Logic and Engineering of Natural Language Semantics 2005

(LENLS2005)
a satelite international workshop of the JSAI 2005 annual conference
        http://www.lang.osaka-u.ac.jp/~ogata/LENLS2005.html    

The Kitakyushuu International Conference Center
(http://www.kitakyu-cb.jp/index_e.html)
June 13th-14th, 2005

Chair: Katsuhiko Yabushita (Naruto University of Education)

Invited Speaker: Nicholas Asher (University of Texas)

This workshop is co-sponsored by
the Tohoku University 21st Century COE Program in Humanities “Strategic Research and Education Center for an Integrated Approach to Language, Brain and Computation (
http://www.lbc21.jp/)
and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.


Scope:
One of the characteristics of a natural language in contrast to a formal
language is the existence of plural (atomic) sentences of the same
prepositional content, but of distinct morphosyntactic and/or phonological
features, as in word order, intonation, etc. Those features and their
associated interpretational functions have been studied under the rubric
of INFORMATION STRUCTURE. The widely accepted view as to the
interpretational functions of information structure is that the
information structure of a sentence reflects the speaker's assumptions
about the hearer's information state as the speaker conveys some
information to the hearer by the utterance of the sentence. With the view
of information structure, dynamic semantics, which takes the meaning of a
sentence to be a (partial) function updating information states, suggests
itself for an ideal framework for a formal semantic analysis of
information structure. The aim of this workshop is to bring together
researchers working on information structure and/or dynamic semantics, and
to advance the understanding of information structure and the development
of dynamic semantics for natural language.

Topics:
Submissions are invited on substantial, original and previously unpublished research in all fields of Linguistics and Artificial Intelligence, including, but not limited to:

* Logical Bases of Information Structure and Dynamic Semantics
* Philosophical Bases of Information Structure and Dynamic Semantics
* Linguistic Applications of Dynamic Semantics and Theory of Information Structure such as:
- Topic
- Focus
- Negations and Denials
- Presupposition
- Questions and Answers
- Semantics and Pragmatics of Dialogue
* Probability, Dynamic Semantics, and Information Structure
* Applications of Dynamic Semantics and Theory of Information Structure to Cognitive Science
* Applications of Dynamic Semantics and Theory of Information Structure to Natural Language Engineering

Submissions:
Submissions of abstracts should not exceed 2 pages and they must be in .pdf formats.
Abstracts must be sent in electronic form to: yabuchan@naruto-u.ac.jp
The accepted full papers will be published by Springer-Verlag in "Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence."

Program

June 13, Monday

10:00-10:20 Opening Remarks, Katsuhiko Yabushita (Naruto University of
Education)

10:30-11:20 "A note on Kripke's observation", Shogo Suzuki (University of
Tokyo)

11:20-12:10 "Focus, Presupposition, and Propositional Attitude", Yasuo
Nakayama (Osaka University)

12:10-13:00 "Negative Polar Interrogatives and Bias", Brian Reese
(University of Texas at Austin)

13:00-14:30 Lunch Break

14:30-15:20 "The information structure of Danish grammar construction",
Patrizia Paggio (Center for Language Technology, Denmark)

15:20-16:10 "Processing of Information Structure and Floating Quantifiers
in Japanese", Kei Yoshimoto (Tohoku University), Masahiro Kobayashi, Hiroaki
Nakamura, and Yoshiki Mori

16:10-16:30 Coffee Break

16:30-17:20 "An Information-Structural Analysis of the Readings for
Nominal-Predicate Sentences in Japanese and Korean", Katsuhiko Yabushita
(Naruto University of Education)

17:20-18:10 "Implicatures and Evidentiality of Because Complements at
Syntax-Semantics-Pragmatics Interfaces", Yurie Hara (University of Delaware)


June 14, Tuesday

10:00-10:50 "Model generation in a dynamic environment", Anders Søgaard
(Center for Language Technology, Denmark)

10:50-11:40 "Maximality and Plurality ", Linton Wang (University of Texas
at Austin)

11:40-12:30 "Modals and Anaphors in Korean", Jinung Kim and Nicholas Asher
(University of Texas at Austin)

12:30-14:00 Lunch Break

14:00-14:50 "The Dynamics of Yo", Eric McCready (University of Texas at
Austin)

14:50-15:40 "A Dynamic Semantics of Modal Subordination", Norihiro Ogata
(Osaka University)

15:40-16:00 Coffee Break

16:00-17:30 "Dynamic Semantics of Speech Acts: A First Pass", Nicholas Asher (University of Texas
at Austin)


Alternates:

"Type polymorphism in English", Elias Ponvert (University of Texas at
Austin)


"Where do presuppositions come from?", Richard Zuber (CNRS, Paris)



Important dates:
Deadline for abstracts: March 31st, 2005
Notification of acceptance: April 15th, 2005
Camera-ready copies of papers (not exceeding 12 pages) for the proceedings in the LNCS style: May 18th, 2005 (extended!)
Workshop: June 13th-14th, 2005


Committee: Yasuo Nakayama (Osaka University)
Kei Yoshimoto (Tohoku University)
Norihiro Ogata (Osaka University)
Yoshiki Mori (University of Tsukuba)
Eric McCready (University of Texas)
Rolf Schwitter (Macquarie University)
Yoko Mizuta (National Institute of Informatics)
Sumiyo Nishiguchi (Stony Brook University)
Rick Nouwen (J.W. Goethe Universität Frankfurt am Main)


Contact: yabuchan@naruto-u.ac.jp