Workshop on Formal Language Theory in Linguistics: New Orleans, LA - January 2020

本次研讨会将把语言学家和计算机科学家聚集在一起，讨论形式语言理论的最新进展及其与语言理论和语言技术的相关性。 形式语言理论（FormalLanguageTheory，简称FLT）是一种独立地评估一个给定的被证明或预测的语言模式与其他模式相比在描述它所需的表达能力方面如何的一种手段。一种语法形式主义，具有生成世界上所有语言中发现的语法模式而不生成非语法模式的表达能力。出现模式将有助于不同语言学理论的比较，并允许对语言复杂性的界限做出精确的主张。 这次研讨会有两个目的。第一部分是对外语教学中已有的研究成果及其对语言理论和语言可学性的影响进行总结，并指出研究的新方向。第二个是将语言学家和计算机科学家聚集在一起，以便在他们的目标和方法之间建立更深层次的联系，因为它们涉及人类和机器如何学习和使用语言，并确定最富有成效的前进方向。由于外语教学的普遍性，这项研究也可以导致广泛的实际应用，从自然语言处理和人工智能到生物信息学和信息系统。该研讨会将在计算语言学学会（SCiL）第三届年会期间举行，该学会作为姐妹学会参加美国语言学会（LSA）年会。SCiL旨在成为从各种角度研究自然语言计算建模的常见会议，特别是理论语言学和自然语言处理（NLP）/机器学习（ML）社区。2020年SCiL语言学FLT研讨会特别响应社会的使命，因为FLT研究所基于的形式主义是理论计算机科学的基础。研讨会活动将包括一个主题演讲，一个由三名研究人员组成的小组，以及两个教程，展示了一些可用于语言学外语教学研究的资源。在研讨会之前，期间和之后，还将有指导会议，将对FLT/NLP/ML工作感兴趣的年轻研究人员与研讨会参与者配对，创造了一个机会，建立一个活跃的年轻研究人员网络，并为组织者提供了一个场所，以获得反馈和评估研讨会的成功。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得支持，通过评估使用基金会的学术价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

This workshop will bring linguists and computer scientists together to discuss recent advances in Formal Language Theory and its relevance both to linguistic theory and to language technologies. Formal Language Theory (FLT) is a means to independently assess how a given attested or predicted linguistic pattern compares to other patterns in terms of the expressive power required to describe it. A grammar formalism with the expressive power to generate all the grammatical patterns found in the languages of the world without generating the non-occurring patterns would facilitate the comparison of different linguistic theories and allow precise claims to be made about the bounds of linguistic complexity. This workshop has two aims. The first is to take stock of existing work in FLT and its impact on theories of language and of its learnability, and to showcase new directions in which this work is headed. The second is to bring together linguists and computer scientists in order to establish deeper points of contact between their goals and methods as they relate to how both humans and machines can learn and use language, and to identify the most fruitful directions for moving forward. Because of the general nature of FLT, this research can also lead to practical applications broadly, from natural language processing and artificial intelligence to bioinformatics and information systems.The workshop will take place during the third annual meeting of the Society for Computation in Linguistics (SCiL), which meets as a sister society at the annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA). SCiL is designed to be a common meeting for research on the computational modeling of natural language from a variety of perspectives, particularly the theoretical linguistics and the natural language processing (NLP)/machine learning (ML) communities. The 2020 SCiL workshop on FLT in linguistics is particularly responsive to the society's mission as the formalisms that FLT research is based on are foundational to theoretical computer science. The workshop events will include a keynote address, a panel of three researchers, and two tutorials demonstrating some of the resources available for getting started on research in FLT in linguistics. There will also be mentoring sessions before, during, and after the workshop that pair young researchers interested in FLT/NLP/ML work with workshop participants, creating an opportunity to build an active network of young researchers as well as providing a venue for the organizers to receive feedback and assess the success of the workshop.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.