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Sesquipedalian #9
the SESQUIPEDALIAN Volume VII, No. 9
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Alexander Dubcek born (1921) November 27, 1996
-\-/-\ LOOK WHO'S TALKING \-/-\-
-- John Rickford was featured in the Center For Teaching And
Learning's 'Outstanding Teachers on Teaching' lecture series last
week.
-\-/-\ LINGUISTICS COLLOQUIUM \-/-\-
No colloquium this week in deference to the Thanksgiving Holiday
(durr).
------------------
Reception follows.
For directions and a complete list of colloquia, see
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/Linguistics/colloq/colloq.html
-/-\-/ SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS FORUM /-\-/-
Next Thursday, December 5, Hadar Shem-Tov presents the Symbolic
Systems Forum, 4:15-6 pm in 460-146. This talk is Hadar's
dissertation proposal.
How not to Solve Ambiguity Problems in Translation
==================================================
We, as users of language have little trouble coping with ambiguous
expressions, mainly because of the vast non-linguistic knowledge that we
bring to bear. As a matter of fact, most of the time, we do not even notice
ambiguous sentences. A computer program is a completely different
matter. It also uses a grammar to parse sentences but it cannot rule out
all semantically implausible possibilities. A parser finds ambiguity in
almost every sentence. In fact, sentences with dozens or even hundreds of
interpretations are not uncommon. As a result, the problem of selecting the
correct interpretation is one of the most difficult challenges in natural
language processing, and particularly in machine translation.
In this dissertation proposal I will present a new approach to managing
ambiguity in translation. It is based on the observation that sentences in
the target language are often also ambiguous and, in fact, that the
ambiguities in the source and target languages often coincide. This means
that the possibility of preserving rather than resolving them is
theoretically open. The attraction of this possibility has long been
acknowledged though it has generally been regarded as computationally
infeasible. I will show that practical algorithms can be devised that make
it possible to preserve the ambiguity in many cases rather than choosing
among the alternatives.
-/-\-/ SPECIAL OT WORKSHOP /-\-/-
CSLI Workshop
Optimality Theory and its implications for cognitive theory
December 6-8, 1996
Cordura Hall
Each speaker session includes approx. 50 minutes presentation and
approx. 25 minutes discussion.
FRIDAY DECEMBER 6
8.30 Coffee and Breakfast
Session I: 8.45--12.00
Issues in Computation and Learnability
8.45--10.00 Paul Smolensky
Generalizing Optimization in OT, with Implications for Learning
10.10--11.25 Bruce Tesar
Robust Interpretive Parsing and Its Role in Language Learning
(tentative)
11.30--12.00 Discussion of session I: Stanley Peters
12.00--1.15 Lunch
Session II: 1.15--3.55
Issues in Phonology and Phonetics I
1.15--2.30 Arto Anttila, Young-Mee Yu Cho
Partial Constraint Ranking in Optimality Theory
2.40--3.55 Edward Flemming
Optimization in phonetics and phonology (tentative)
3.55--4.30 Break
Session III: 4.30--6.30
Issues in Phonology and Phonetics II
4.30--5.45 Alan Prince
Some aspects of mapping under OT
5.45--6.30 General discussion of sessions II and III
7.30 Dinner Location tba
SATURDAY DECEMBER 7
8.45 Coffee and breakfast
Session IV: 9.15--11.55
Issues in Syntax
9.15--10.30 Hye-Won Choi, Joan Bresnan
Discourse Competes with Syntax: Focus and Binding (tentative)
10.40--11.55 Colin Wilson
Alignment and Anaphora
11.55--1.15 Lunch
Session V: 1.15--3.55
Issues in Morphology and Syntax
1.15--2.30 Joan Bresnan
Morphology Competes with Syntax: Beyond the Inflectional
Paradigm (tentative)
2.40--3.55 Geraldine Legendre
On Balkan Clitics
3.55--4.20 Break
Session VI: 4.20--6.30
Issues in Morpho-Syntax I
4.20--5.35 Judith Aissen
Voice and Alignment
5.35--6.30 General discussion of sessions IV--VI
7.30 Dinner/Party at Joan Bresnan's house
SUNDAY DECEMBER 8
8.15 Coffee and breakfast
Session VII: 8.30--11.10
Issues in Morpho-Syntax II
8.30--9.45 Paul Kiparsky
Morphosyntactic Hierarchies (tentative)
9.55--11.10 Peter Sells
Japanese Verb Morphology in OT
Session VIII: 11.25--1.10
11.25--12.40 Jane Grimshaw
The best clitic and the best place to put it
12.40--1.10 Discussion of sessions VII--VIII: Geoff Pullum
-\-/-\ JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS \-/-\-
(REDUNDANCY NOTICE: For fuller listings of these and other jobs, don't
forget to check the Jobs binder in the Greenberg Room, and the file
'jobslist.txt' on the CSLI directory /user/linguistics.)
SYSTRAN Software, Inc. is considering hiring a full time computational
linguist in early 1997, and I would be very grateful if you could help
get the word to interested parties. Please feel free to pass on my
contact information to them, or forward their contact information to
me if I can initiate contact. I am: Laurie Gerber, Director of
Research, SYSTRAN Software, Inc. Contact: laurie@systranmt.com The
applicant must be fluent in English, and we would prefer fluency or
near-fluency in at least one other language as well. The job location
is in San Diego, CA. Compensation would be negotiated based on skills
and experience.
Laurie M. Gerber phone (619) 459-6700 x109
SYSTRAN Software, Inc. fax (619) 459-8487
7855 Fay Avenue, Suite 300 email: laurie@systranmt.com
La Jolla, CA 92037 (Note - please email replies
to this address - reply mode
may not work.)
(REDUNDANCY NOTICE: For fuller listings of these and other jobs, don't
forget to check the Jobs binder in the Greenberg Room, and the file
jobslist.txt' on the CSLI directory /user/linguistics.)
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