Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft Leibniz-Gemeinschaft

Tandem Workshop on Optimality in Language and Geometric Approaches to Cognition

Organisator(en) Anton Benz, Reinhard Blutner, Manfred Krifka, Peter beim Graben & Nicolas Stindt
Institution(en) ZAS Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, ILLC Amsterdam,
Veranstaltungsbeginn 11.12.2010, 09.00 Uhr
Veranstaltungsende 13.12.2010, 18.00 Uhr
Ort Berlin
Workshop website

Together with the Department of German Language and Linguistics at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and with the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation at the Universiteit van Amsterdam, the Centre for General Linguistics (ZAS) in Berlin is going to organize a three-day 'Tandem Workshop on Optimality in Language and Geometric Approaches to Cognition' to be held at the Centre for General Linguistics (ZAS), December 11th - 13th, 2010. The aim of the workshop is to encompass symbolic Optimality Theory (OT) and geometric representations of cognitive states and processes at the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic levels. In particular, the workshop will focus on issues such as:

Part A

  • OT syntax and OT parsing
  • Neural networks and OT
  • Gradedness and OT
  • OT and compositionality
  • OT semantics and OT pragmatics

 Part B

  • Conceptual spaces
  • Vagueness
  • Geometric models of meaning and compositionality
  • Geometric models of linguistic and perceptional ambiguity
  • Tensor product representations
  • Transient dynamic computation

Program

Saturday, December 11. Part A: Optimality in Language

Bidirectional vs. Unidirectional Optimization in adults & children

9:30-10:00
Coffee

10:00-10:30
PETRA HENDRIKS:
Online processing of bidirectional optimization

10:30-11:00
HENRIETTE DE SWART:
Telicity features of bare nominals

11:00-11:30
HENK ZEEVAT:
Parity and Automatic Self-Monitoring

11:30 - 12:00
Break

12:00-12:30
GERALDINE LEGENDRE & PAUL SMOLENSKY:
Modeling comprehension of personal pronouns: Bidirectional vs. Unidirectional Optimization in adults & children

12:30-13:00
PAUL SMOLENSKY:
Embedding OT grammars in neural networks: Discrete and gradient effects in production

13:00-14:30
Break

14:30-15:00
GERLOF BOUMA & RUBEN VAN DE VIJVER:
Pluralization in German: a challenge for frequency-based learning

15:00-15:30
LOTTE HOGEWEG:
Optimality Theoretic Lexical Semantics

15:30-16:00
MANFRED KRIFKA:
An optimality-theoretic treatment of the hedonic implicatures of 'taste' and 'smell'

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Sunday, December 12. Part B: Geometric Approaches to Cognition

9:30-10:00
Coffee

10:00-10:30
STEFAN EVERT:
Some mathematical insights into distributional semantic models

10:30-11:00
STEFAN KIEBEL:
A hierarchy of time-scales and the brain

11:00-11:30
PETER BEIM GRABEN:
Stable heteroclinic sequences as a paradigm for dynamic psycholinguistics

11:30-12:00
Break

12:00-12:30
HARALD ATMANNSPACHER:
The Necker-Zeno model

12:30-13:00
SONJA SMETS:
Dynamic conditionals as a unifying setting for information change: From quantum logic to dynamic belief revision

13:00-14:00
Break

14:00-14:30
REINHARD BLUTNER:
Geometric models of meaning and compositionality

14:30-15:00
STEFAN FRANK:
The dynamics of incremental sentence comprehension: A situation-space model

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Monday,  December 13. Part B: Geometric Approaches to Cognition

9:30-10:00
Coffee

10:00-10:30
PETER GAERDENFORS & MASSIMO WARGLIEN:
Using conceptual spaces to model actions and events

10:30-11:00
ANTON BENZ & ALEXANDRA STREKALOVA:
Conceptual spaces for matching and representing preferences

11:00-11:30
Break

12:00-12:30
EDUARDO MIZRAJI:
Modeling the cognitive spatio-temporal operations using associative memories and multiplicative contexts

12:30-13:00
PAUL SMOLENSKY:
Embedding the discrete within the continuous: Processing implications of tensor product representations for linguistic production

13:00
Coffee