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CSLI Calendar, Wednesday, 1 November 2006, vol. 22:9
CSLI CALENDAR OF PUBLIC EVENTS
______________________________________________________________________
1 November 2006 Stanford Vol. 22, No. 9
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A weekly publication of the
Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI)
Stanford University, Cordura Hall, Stanford, CA 94305-4101
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/
____________
ACTIVITIES FROM 1 NOVEMBER 2006 TO 10 NOVEMBER 2006
WEDNESDAY, 1 NOVEMBER 2006
12 noon Psychology Developmental Brownbags [1-Nov-06]
Jordan Hall 420:102
"fMRI of the developmental trajectory of emotion regulation"
Kateri McRae
Stanford University
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/events_developmental.html
12 noon UC Berkeley CITRIS Research Exchange [1-Nov-06]
290 Hearst Memorial Mining Building (UC Berkeley)
"University of California Web-based Instruction for Science
and Engineering"
Michael Clancy
Computer Science, UC Berkeley
http://www.citris-uc.org/
Abstract below
4:15pm EE380: Computer Systems Lab Colloquium [1-Nov-06]
Gates B03 (NEC Auditorium)
"Efficient Computing in the Many-Core Era"
William Dally
Stanford Streaming Supercomputer
http://ee380.stanford.edu/contents.html
THURSDAY, 2 NOVEMBER 2006
12 noon Music 319: CCRMA Hearing Seminar [2-Nov-06]
CCRMA Seminar Room, The Knoll
"Review of Audio and Music Computing for Multimedia Workshop"
Malcolm, Song Hui, Sook Young, Kyogo, and others
http://www.create.ucsb.edu/amcmm06/
http://ccrma-mail.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/hearing-seminar
3:45pm Psychology Department Colloquium [2-Nov-06]
Jordan Hall 420:041
"Voluntary Settlement and the Spirit of Independence:
Evidence from Japan's 'Northern Frontier'"
Shinobu Kitayama
U of Michigan
http://www.rcgd.isr.umich.edu/cpl/index.html
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/events_colloquium.html
4:00pm Stanford Phonology Workshop [2-Nov-06]
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:126
"'A revised typology of opaque generalizations' by Eric Bakovic"
http://roa.rutgers.edu/files/850-0706/850-0706-0-0.PDF
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/pinterest/
4:00pm PARC Forum [2-Nov-06]
George Pake Auditorium at PARC
"The Paradox of Political Language"
Geoffrey Nunberg,
UC Berkeley (and CSLI)
http://www.parc.com/forum/
Abstract below
4:00pm UC Berkeley Cognition, Brain, and Behavior [2-Nov-06]
Beach Room Tolman (Berkeley)
"The Comparative Cognition of Relational Encoding"
Lucy Jacobs
http://psychology.berkeley.edu/news/colloquia.html
4:10pm UC Berkeley Philosophy Department Colloquium [2-Nov-06]
Howison Philosophy Library, (305 Moses Hall) (Berkeley)
"Neither Will nor Free? Motivational Forces in Plato's Psychology"
Dorothea Frede
UC Berkeley
http://www.phil-gesch.uni-hamburg.de/phil/philperson/frede1.html
http://philosophy.berkeley.edu/
4:15pm SSP10: Symbolic Systems Forum [2-Nov-06]
Bldg. 380:380C (Math Corner)
"From Molecule to Metaphor: Towards a Unified Cognitive Science"
Jerry Feldman
Computer Science, UC Berkeley
http://symsys.stanford.edu/ssp_events
Abstract below
4:15pm Fundamental Themes in Neuroscience Seminar [2-Nov-06]
Munzer Auditorium, Beckman
"The neurobiology and evolution of monogamy"
Larry Young
Psychiatry, Center for Behavioral Neuroscience
http://nis-seminars.stanford.edu/
Abstract below
4:15pm Information Systems Seminar [2-Nov-06]
