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3-29-84 Newsletter 25
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Subject: 3-29-84 Newsletter 25
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From: csli@csli.stanford.edu
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Date: 29 Mar 1984
CSLI Newsletter
March 29, 1984 * * * Number 25
A weekly publication of
The Center for the Study of Language and Information
Ventura Hall, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305
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CSLI ACTIVITIES FOR *THIS* THURSDAY, MARCH 29
Because of the quarter break at Stanford this week, none of the
regular CSLI activities will be held this Thursday except the 3:30
tea. The TINLunch discussion that was to be led by Brian Smith on
March 29 has been postponed until April 5.
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SCHEDULE FOR *NEXT* THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 1984
10:00 a.m. Seminar on Natural Languages
Ventura Hall "Perspectives on Anaphora"
Conference Room by Phil Cohen
12 noon TINLunch
Ventura Hall "Information and Association"
Conference Room by Jerry Fodor (author present).
Discussion led by Brian Smith.
2:15 p.m. Seminar on Computer Languages
Ventura Hall "Lisp: Language and Liturature"
Conference Room by Brian Smith (see course description
elsewhere in this Newsletter)
3:30 p.m. Tea
Ventura Hall
4:15 p.m. CSLI Colloquium
Redwood Hall, "Discourse and Comprehension
Room G-19 During Medical Diagnostic Reasoning"
by Aaron Ciccourel, Department of Sociology,
Cognitive Science Program, and Medical School,
University of California at San Diego.
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AREA CL (FORMERLY C) MEETINGS
The area CL weekly meeting has been moved from Mondays to
Wednesdays, with the meeting still 1-3 and the lunch 12-1. On
Wednesday, March 28, Terry Winograd spoke on the theoretical
implications of computer language design for a new view of
computational semantics. Future meetings will be held at the same
time each Wednesday at a place to be announced. Please notify
CSLI-REQUESTS@SRI-AI if you wish to be on the CL-FRIENDS list, through
which announcements about these meetings will be made.
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Page 2
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CSLI COLLOQUIUM, SPRING QUARTER
The spring-quarter schedule for the CSLI Colloquium, which is
held each Thursday at 4:15 p.m. in Room G-19 of Redwood Hall, is
beginning to shape up. The following is a partial list of speakers
and dates, to give a hint of what to anticipate for the quarter.
April 5 Aaron Ciccourel, UC San Diego, "Discourse and Comprehension
During Medical Diagnostic Reasoning"
April 12 To be announced
April 19 Jerry Katz
April 26 Dell Hymes
May 3 Alonzo Church, Dept. of Philosophy, UCLA
May 10 John Haugeland
May 17 Elizabeth Bates
May 24 To be announced
May 31 To be announced
June 7 Judith Jarvis Thomson, Dept. of Linguistics & Philosophy, MIT,
"Causal Verbs"
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COURSE ANNOUNCEMENT--"LISP: LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE"
The following course will be the CSLI Seminar on Computer
Languages for the spring quarter. If you are interested in attending,
please read the notes on dates and registration, at the end.
"Lisp: Language and Literature"
A systematic introduction to the concepts and practices of
programming, based on a simple, reconstructed dialect of Lisp. The
aim is both to convey and to make explicit the programming knowledge
that is typically acquired through apprenticeship and practice. The
material will be presented under a linguistic reconstruction, using
vocabulary that should be of use in studying any linguistic system.
Considerable hands-on programming experience will be provided.
Although intended primarily for linguists, philosophers, and
mathematicians, anyone interested in computation is welcome. In
particular, no previous exposure to computation will be assumed.
However, since we will aim for rigorous analyses, some prior
familiarity with formal systems is essential. Also, the course will
be more like a course in literature and creative writing than like a
course in, say, French as a second language. The use of Lisp, in
other words, will be primarily as a vehicle for larger issues, not so
much an object of study in and of itself. Since Lisp (unlike French)
is really very simple, we will be able to teach it in class and lab
sessions. Tutorial instruction and some individual programming
assistance will be provided.
(Lisp course, cont'd on p. 3)
Page 3
(Lisp course, cont'd from p. 2)
Topics to be covered include:
-- Procedural and data abstraction;
-- Objects, modularity, state, and encapsulation;
-- Input/output, notation, and communication protocols;
-- Metalinguistic abstraction, and problems of intensional grain;
-- Architecture, implementation, and abstract machines;
-- Introspection, self-reference, metacircular interpreters,
and reflection.
