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CSLI Calendar, 19 April, vol 5:24


       C S L I   C A L E N D A R   O F   P U B L I C   E V E N T S
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19 April 1990                     Stanford                     Vol. 5, No. 24
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    A weekly publication of the Center for the Study of Language and
Information (CSLI), Ventura Hall, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-4115
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	   CSLI ACTIVITIES FOR THIS THURSDAY, 19 APRIL 1990

12:00 noon		TINLunch
      Cordura 100	Reading: Harmonic Grammar -- A Formal Multi-Level
			Connectionist Theory of Linguistic Well-Formedness:
			An Application
			by Ge'raldine Legendre, Yoshiro Miyata, and
			Paul Smolensky	
			Discussion led by Stanley Peters
			(peters@csli.stanford.edu)
			Abstract in last week's Calendar

 			CSLI Seminar
      			Controversies in Natural-Language Research 2
			led by Stanley Peters 
			(peters@csli.stanford.edu)
			DUE TO THE UNAVAILABILITY OF THE SPEAKERS,
			THIS SEMINAR HAS BEEN POSTPONED BY ONE WEEK
			(SEE BELOW)
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	   CSLI ACTIVITIES FOR NEXT THURSDAY, 26 APRIL 1990

12:00 noon		TINLunch
      Cordura 100	Truth Makers for Modal Propositions
			Bernard Linsky
			Visiting Scholar from the University of Alberta
			(linsky@csli.stanford.edu)
			Abstract below

 2:15 p.m.		CSLI Seminar
      Cordura 100	Controversies in Natural-Language Research 2
			led by Stanley Peters 
			(peters@csli.stanford.edu)
			Title: Developments in Phonological and 
			Morphological Theory
			Speakers: Paul Kiparsky and Bill Poser
			(kiparsky@csli.stanford.edu, poser@csli.stanford.edu)
			Abstract below
			     ____________
				   
			 NEXT WEEK'S TINLUNCH
		 Truth Makers for Modal Propositions
			    Bernard Linsky

This paper is a survey of different metaphysical accounts of what it
is in the world that _makes_ modal propositions true.  Alternatives
that are considered include: relations between objects, worlds, and
properties, properties of states of affairs or situations, and
possible facts.  I conclude that a correspondence theory of truth for
modal propositions requires possible and actual facts, as well as
facts that involve these facts as constituents.  The notion of _Truth
Makers_ is taken from John Bigelow and John Fox, and the views of
another "Australian" philosopher, David Lewis, are also discussed.

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		       NEXT WEEK'S CSLI SEMINAR
	Developments in Phonological and Morphological Theory
		     Paul Kiparsky and Bill Poser

_The Sound Pattern of English_, the work underlying virtually all
present-day work in phonology and morphology, provided an impoverished
phonological representation combined with a relatively unconstrained
theory of rules.  Although work in computational phonology and
morphology has in general not advanced beyond this primitive stage,
there have been many developments in morphological and phonological
theory, such as:

- the lexical/postlexical division
- underspecification
- templatic morphology
- tighter constraints on rule form
- the discovery of the role of prosodic constituency

We will review some of the more important of these developments.
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			SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS FORUM
	      Overview of Research at the Center for the
		  Study of Language and Information
			    Stanley Peters
			   Director of CSLI
		      (peters@csli.stanford.edu)
		    Thursday, 19 April, 4:15 p.m.
			     Cordura 100
	    NOTE TIME AND PLACE CHANGE FOR THIS WEEK ONLY
         
The Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI) is an
institute that focuses on basic research on language and information.
Its members are Stanford faculty and graduate students from the
departments of computer science, linguistics, philosophy, and
psychology, as well as researchers from bay area industrial research
centers, including SRI International, Xerox PARC, and Hewlett Packard,
and visiting scholars from the United States and around the world.
There is significant overlap in the content area that CSLI covers in
its research and that which SSP covers in its educational program.  In
addition, a large proportion of SSP's faculty are affiliated with
CSLI.  Stanley Peters will give an outline of some of CSLI's current
research projects.

Before the talk begins at 4:15 p.m., there will be an informal
get-together (with refreshments), outside the SSP office in Cordura
Hall, in the first lounge (111).
         
Next week: Applications of Nonwellfounded Sets in Symbolic Systems,
Jon Barwise.
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		     HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS GROUP
       The Development of Verbal Focus in Philippine Languages
			     Paul Kroeger
		      Department of Linguistics
			 Stanford University
		     (kroeger@csli.stanford.edu)
		    Thursday, 19 April, 7:30 p.m.
			      Ventura 17

The voice-marking system of Philippine-type languages has been the
subject of considerable controversy, both descriptive and theoretical.
In this talk, I will address the question of how such a unique system
could arise historically in a typologically plausible way.  The
hypothesis I will propose involves the reanalysis of different classes
of morphemes, specifically nominalizers and case-markers, as a single
paradigm of verbal affixes that reflect the thematic role of the
"subject."  The hypothesis crucially assumes, following Shibatani and
others, that the subject in Philippine languages is a grammaticalized
Topic, derived from a pattern of topicalization still attested in a
number of Oceanic languages.
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   		  LINGUISTICS DEPARTMENT COLLOQUIUM
		       A System of French Verse
			  Jean Claude Milner
			 University of Paris
		     Friday, 20 April, 3:30 p.m.
			     Cordura 100

No abstract available.
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	    COMMONSENSE AND NONMONOTONIC REASONING SEMINAR
		      Agent-Oriented Programming
			     Yoav Shoham
		    Department of Computer Science
			 Stanford University
		     (shoham@score.stanford.edu)
		     Monday, 23 April, 2:30 p.m.
		       Margaret Jacks Hall 252

I will discuss our work on a computational framework called
Agent-Oriented Programming.

As a programming paradigm, AOP can be viewed as an extension of
Object-Oriented Programming.  It extends OOP by having modules not
only communicate with one another, but also possess knowledge and
beliefs, choices and abilities, and possibly other notions.

As a logical theory, it extends standard epistemic logics.  Beside
temporalizing the K (knowledge) and B (belief) operators, it
introduces operators for choice (C) and ability (A).

In either case, the intuition about these mentalistic-sounding notions
is guided by intuition about the commonsense, everyday concepts,
though the actual formal definitions come nowhere close to capturing
the full linguistic meanings.
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			  PHONOLOGY WORKSHOP
	  Consonant Harmony in Children's Early Productions
			     Cathy Echols
		       Department of Psychology
			 Stanford University
		     (echols@psych.stanford.edu)
		     Tuesday, 24 April, 7:30 p.m.
			      Ventura 17

No abstract available.
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		   PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT COLLOQUIUM
			   AIDS Prevention
			      Tom Coates
	       University of California, San Francisco
		    Wednesday, 25 April, 3:45 p.m.
			Building 420, Room 050

No abstract available.
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			   NEW CSLI VISITOR
			     Syoichi Muto
		       IAP Visiting Researcher
	      Computer and Communication Research Center
	     Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), Japan
		Dates of visit: March 1990-March 1991

Since 1983, Syoichi has been working on research and development of
intelligent systems for power systems.  He supported research on a
support system for substation operators, a short-term powerload
forecasting system, and a learning system for power-system stability.
His current interests include knowledge representations and inference
procedures for a diagnosis system for power systems.  His research is
related to temporal reasoning, modal logic, and causal reasoning.
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