Packard 101
"Distributed Algorithms for Optimal Control of Wireless Networks"
Edmund Yeh
Yale
http://isl.stanford.edu/colloquium.html
Abstract below
FRIDAY, 3 NOVEMBER 2006
11:00am UC Berkeley ICBS Colloquium [3-Nov-06]
Tolman 5101 (Berkeley)
"Using a Culture-Inclusive Cognitive Science to Design for
Development"
Michael Cole
Communication, Psychology, and Human Development, UC San Diego
http://communication.ucsd.edu/people/f_cole.html
http://icbs.berkeley.edu/
Abstract below
12:15pm Stanford Theory Lunch [3-Nov-06]
Gates 4B center area (opposite 490)
"DNA Self-Assembly"
Ho-Lin Chen
http://theory.stanford.edu/~mihaela/theorylunch/
Abstract below
12:30pm CS547: Human-Computer Interaction Seminar [3-Nov-06]
Gates B01 (HP Auditorium)
"Designing for the Self"
John Zimmerman
Carnegie Mellon HCI Institute and School of Design
http://www-pcd.stanford.edu/cs547/
Abstract below
12:30pm UC Berkeley HWNI Student Seminar [3-Nov-06]
101 LSA (Berkeley)
"The prefrontal cortex: rules, concepts, and cognitive control"
Earl Miller
MIT
http://neuroscience.berkeley.edu/events/
3:00pm Berkeley Information Access Seminar [3-Nov-06]
202 South Hall (Berkeley)
"Architecting to Scale"
Jack Xu
EBay
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/courses/is296a-1/f06/schedule.html
Abstract below
3:15pm Friday Cognitive Seminar [3-Nov-06]
Jordan Hall 420:050
"Local vs. Global Processing underlying object recognition"
Hyejean Suh
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/events_cognitive.html
3:15pm ME394: Design Forum [3-Nov-06]
Terman 556
"my research"
Bernard Roth
http://me.stanford.edu/faculty/facultydir/roth.html
http://www.stanford.edu/class/me394/
3:30pm Linguistics Department Colloquium [3-Nov-06]
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:126
"Temporal dynamics of conversational implicature during
real-time processing"
Julie Sedivy
Brown University
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/colloq/
Abstract below
4:00pm UC Berkeley Oxyopia Lecture [3-Nov-06]
489 Minor Hall (UC Berkeley)
"Global Feature-Based Attention in the Human Visual System"
Geoffrey Boynton
Systems Neurobiology Laboratories, Salk Institute
http://optometry.berkeley.edu/opt_txtpp/ce/oxyopias.html
Abstract below
MONDAY, 6 NOVEMBER 2006
3:30pm Social Lab [6-Nov-06]
Bldg. 200:105
"Situational Cues, Identity Contingencies and Belonging"
Mary Murphy
Stanford University
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/events_social.html
4:00pm Berkeley Neuroscience Distinguished Lecture [6-Nov-06]
BAM Theater, 2621 Durant Ave. (Berkeley)
"How do we form and retrieve memory?"
Susumu Tonegawa
Nobel Laureate
http://neuroscience.berkeley.edu/events/
4:00pm UC Berkeley Ear Club [6-Nov-06]
3105 Tolman Hall (Berkeley)
"Webers Law: listening in the sensory-trace or context mode"
Anne-Marie Bonnel
Psychology, Berkeley
http://neuroscience.berkeley.edu/events/
4:15pm CS528: Broad Area Colloquium [6-Nov-06]
Hewlett Teaching Center 200
"Surgical Assistance: A Laboratory for AI and Robotics Research"
Gregory D. Hager
John Hopkins University
http://graphics.stanford.edu/courses/cs528/
Abstract below
TUESDAY, 7 NOVEMBER 2006
3:00pm Berkeley Neuroscience Distinguished Lecture [7-Nov-06]
BAM Theater, 2621 Durant Ave. (Berkeley)
"Molecular and Circuit Mechanisms for Hippocampal Learning and
Memory"
Susumu Tonegawa
Nobel Laureate
http://neuroscience.berkeley.edu/events/
4:00pm SRI AI Seminar Series [7-Nov-06]
EJ228, SRI International
"Comparative Probability, Comparative Confirmation, and the
