Joint Meeting of CSDL and ESLP: October 2010

University Of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

Language holds a special place in the study of the human mind because it is both unique to our species and apparent in every normally developing human. However, the study of language and the mind has been carried out largely in parallel by two distinct groups of researchers. On the one hand are linguists, who begin with detailed observations about large numbers of specific languages, and then develop theoretical models of how language in general is learned and used. On the other hand are cognitive scientists, who use a combination of experimentation to test theories about how language is implemented in the mind, along with and computational tools to develop precise formal models of the mental functioning that underlies language. Linguists and cognitive scientists focus on the same questions about language and the mind, but they bring different approaches to bear for gathering evidence and, at present, there is very little interaction between these two scholarly communities. As an initial step towards bringing together linguists and cognitive scientists working on language and mind, The University of California, San Diego will host the first joint meeting of the Conceptual Structure, Discourse, and Language Conference, and the Embodied and Situated Language Processing Workshop in October, 2010. These are two leading conferences on language and the mind, for linguists and cognitive scientists, respectively. This joint meeting will be structured to facilitate cross-disciplinary interactions, in several ways. First, the meeting will begin with a day of parallel tutorials on the methods and theoretical models used in linguistic and cognitive science approaches to the topic, respectively. These will familiarize participants with work in the neighboring discipline. Second, oral presentations will be held in a single-session format, meaning that there will only be one presentation at any given time. This means that all participants, regardless of their background, will attend the same talks. Finally, the lunch and coffee breaks will accompany large poster sessions, which will provide junior researchers with an opportunity to present their work and interact with other scholars. This joint meeting will offer a forum for interdisciplinary communication of scientific findings, with the ultimate goal of fostering eventual collaboration among researchers studying language and the mind in different ways. The research presented at this meeting will predominantly be basic science, but the aim of developing and refining our understanding of how the human mind learns, produces, and understands language has far-reaching potential benefits. These range from computational tools that facilitate access to information for computer users in general, or for disabled and illiterate populations, to diagnosis techniques and therapeutic approaches for developmental and acquired language disorders.