Workshop on Computing and Phonology
A small workshop on computational aspects of phonology is held at the
University of Groningen (RUG), the Netherlands,
on December 8, 2006. The workshop is open to anyone, but we kindly ask you
to register not later than December 4.
Should you have any question, please feel free to contact Tamás Bíró at
birot @ nytud.hu
Location:
Harmony Building, H13.309 (Multimediazaal)
Oude Kijk in't Jatstraat 26, 9712 EK Groningen.
View all abstracts
Program:
| Chair: Dicky Gilbers |
| 9:30 | Opening: John Nerbonne |
| 9:40 | Tamas Biro (ACLC, Universiteit van Amsterdam): |
| Simulated Annealing for Optimality Theory: A performance model for phonology |
| View abstract |
| 10:20 | Bart Cramer and John Nerbonne (CLCG, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen): |
| Scaling Minimal Generalization |
| View abstract |
| 11:00 | Coffee |
Chair: Petra Hendriks |
|
11:30 | Gerhard Jäger (Universität Bielefeld): |
| Exemplar dynamics and George Price's General Theory of Selection |
| In a paper from the early seventies -- that was only published
posthumously in 1995 -- the mathematical geneticist George Price laid out
the foundations for a program that he called "a general theory of
selection". His aim was a mathematical framework which can serve to
describe all kinds of evolutionary processes, from gene selection in
biology to political processes in human societies. The evolution of
grammars was explicitly mentioned as one of the potential applications.
In the talk I will describe Price's program, and I will give a sketch
how it can be applied to linguistics. I will concentrate on the
exemplar dynamics of language processing that has recently gained a
lot of attention (see the work of Bybee, Pierrehumbert, Wedel, and the
papers by Bod, Bresnan and others in the recent special issue of The
Linguistic Review). I will argue that it should properly be understood
as an evolutionary process (as eloquently pointed out by Andrew Wedel),
and that Price's formula is a perfect analytical tool to understand this
dynamics. Close abstract |
| 12:10 | Paul Boersma (ACLC, Universiteit van Amsterdam): |
| The emergence of markedness |
| View abstract |
| 13:00 | Lunch |
Chair: Gosse Bouma |
| 14:30 | Adam Albright (MIT, Cambridge, MA): |
| Modeling gradient phonotactic well-formedness as grammatical competence |
| View abstract |
| 15:30 | Closing and coffee |
Registration:
If you intend to participate in the workshop, please register before
December 4, in order to facilitate organisation.
Further information:
Information Science/Humanities Computing
Center for Language and Cognition Groningen (CLCG)
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (RUG)
From Wilbert Heeringa's page:
A list of hotels in Groningen (please note that the prices are outdated).
Travel information
Thanks to Gerlof
Bouma for the design.