`Conjunction Fallacy'"
Branden Fitelson
UC Berkeley
http://www.ai.sri.com/seminars/
Abstract below
4:00pm UC Berkeley BISC Seminar [7-Nov-06]
380 Soda Hall (Berkeley)
"Inherent Fuzziness of Language: Cognitive, Philosophical and
Computational Aspects"
Timo Honkela
Helsinki University of Technology
http://www-bisc.eecs.berkeley.edu/
Abstract below
4:15pm CS309a: Software as a Service [7-Nov-06]
Skilling Auditorium
Title to be announced
Maynard Webb
Former Chief Operating Officer, eBay
http://cs309a.stanford.edu/
4:30pm Stanford Security Seminar [7-Nov-06]
Gates 4B center area (opposite 490)
"Hacking Intranet Websites from the Outside: JavaScript
malware just got a lot more dangerous"
Jeremiah Grossman
WhiteHat Security
http://theory.stanford.edu/seclab/sem.html
Abstract below
WEDNESDAY, 8 NOVEMBER 2006
12 noon Psychology Developmental Brownbags [8-Nov-06]
Jordan Hall 420:102
"Attachment and Expectations:
Effects on Infants' Representations of Social Relationships"
Frances Chen
Stanford University
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/events_developmental.html
12 noon UC Berkeley CITRIS Research Exchange [8-Nov-06]
290 Hearst Memorial Mining Building (UC Berkeley)
"In situ bioremediation: bacteria saving the world by eating
much of our junk"
Lisa Alvarez-Cohen
Civil & Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley
http://www.citris-uc.org/
2:00pm Berkeley Seminar [8-Nov-06]
465 Soda Hall (Berkeley)
"Improving Systems Management Policies Using Hybrid
Reinforcement Learning"
Gerry Tesauro
IBM
http://coe.berkeley.edu/events/
Abstract below
3:30pm SRI CSL Seminar [8-Nov-06]
Bldg E - Ek255, SRI International
"PATIKAweb: A Web-based tool for querying and visualizing
PATIKA database, integrating pathway data from various popular
databases"
Ugur Dogrusoz
Head, Center for Bioinformatics, Bilkent Univ., Ankara, Turkey
http://www.ai.sri.com/seminars/
Abstract below
6:00pm Berkeley History and Philosophy of Logic Mathematics, and Science
234 Moses, (Berkeley) [8-Nov-06]
"Rethinking Figure/Ground Organization"
Stephen Palmer
Psychology, UC Berkeley
http://hplms.berkeley.edu/
Abstract below
7:00pm Stanford Humanities Center Conference [8-Nov-06]
Cubberley Auditorium, School of Education
Imaging environment: Maps, Models, and Metaphors
"The Culture of Landscape and the Nature of Politics"
William Cronon
University of Wisconsin-Madison
http://shc.stanford.edu/events/
Conference info below
THURSDAY, 9 NOVEMBER 2006
all day Stanford Humanities Center Conference [9-Nov-06]
Cubberley Auditorium
Imaging environment: Maps, Models, and Metaphors
http://shc.stanford.edu/events/
Conference info below
12 noon CSLI CogLunch [9-Nov-06]
Cordura Hall 100
"Neural Oscillators and the Brain"
Jose Acacio de Barros
Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil.
http://www.stanford.edu/~barros
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/events/Coglunch/
Abstract below
4:15pm SSP10: Symbolic Systems Forum [9-Nov-06]
Bldg. 380:380C (Math Corner)
"Wired for Speech: How Voice Activates and Advances the
Human-Computer Relationship"
Clifford Nass
Communication, Stanford
http://symsys.stanford.edu/ssp_events
Abstract below
4:15pm Information Systems Seminar [9-Nov-06]
Packard 101
"Information-efficient Writing"
David MacKay
Cambridge
http://isl.stanford.edu/colloquium.html
4:15pm Fundamental Themes in Neuroscience Seminar [9-Nov-06]
Munzer Auditorium, Beckman
"What determines the shape of neuronal arbors?"
