Outstanding Student Research at GL2013

Brandeis University, Waltham MA

Investigators

Abstract

This award provides funding for the travel and accommodation expenses for graduate students in computational linguistics whose papers have been selected for presentation at the Sixth International Conference on Generative Approaches to the Lexicon (GL2013) conference in Pisa, Italy, in September 2013. The overall goal of the GL conferences is to bring together researchers in theoretical and computational linguistics, computer science, cognitive science, and lexicography to explore the problem of semantic compositionality -- how the meaning of expressions in natural languages derives from the structure of the lexicon, or dictionary, of semantic formatives (words or idiomatic multi-word expressions) in a natural language. GL2013 specifically aims at exploring the relation and potential synergies between generative approaches, which assume that semantic formatives are structured objects, and distributional semantics, whose proponents typically assume that they are internally unstructured and analyze their semantic contribution by means of their distribution in linguistic contexts. This award enables talented students working on computational semantics to interact with professionals in a variety of fields and perspectives related to that domain, and to present their work in a major international venue. This in turn will help to nurture a lasting interest in the upcoming generation of computational researchers in what is likely to remain a major area of interdisciplinary study for a very long time.