The 33rd Language Lunch
Date: 2012-06-08
Location: G.07 Informatics Forum
Assertion: What’s at Stake?
Allan,Hazlett; PPLS; ahazlett@staffmail.ed.ac.uk
Robin,McKenna; PPLS; s0900588@sms.ed.ac.uk
Joey,Pollock; PPLS; s0967156@sms.ed.ac.uk
Recent research in the philosophy of language has sought to give an account of the nature of assertion. Some define assertion in terms of the norm that governs it, others in terms of its causes and effects, and others in terms of the commitments that go along with making an assertion. All parties assume that there is such a thing as assertion, but this assumption has been challenged by Herman Cappelen (2011). We strengthen Cappelen’s challenge by arguing that the category of “assertions” is too broad to admit of analysis and that the theoretical value of the notion of assertion is unclear. Moreover, without a clear conception of what is at stake in the debate over the nature of assertion, criteria of adequacy for theories of assertion are obscure.
A Comparison of Vector-based Representations for Semantic Composition
William,Blacoe; informatics; s1066731@sms.ed.ac.uk
Mirella,Lapata; mlap@inf.ed.ac.uk
In this paper we address the problem of modeling compositional meaning for phrases and sentences using distributional methods. We experiment with several possible combinations of representation and composition, exhibiting varying degrees of sophistication. Some are shallow while others operate over syntactic structure, rely on parameter learning, or require access to very large corpora. We find that shallow approaches are as good as more computationally intensive alternatives with regards to two particular tests: (1) phrase similarity and (2) paraphrase detection. The sizes of the involved training corpora and the generated vectors are not as important as the fit between the meaning representation and compositional method.
The Lexical Semantic Interference Model (LSIM) of bilingual language production
Mehdi,Purmohammad; PPLS; m.purmohammad@sms.ed.ac.uk
While much of research has focused on code switching (CS), interference in bilingual speech has hardly been addressed. Interference is a language phenomenon that occurs as a result of language contact in bilingual speakers. The main aim of the present study is to investigate the interference phenomena. To describe the language processing of interference in bilingual language production, I propose The Lexical Semantic Interference Model(LSIM). The term interference is used to denote different language contact phenomena. This model (LSIM) addresses certain kinds of interference. This study is based on naturalistic data from the speeches of Mazandarani-Persian bilingual speakers. The research sheds light to our understanding of language processing in bilingual speakers.
Cross-Lingual Genre Classification
Philipp,Petrenz; informatics; S0895822@sms.ed.ac.uk
Text genre classification can enhance Information Retrieval and Natural Language Processing applications. Classifying genres across languages can bring these benefits to the target language without the costs of manual annotation. This poster presents the first approach to this task. It exploits text features which separate genre classes in similar ways across languages, as well as iterative re-labeling in the target language. Experiments show this method to perform equally well or better than full text translation combined with monolingual classification, while requiring fewer resources.
Social State Recognition and Knowledge-Level Planning for Human-Robot Interaction in a Bartender Domain
Ron,Petrick; informatics; R.Petrick@ed.ac.uk
Mary Ellen,Foster; informatics; m.e.foster@hw.ac.uk
Amy,Isard; informatics; amyi@inf.ed.ac.uk
We present preliminary work focusing on the problem of combining social interaction with task-based action in a dynamic, multiagent bartending domain, using an embodied robot. We show how the users’ spoken input is interpreted, discuss how social states are inferred from the parsed speech together with low-level information from the vision system, and present a planning approach that models task, dialogue, and social actions in a simple bartending scenario. This approach allows us to build interesting plans, which have been evaluated in a real-world study, using a general purpose, off-the-shelf planner, as an alternative to more mainstream methods of interaction management.
An impact study of the high-stakes test (IELTS) in Pakistan
Natasha,Memon; PPLS; s0787607@sms.ed.ac.uk
The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) English proficiency test is widely taken by non-native speakers of English for reasons like higher education, immigration and registration with professional bodies in western countries.rnIn response to the growing demand for the IELTS exam, a wide range of private institutes have opened in Pakistan for the preparation of IELTS candidates, catering to different income brackets. The private institutes offer short General English courses and preparation for international proficiency tests like IELTS.rnThe present impact study of IELTS in Pakistan (following global impact studies of IELTS such as Hawkey 2006) attempts to explore the effectiveness of these IELTS preparation courses in improving the proficiency level of their clients. The study examines the IELTS preparation course at two institutes in Pakistan, BERLITZ – an international institute and PACC – a locally owned institute. A pre- and post-test for IELTS was taken by 20 students enrolled in both institutes. The test data was supplemented by class observation, questionnaires and informal interviews with teachers and students.rnThe study found that unsurprisingly the two cohorts at the two institutes differ clearly at the starting level as found by the pre-test (Students at BERLITZ are more proficient than PACC students). Yet the progress for these two cohorts suggests that there is not much difference in the improvement level between BERLITZ and PACC students, despite superior teaching and resources at BERLITZ. The results can be explained to an extent by the brevity of the courses (both 8 weeks) but they also point to distortions in the market for IELTS preparation in Pakistan where IELTS has assumed a significance that goes beyond the opportunity that a relatively small number of Pakistanis have to study and/or work abroad.