Dmitri Chklovskii
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
http://www.cshl.edu/labs/mitya/chklovskiilabhome.html
http://nis-seminars.stanford.edu/
7:00pm Symposium [9-Nov-06]
Cubberley Auditorium, School of Education
"From Counterculture to Cyberculture:
The Legacy of the Whole Earth Catalog"
Stewart Brand, Kevin Kelly, Howard Rheingold and Fred Turner
http://www.stanford.edu/~shyeo/wholeearth.htm
Information below
FRIDAY, 10 NOVEMBER 2006
all day Stanford Humanities Center Conference [10-Nov-06]
Cubberley Auditorium
Imaging environment: Maps, Models, and Metaphors
http://shc.stanford.edu/events/
Conference info below
12:30pm CS547: Human-Computer Interaction Seminar [10-Nov-06]
Gates B01 (HP Auditorium)
"From Personal Computers to Personal Information Environments"
Jeff Pierce
IBM Almaden Research
http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/people/jspierce/
http://www-pcd.stanford.edu/cs547/
Abstract below
3:15pm Friday Cognitive Seminar [10-Nov-06]
Jordan Hall 420:050
"Active Vision"
Carol Colby
http://www-psych.stanford.edu/events_cognitive.html
3:15pm ME394: Design Forum [10-Nov-06]
Terman 556
"my research"
David Beach
http://me.stanford.edu/faculty/facultydir/beach.html
http://www.stanford.edu/class/me394/
3:30pm Stanford Semantics and Pragmatics Workshop [10-Nov-06]
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:126
"Been there -- marked that: a theory of second occurrence focus"
Daniel Buering
UCLA
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/semgroup/
Abstract below
____________
Stanford Blood Center: Shortage of O, A, and AB. For an appointment:
http://bloodcenter.stanford.edu/ or call 650-723-7831. It only takes
an hour of your time and you get free cookies.
____________
UC BERKELEY CITRIS RESEARCH EXCHANGE
on Wednesday, 1 November 2006, 12 noon
290 Hearst Memorial Mining Building (UC Berkeley)
http://www.citris-uc.org/
"University of California Web-based
Instruction for Science and Engineering"
Michael Clancy
Senior Lecturer, Computer Science at UC Berkeley,
The UC-WISE project (University of California Web-based Instruction
for Science and Engineering) aims
* to provide technology and curricula for laboratory-based higher
education courses that incorporate online facilities for
collaboration, inquiry learning, and assessment, and to investigate
the most effective ways of integrating this technology into our
courses;
* to allow instructors to customize courses, prototype new course
elements, and collect review comments from experienced course
developers.
As part of this project, we have developed several complete lab-based
courses that trade lecture and discussion time for hands-on lab time.
These courses include CS 3L ("Introduction to Symbolic Programming"),
CS 4 ("Introduction to Computing for Engineers"), and CS 61BL ("Data
Structures and Programming Methodology").
In this talk, we describe these courses in more detail. We also report
on what we've learned about lab-based instruction, and outline our
educational research goals and plans for technology development to
support them.
____________
PARC FORUM
on Thursday, 2 November 2006, 4:00pm - 5:00pm
George Pake Auditorium, PARC
http://www.parc.com/forum/
"The Paradox of Political Language"
Geoffrey Nunberg
UC Berkeley
There's a paradox in modern attitudes about political language. Left
and right may disagree as to which expressions count as deceptive
packaging and which are merely effective branding, but both sides
acknowledge that the American public is particularly susceptible to
linguistic manipulation. Yet it's also fair to say that there has
never been an age that was so wary of the mischief that language can
work or so alert to the dangers of political euphemism and
indirection. How did we come to this point? Are political and public
figures really more mendacious than they used to be, or does it
reflect a changing media role or an increasingly polarized political
climate? Why is widespread sophistication no impediment to the
misleading use of language, and why do many of the most successful
linguistic maneuvers pass our radar undetected?
About the Speaker: Geoff Nunberg is an adjunct full professor at UC
Berkeley's School of Information Management and Systems. He was a
researcher at Xerox PARC from 1987 to 2001. He serves as chair of the
usage panel of the American Heritage Dictionary, offers regular
commentaries on language on the NPR show "Fresh Air" and writes on
language for the Sunday New York Times Week in Review, as well as for
other periodicals. His 2004 book Going Nucular, was selected by
Amazon.com as one of the Ten Best Nonfiction Books of 2004 and as one
of the "Top 10 Books of the Year" by the San Jose Mercury News. His
most recent book Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned LIberalism
into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New
York Times-reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak
Show was published in July 2006 by PublicAffairs.
