Symposium on Information-theoretic Approaches to Linguistics

语言的交际本质已经被探索了几个世纪，并为现代语言理论中的概念奠定了坚实的基础，特别是关于语言过程的形式，以最大限度地将信息从一个人有效地传递给另一个人。20世纪40年代数学交际理论的发展(如香农和韦弗1949年)促使许多语言学家考虑用该理论的数学明确概念来分析语言现象。虽然信息论的概念在计算语言学领域已经确立，但在主流语言学中，信息论方法的概率性质基本上被抛弃了。然而，最近，随着研究人员探索信息论的工具如何帮助我们加深对语言系统的理解，语言学领域重新出现了对信息论的兴趣。这项提议的目的是为在美国语言学会两年一度的暑期学院期间举办的一次专题讨论会提供资金。研讨会将允许对信息论在语言中的应用感兴趣的学者识别语言研究中可以用信息论进行卓有成效的研究和建模的现象，并分享和评价信息论应用于此类现象的方法。还将为不熟悉信息论的学者提供教程。此次活动旨在为语言学研究社区的发展提供一个跳板，调查信息论作为语言现象的组织原则所扮演的许多角色。研讨会的组织者将编写一份经过编辑和同行评议的论文集。

The communicative nature of language has been explored for centuries and serves as a solid base for concepts in modern linguistic theory, particularly regarding the shape that linguistic processes take in order to maximize the effective transmission of a message from one person to another. The development of a mathematical theory of communication in the 1940s (e.g., Shannon & Weaver 1949) spurred a number of linguists to consider analyzing linguistic phenomena in terms of mathematically explicit concepts of this theory. While information theoretic concepts are well established in the area of computational linguistics, the probabilistic nature of information-theoretic approaches was essentially abandoned in mainstream linguistics. Recently, however, the field of linguistics has witnessed a re-emergence of interest in information theory as researchers explore ways in which tools from information theory can help advance our understanding of linguistic systems. The objective of this proposal is to provide funding for a symposium held during the Linguistic Society of America's biennial Summer Institute. The symposium will allow scholars interested in the application of information theory to language to identify phenomena in linguistic research that may fruitfully be investigated and modeled using information theory, and to share and appraise methods by which information theory can be applied to such phenomena. There will also be a tutorial for scholars not familiar with information theory. The event is intended as a springboard for the development of a research community within linguistics investigating the many roles that information theory plays as an organizing principle of linguistic phenomena. An edited, peer-reviewed collection of the papers will be produced by the organizers of the symposium.