Throughout, we will pay particular attention to the following themes:
-- Procedural and declarative notions of semantics;
-- Interpretation, compilation, and other models of processing;
-- Implicit vs. explicit representation of information;
-- Contextual relativity, scoping mechanisms, and locality;
-- Varieties of language: internal, external, theoretical;
-- Syntax and abstract structure: functionalism and
representationalism.
Organizational Details:
Instructor: Brian C. Smith, Xerox PARC/Stanford CSLI;
494-4336 (Xerox); 497-1710 (Stanford),
"BrianSmith@PARC" (Arpanet).
Classes: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.,
in Room G19, Redwood Hall, Jordan Quad.
NB: We will be using the computers just now being installed
at CSLI, and there may be some delay in getting access to them.
Registration: Because of the limited number of machines, we
may have to restrict participation somewhat. We would therefore
like anyone who intends to take this course to notify Brian Smith
as soon as possible. Note that the course will be quite demanding:
10 to 20 hours per week will probably be required, depending on
background.
Sections: There will also be section/discussion periods on a regular
basis, at times to be arranged at the beginning of the course.
Reading: The course will be roughly based on the "Structure and
Interpretation of Computer Programs" textbook by Abelson and
Sussman that has been used at M.I.T., although the linguistic
orientation will affect our dialects and terminology.
Laboratory: Xerox 1108s (Dandelions) will be provided by CSLI for
problem sets and programming assignments. Instructors and teaching
assistants will be available for assistance at prearranged times.
Credit: The course may be listed as a special topics course in Computer
Science. However (in case that does not work out) anyone wishing
to take it for credit should get in touch, so that we can arrange
reading course credit.
Page 4
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COMPUTER FACILITY UPDATE
A myriad of changes has taken place at CSLI's Computer Facility
since January 1.
The Facility's core staff (Eric Ostrom, Bud Spurgeon, and Michele
Leiser) has been augmented by an office assistant, Briget Cook, and a
user-consultant staff of several undergraduates. Our offices are
Rooms 53, 54, and 55 of Casita.
CSLI staff members have attended two training sessions on EMACS
and Scribe and will soon learn "System 1022:"--a database management
system. I will be interviewing management to determine programming
needs through the Center. Top priority will be given to an on-line
events calendar and an accounting/records management system.
We will submit similar articles to the CSLI Newsletter
periodically. Please let the Facility staff know of any suggestions
or questions by sending mail to "Michele@SU-CSLI".
- Michele Leiser
"Turing," our DEC-2060 computer, has now been tested for several
weeks. We have installed a Stanford monitor and several application
packages and help files. Dozens of user accounts have already been
assigned.
January saw the installation of a temporary Ethernet link from
Ventura Hall, Rooms 1 and 6, to the machine room located in Pine Hall.
This was done to establish communication between the Xerox Dandelions
in Ventura and the computers and file servers in Pine in the shortest
time possible. This Ethernet is a temporary kludge intended to serve
until the installation of Ethernet throughout all of our facilities by
professional contractors. Since January, the Ethernet has been tested
and waiting for the installation of the Xerox file server hardware and
software.
In February, the DEC 2060 computer was installed in Pine Hall.
Shortly thereafter, a "MEIS" (Massbus Ethernet Interface Subsytem) was
installed on the DEC which serves to connect us to the campus-wide 3
Megabit Ethernet. This means that the DEC is available on the various
campus networks and that files can be transferred to the DEC and mail
sent and received from the DEC. The DEC is named "Turing" and can be
reached by sending mail or files to "SU-CSLI" or "SU-TURING" from
outside the campus networks and simply "CSLI" or "TURING within the
campus system.
Eight dial-in lines were installed on the DEC, at this time
capable of answering 300 baud and 1200 baud modems using both Bell and
Vadic modem protocols. The phone number for the dial-in modems is
324-3923. The answer modem lines are set up to "auto-baud," which
means that once you have established a connection to the computer's
(Computer Facility, cont'd on p. 5)
Page 5
(Computer Facility, cont'd from p. 4)
modem you need only hit the "return" key twice for the DEC to figure
out what speed modem you are using and proceed to answer your call.