____________
SSP10: SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS FORUM
on Thursday, 2 November 2006, 4:15pm
Bldg. 380:380C (Math Corner)
http://symsys.stanford.edu/ssp_events
"From Molecule to Metaphor: Towards a Unified Cognitive Science"
Jerry Feldman
Computer Science and Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, UC Berkeley
The neural revolution in cognitive science, which was always
inevitable, is well under way. There is already enough known about how
our brains process information to render many traditional theories
obsolete and a unified neurally-based cognitive science is
emerging. Linguistics and Philosophy have, for both historical and
technical reasons, been slow to integrate even the most basic
neuroscience. Much of fundamental neuroscience is done with animals
and, since only people use language, there has been no easy way to
extend animal findings to human thought and language.
The talk is based on a new book that is a systematic attempt to show
how human language and thought arise as an extension of the physiology
and experiences that people share with other animals. Integrating
findings from all the cognitive sciences yields a foundation for an
explicitly neural theory of language that is an integral part of
contemporary science. Many, but not all, of the fundamental issues
about brain and mind become clearer in a Unified Cognitive Science
____________
FUNDAMENTAL THEMES IN NEUROSCIENCE SEMINAR
on Thursday, 2 November 2006, 4:15pm
Munzer Auditorium, Beckman
http://nis-seminars.stanford.edu/
"The neurobiology and evolution of monogamy"
Larry Young
Psychiatry, Center for Behavioral Neuroscience
http://www.yerkes.emory.edu/YOUNG/
Monogamous and non-monogamous species of voles provide an ideal model
for discovering the molecular and neurobiological mechanisms
regulating social behavior. Comparative studies demonstrate that
species differences in the expression oxytocin and vasopressin
receptors underlie the species differences in social organization.
Furthermore, molecular studies demonstrate that variation in a
polymorphic microsatellite in the vasopressin receptor promoter
appears to be responsible for both species and individual differences
in social bonding. These findings will be discussed in relation to
human social behavior and psychiatric disorders.
Recent Papers:
[1]E.A.D. Hammock and L. J. Young. Microsatellite instability
generates diversity in brain and sociobehavioral traits. Science.
308:1630-1634
http://nis-seminars.stanford.edu/reprints/Young1.pdf
[2]M. M. Lim et al. Enhanced partner preference in promiscuous species
by manipulating the expression of a single gene. Nature. . 429:754-757
http://nis-seminars.stanford.edu/reprints/Young2.pdf
____________
INFORMATION SYSTEMS SEMINAR
on Thursday, 2 November 2006, 4:15pm-5:15pm
Packard 101
http://isl.stanford.edu/colloquium.html
"Distributed Algorithms for Optimal Control of Wireless Networks"
Edmund Yeh
Yale
In wireless networks, link capacities are variable quantities
determined by transmission powers, channel fading levels, user
mobility, as well as the underlying coding and modulation schemes. In
view of this, the traditional problems of routing and congestion
control must now be jointly optimized with power control and rate
allocation at the physical layer. To address this, we consider a
multi-commodity flow model for interference-limited wireless networks
in which power control and routing variables are chosen to minimize
convex link costs reflecting, for instance, average queuing delay. We
design a set of node-based distributed gradient projection algorithms
which iteratively adjust local control variables with a limited
exchange of control messages. We explicitly derive the scaling
matrices required in the gradient projection algorithms for fast,
guaranteed global convergence, and show how the scaling matrices can
be computed in a distributed manner. Furthermore, we show that
congestion control can be seamlessly incorporated into our framework.
Next, we consider two important extensions of our results. First,
recent research on network coding has shown that extending the
functionality of network nodes beyond simple routing may have benefits
in certain situations. We show that our distributed node-based control
algorithms can be extended to achieve minimum-cost multicast in
interference-limited wireless networks by jointly optimizing the
network coding subgraphs with power control and congestion control
schemes. Second, we consider stochastic models of wireless networks
where the random nature of traffic arrivals and queueing are
explicitly modelled. For these networks, it is well-known that the
Maximum Differential Backlog (MDB) control policy of Tassiulas and
Ephremides can adaptively maximize the stable throughput. The
implementation of the MDB policy in interference-limited wireless
networks, however, in general requires centralized computation. For
this, we show that our node-based control algorithms can be extended
to achieve distributed throughput optimal control of wireless networks
with random traffic and queueing.
Joint work with Yufang Xi, Yale University.
