
meaning!), do their uses of the terms coincide in any meaningful way?
Further, even if perhaps these disciplines disagree on the use of
their terms, are there any issues that would be fruitful for
interdisciplinary work? As Professor Delaney knows only a little
about Symbolic Systems, her talk will focus on the presentation of
Symbolic Anthropology as a beginning of an answer to these questions.
____________
NEW VISITOR
CSLI welcomes back Stephen Neale, Department of Philosophy, Princeton
University. He will be here from now until the end of June and then
again from the beginning of August through most of the coming academic
year. He is working on a new book on the interpretation of plural
noun phrases in natural language, and---when time permits---a
manuscript on free will.
Stephen's email address is neale@csli.stanford.edu.
------------------------------
To: nl-kr@cs.rpi.edu
Date: Wed, 24 May 89 17:00:25 PDT
From: emma@csli.Stanford.EDU (Emma Pease)
Subject: CSLI Calendar, May 25, 4:28
C S L I C A L E N D A R O F P U B L I C E V E N T S
_____________________________________________________________________________
25 May 1989 Stanford Vol. 4, No. 28
_____________________________________________________________________________
A weekly publication of The Center for the Study of Language and
Information, Ventura Hall, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
____________
CSLI ACTIVITIES FOR THIS THURSDAY, 25 May 1989
12:00 p.m. TINLunch
Cordura Hall General Logics: Part 2
Conference Room Jose Meseguer
(meseguer@csl.sri.com)
Abstract in last week's Calendar
2:15 p.m. CSLI Seminar
Cordura Hall Varieties of Context: Session 8
Conference Room Meaning, Content, and Literary Interpretation
Jon Barwise
(barwise@russell.stanford.edu)
Respondent: Brian Smith
Abstract below
3:30 p.m. Tea
Ventura Hall
4:00 p.m. STASS Seminar
Cordura Hall Substitutional Recursion on Non-well-founded Sets
Conference Room and an Application to the Logic of Situation Theory
Tim Fernando
(fernando@csli.stanford.edu)
Abstract in last week's Calendar
____________
CSLI ACTIVITIES FOR NEXT THURSDAY, 1 June 1989
12:00 p.m. TINLunch
Cordura Hall Realism in Mathematics
Conference Room Penelope Maddy
Department of Philosophy, U.C. Irvine
Abstract below
2:15 p.m. CSLI Seminar
Cordura Hall Varieties of Context: Session 9
Conference Room Wrap-up
No abstract
3:30 p.m. Tea
Ventura Hall
4:00 p.m. STASS Seminar
Cordura Hall Ordinary Properties and STASS:
Conference Room Should `Kind of' be a Third Polarity?
Mark Crimmins
(crimmins@csli.stanford.edu)
Abstract below
____________
THIS WEEK'S CSLI SEMINAR
Meaning, Content, and Literary Interpretation
Jon Barwise
(barwise@russell.stanford.edu)
25 May
Is there such a thing as the CORRECT interpretation of a literary
text? For that matter, just what is the meaning, or content, or
interpretation of the previous question? In our book, *Situations and
Attitudes*, Perry and I contrasted meaning and what we called
interpretation. But this use of "interpretation" is at odds with the
way the term is used in literary theory. In this talk, I will review
the perspective of situation semantics, and then try to use it to shed
some light on the relationships between the meaning, content, and
interpretation of a literary text. The talk will be based on my
paper, "On the circumstantial relationship between meaning and
content" (chapter 3 of my book *The Situation in Logic*, and also a
CSLI report).
____________
NEXT WEEK'S TINLUNCH
Realism in Mathematics
Penelope Maddy
Dept. of Philosophy, U.C. Irvine
1 June
Professor Maddy will speak on realism in mathematics, and its
connection to realism in philosophy in general.
____________
NEXT WEEK'S STASS SEMINAR
Ordinary Properties and STASS:
Should `Kind of' be a Third Polarity?
Mark Crimmins
(crimmins@csli.stanford.edu)
1 June
If STASS has been anything, it has been realistic about properties and
relations---they are among the basic elements of infons, propositions,
and so on. But our realism in this regard couldn't straight-facedly
be called a deeply and seriously considered view uniformly and
conscientiously applied to our uses of the theory in semantics. Why
not? For reasons that have at one time or another bothered Frege,
Russell, Wittgenstein, Quine, Dummett, and recently Peter Unger,
reasons, namely, having to do with the vagueness and open-endedness of
what we ordinarily would call properties. In addition to calling into
doubt our various assumptions of bivalence and coherence, these
problems threaten the "change of typeface" paradigm in semantics, in
which we hope to pick out real properties (for inclusion in
semantic-value structures) by italicizing our ordinary predicate
expressions, like "tall", "chair" and "red". Various problems
confronting semantics for such ordinary expressions will be considered
in this survey (and exhibition) of vagueness.
Nothing terribly new will be said about the underlying issues.
However, beer and snacks will be available.
____________
SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS FORUM
Symbolic Systems Honors Presentations
The Architecture of Hyperproof
Alan Bush, (bush@csli.stanford.edu)
and
Neural Nets
Wendy Chow, (w.wino@macbeth.stanford.edu)
Friday, 26 May, 3:15, 60:62N
Symbolic Anthropology
Carol Delaney
Friday, 2 June, 3:15, 60:62H
------------------------------
End of NL-KR Digest
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