Eight more dial-in lines are planned for the DEC, and this equipment
is on order.
The DEC has had a series of "break-in period" failures whose
frequency and severity were above average for a computer of this type,
and this has delayed us somewhat. However DEC's service personnel
have been very professional in answering our trouble calls and fixing
the system, and the system is running well now.
Finally, the DEC is presently serving as a site for the
development of a 10 Megabit MEIS. This means that the DEC will be
unavailable after 6 p.m. most weekdays, since the developers need the
resources of the entire system for their work. This should only last
for the next week or so, and the result will be enhanced Ethernet
interfacing for the entire campus community and should be well worth
any minor inconvenience to us at this time.
Xerox technicians and software experts installed the Xerox XNS
(Xerox Network Standard) File Server on Monday, March 19, and at the
same time Xerox software was installed in the laser printer located in
Ventura 1. This allows us to use the XNS file server and begin the
"burning in" process on the Dandelions in Ventura. Extra power and
air-conditioning necessary for running more Dandelions and for running
the laser printers in Ventura 1 and 6 have been installed and the
Dandelions are being moved into that area and will be available for
fully supported research work in Ventura, Rooms 1 and 6, until the
trailers become available for use.
A Xerox Dolphin has also been installed and loaded with special
software to allow it to serve as a gateway between the 10 Megabit
Ethernet in Ventura and the 3 Megabit Ethernet on campus so that the
Dandelions in Ventura will be able to access any host on the Stanford
campus. This will serve as a stopgap device until equipment that was
ordered to do this arrives.
Along with all of this above activity, we are procuring the
necessary items for the installation of full networking and terminal
support in the trailers once they are installed. Also, work is under
way for the installation of two DEC VAX computers in Pine Hall.
It has been a busy first two months for me at my new position
here at CSLI; nevertheless I've been enjoying this opportunity to help
plan and implement what I am sure will be one of the best research and
computing environments on the Stanford campus once it is completed.
- Bud Spurgeon
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SEMINAR IN PROTOCOL ANALYSIS
"Image-Processing Studies of American Sign Language"
George Sperling
New York University and Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill
These experiments deal with the practical problem of squeezing
American Sign Language (ASL) through the telephone network.
Historically, an image (e.g., TV @ 4 MHz) has been valued at more than
1000 speech tokens (e.g., telephone @ 3 kHz). A powerful
image-processing system was developed and used to create
low-bandwidth, dynamic, image sequences of ASL signers. Subsampling
in space, time, and intensity was studied in conjunction with a
variety of grey-scale and binary- intensity image transformations and
with some new coding schemes; and formal intelligibility tests were
conducted with deaf subjects. With image-processed ASL, the
word/picture ratio is shown to be approaching unity, and intelligible,
image-processed ASL is communicable on ordinary, switched telephone
networks. The various image-processed ASL stimuli provide interesting
linguistic, perceptual, and computational insights. A movie to
illustrate image-processed ASL will be shown.
Place: Jordan Hall, Room 100
Time: 1:00 pm, April 4, 1984
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BERKELEY COGNITIVE SCIENCE PROGRAM - IDS 237B
Tuesday, April 3, 1984, 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., 240 Bechtel
"Objects, Parts, and Categories"
Barbara Tversky, Dept. of Psychology, Stanford
ABSTRACT: Many psychological, linguistic and anthropological measures
converge to a preferred level of reference, or BASIC LEVEL, for common
categories; for example, TABLE, in lieu of FURNITURE or KITCHEN TABLE.
Here we demonstrate that knowledge of categories at that level (and
only that level) of abstraction is dominated by knowledge of parts.
Basic level categories are perceived to share parts and to differ from
one another on the basis of other features. We argue that knowledge
of part configuration underlies the convergence of perceptual,
behavioral and linguistic measures because part configuration plays a
large role in both appearance and function. Basic level categories
are especially informative because structure is linked to function via
parts at this level.
Upcoming Talks This Spring Semester
April 10 Roger Shepard Stanford, Psychology
April l7 Katherine Demuth UCB, Psychology
April 24 Barbara Grosz SRI; CSLI
April 26 Barry Schein UCB/MIT, Linguistics
May 1 John Perry Stanford, Philosophy; CSLI
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