____________
UC BERKELEY ICBS COLLOQUIUM
on Friday, 3 November 2006, 11:00am
Tolman 5101 (Berkeley)
http://icbs.berkeley.edu/
"Using a Culture-Inclusive Cognitive Science
to Design for Development"
Michael Cole
Communication, Psychology, and Human Development, UC San Diego
http://communication.ucsd.edu/people/f_cole.html
Using that part of the cultural approach to cognitive science
developed in my previous lecture focused on cultural-history,
ontogeny, and microgenesis, I will describe a program of research
using this approach to designing development-enhancing, educational
enviornments for children during out of school hours. This
approach begins by specifying a set of design principles, the
embodiment of those principles in the design of "idiocutures," and
the subsequent tracing of transformations in both the idiocultures
and the people who participate in them. Special emphasis will be given
to challenges of data representation and evaluation.
____________
STANFORD THEORY LUNCH
on Friday, 3 November 2006, 12:15pm - 1:15pm
Gates 4B center area (opposite 490)
http://theory.stanford.edu/~mihaela/theorylunch/
"DNA Self-Assembly"
Ho-Lin Chen
Self-assembly is the ubiquitous process by which objects autonomously
assemble into complexes. DNA self-assembly is emerging as a key
paradigm for nano-technology, nano-computation, and several related
disciplines. In nature, DNA self-assembly is often equipped with
explicit mechanisms for both error prevention and error correction.
For artificial self-assembly, these problems are even more important
since we are interested in assembling large systems with great
precision.
In this talk, we will first demonstrate some recent progress on DNA
self-assembly and show some issues on these achievements. Then we will
present an error correction scheme on DNA self-assembly called snaked
proofreading tiles and explain the basic ideas about why this system
works in practice. We will also demonstrate some preliminary
experimental data showing that this kind of combinatorial tile system
can really change the dynamic behavior of the self-assembly process.
This is joint work with Ashish Goel, Rebecca Schulman and Erik
Winfree.
____________
CS547: HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION SEMINAR
on Friday, 3 November 2006, 12:30-2:00pm
Gates B01 (HP Auditorium)
http://www-pcd.stanford.edu/cs547/
"Designing for the Self"
John Zimmerman
HCI Institute and School of Design, CMU
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnz/
For many years consumer behavior researchers have explored the role
people's possessions play in the identity construction process;
looking at how possessions help people decide who they want to be and
how they help people move closer to their idealized image of
themselves. However, in looking at product design processes, and
particularly the HCI design processes for developing interactive
products and services, the insights gained from the consumer behavior
research have not yet been operationalized. In general, HCI developers
are quite good at looking at what people do, and designing products to
enhance the qualities of these activities; however, HCI processes do
not generally explore who people desire to be. This talk provides a
brief overview of consumer behavior research on identity construction
and details opportunities for interactive products to improve this
process. In addition, it shares insights gained from select pilot
design projects that attempt to address the appropriate role for
interactive products to play as people construct their identities.
About the Speaker: John Zimmerman holds a joint appointment as an
Assistant Professor at Carnegie Mellon's Human-Computer Interaction
Institute and at the School of Design. His research focuses on how
people interact with intelligent systems from office productivity
software that allows workers to employ agents as "power tools" to
smart homes that through assistance with activity management help
parents feel like they are better parents. In addition, he teaches
interaction design with a focus on how interaction can increase the
intrinsic value of products and services. Prior to working at Carnegie
Mellon, John was a senior researcher with Philips Electronics where he
explored interactive TV applications for the home.
____________
BERKELEY INFORMATION ACCESS SEMINAR
on Friday, 3 November 2006, 3:00pm - 5:00pm
202 South Hall (Berkeley)
http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/courses/is296a-1/f06/schedule.html
"Architecting to Scale"
Jack Xu
Vice President of Engineering & Research, eBay Fellow, eBay Inc.
eBay is one of the largest global transaction platforms with over
200 million of users and processes over 300 million searches per day.
eBay users trade about $1,600 worth of goods on the site every second.
The total value of successfully closed items on eBay's trading platforms
was $13 billion in Q2-06. This talk will discuss architectural
innovations at eBay and why real-time update underlying the trading
platform is important and challenging. This talk will also be
illustrated with lessons learned along the way in architecting several
large scale of systems including Excite (one of the first Internet
search engines, launched in 1995), Netease (leading Chinese portal), and
eBay (the leading global trading platform).
About the Speaker: Jack Xu joined eBay in 2002. He was named an eBay
Fellow after serving as the company's vice president of software
development. In that role he led development of the company's overall
search and listing infrastructure. Jack is currently eBay's VP of
Engineering & Research where he is responsible for all aspects of the
company's research activities, as well as product development in the
areas of search, listing, catalog, classifications, etc. He is also
the founding Chairman of eBay's first global engineering center
outside the U.S.
Prior to joining eBay, Jack was the Chief Technology Officer at
Netease (Nasdaq: NTES) where he was responsible for Netease's
technology, operations, marketing, research and product development.
Before that, Jack was the director of core technology at Excite. Jack
is also an author of a numerous research papers.
____________
LINGUISTICS DEPARTMENT COLLOQUIUM
on Friday, 3 November 2006, 3:30pm
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:126
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/colloq/
"Temporal dynamics of conversational implicature
during real-time processing"
Julie Sedivy
Brown University
A good deal of what is communicated takes place "between the lines" of
conventional meaning, relying on the speaker's and hearer's
coordination of conversational expectations, and the juxtapositioning
of these expectations with the conventional meaning of the utterance.
Grice's work on conversational implicature has provided a useful
framework for thinking about this important contribution to meaning by
emphasizing the distinction between conventional and understood
meanings, and sketching out a set of communicative principles through
which understood meanings might be derived on the basis of
conventional meanings. A critical feature of Grice's conception of
conversational implicatures is the notion that they are calculable.
Thus, a speaker who says p may implicate q: "PROVIDED THAT
(1) he is to be presumed to be observing the conversational maxims,
or at least the cooperative principle;
(2) the supposition that he is aware that, or thinks that, q is
required in order to make his saying p ... consistent with this
presumption;
(3) the speaker thinks (and would expect the hearer to think that the
speaker thinks) that it is within the competence of the hearer to
work out, or grasp intuitively, that (2) is required." (Grice,
1975, 49-50).
However, actual language production and comprehension takes place at a
frenetic pace, and involves heavy demands on the processing system
under dramatic time pressures. Hence, the circumstances under which
"Gricean" calculation may be implemented during real-time language
processing are very much open to empirical discussion. Researchers
disagree on conceptualizing the computational demands of
implicature. For example, some have argued (e.g. Levinson, 2000) for a
distinct class of generalized conversational implicatures that may be
derived rapidly and automatically on the basis of general
conversational principles and paradigmatic lexical
relationships. Others (e.g. the Relevance theorists) have claimed that
there is no principled or cognitive distinction between generalized
implicature and particularized implicatures which clearly cannot be
calculated without consideration of the particular conversational
situation at hand. In this talk, I will review what is currently known
about the processing costs of conversational implicature, suggesting
that there is currently little evidence overall for a sharp
dissociation in processing costs between generalized and
particularized implicature. I will present some work from my own lab
showing that conversational inferences can be derived "on the fly"
with extreme rapidity during real-time language comprehension. Despite
the speed of these inferences, they do not appear to be generated
automatically without consideration of the particulars of the
conversational situation; rather, they seem to depend upon the
hearer's assessment of the extent to which the speaker is adhering to
conversational principles. I will conclude by making some speculative
hypotheses as to how the processing mechanism might yield such rapid,
seemingly complex inferencing.
____________
UC BERKELEY OXYOPIA LECTURE
on Friday, 3 November 2006, 4:00pm
489 Minor Hall (UC Berkeley)
http://optometry.berkeley.edu/opt_txtpp/ce/oxyopias.html
"Global Feature-Based Attention in the Human Visual System"
Geoffrey Boynton
Systems Neurobiology Laboratories, Salk Institute for Biological Studies
http://www.snl-b.salk.edu/
I will discuss a series of functional MRI and behavioral experiments
that show how feature-based attention spreads automatically throughout
the visual field. Specifically, we have shown that the response to an
unattended, behaviorally irrelevant stimulus is enhanced if it shares
the same color or direction of motion as an attended stimulus
presented elsewhere. Surprisingly, this effect appears to spread
everywhere -- even to locations that do not contain a stimulus. This
global feature-based mechanism may play an important role in visual
search and grouping.
____________
CS528: BROAD AREA COLLOQUIUM
on Monday, 6 November 2006, 4:15pm - 5:30pm
Hewlett Teaching Center 200
http://graphics.stanford.edu/courses/cs528/
"Surgical Assistance: A Laboratory for AI and Robotics Research"
Gregory D. Hager
Computer Science Johns Hopkins University
The goal of the Center for Surgical Systems and Technology (
http://cisst.org/ ) is to develop techniques and technology that will
fundamentally change the operating room of the 21st century. Over the
past eight years, this center has developed numerous systems for
computer-integrated and computer assisted medical interventions. In
this talk, I will argue that robotic surgical assistance provides a
unique opportunity to study robotics, machine perception and
human-machine interaction in circumscribed, but highly relevant
applications. Using examples from our recent work on systems for the
eye, throat, sinuses, and thorax, I will describe several
technological and scientific problems we are tackling. These include
the development of methods for creating augmented displays of the
surgical field by fusing video with pre-operative imagery, control
methods for human-machine cooperative control, and recent progress on
recognizing surgical intent from hand motion data captured using the
da Vinci surgical system.
About the Speaker: Gregory D. Hager is a Professor of Computer Science
at Johns Hopkins University with joint appointment in Mechanical
Engineering. He also serves as the Deputy Director of the NSF ERC for
Computer Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology. Prof. Hager
received the BA degree, summa cum laude, in computer science and
mathematics from Luther College in 1983, and the MS and PhD degrees in
computer science from the University of Pennsylvania in 1985 and 1988,
respectively. From 1988 to 1990, he was a Fulbright junior research
fellow at the University of Karlsruhe and the Fraunhofer Institute
IITB in Karlsruhe, Germany. From 1991 until 1999, he was with the
Computer Science Department at Yale University. In 1999, he joined the
Computer Science Department at Johns Hopkins University. Professor
Hager has authored more than 150 research articles and books in the
area of robotics and computer vision. His current research interests
include visual tracking, vision-based control, medical robotics, and
human-computer interaction. He is a fellow of the IEEE for his
contributions in Vision-Based Robotics.
____________
SRI AI SEMINAR SERIES
on Tuesday, 7 November 2006, 4:00pm - 5:30pm
EJ228, SRI International
http://www.ai.sri.com/seminars/
"Comparative Probability, Comparative Confirmation, and the
`Conjunction Fallacy'"
Branden Fitelson
UC Berkeley
http://fitelson.org/
The conjunction fallacy has been a key topic in discussions and
debates on the quality of human reasoning performance and its
limitations, yet the attempt of providing a satisfactory account of
the phenomenon has proven challenging. Here, we propose a new
analysis, suggesting that the fallacious probability judgments
experimentally observed are typically guided by sound assessments of
confirmation (or evidential support) relations. The proposed analysis
is shown robust (i.e., not depending on various alternative ways of
measuring degree of confirmation), consistent with available data, and
prompting further empirical investigations. The present approach
emphasizes the relevance of the notion of confirmation in the
assessments of the relationships between the normative and descriptive
study of inductive reasoning. All requisite historical, philosophical,
and psychological background will be provided during the talk.
This is joint work with psychologists Vincenzo Crupi and Katya Tentori
at the University of Trento.
About the Speaker: Branden Fitelson gained his Ph.D. from the
University of Wisconsin. His research interests lie mainly in the
philosophy of science, logic (including automated reasoning), and
epistemology. His recent papers have focused largely on the role of
probability in inductive logic and epistemology. He also has active
interdisciplinary projects involving the psychology of probability and
confirmation judgment and applications of automated reasoning to
formal philosophy. He is currently working on a book on confirmation
theory, which will trace both its historical and philosophical
development.
____________
UC BERKELEY BISC SEMINAR
on Tuesday, 7 November 2006, 4:00pm-5:30pm
380 Soda Hall (Berkeley)
http://www-bisc.eecs.berkeley.edu/
"Inherent Fuzziness of Language:
Cognitive, Philosophical and Computational Aspects"
Timo Honkela
Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland
Zadeh (2002) has presented convincing arguments for the idea that the
brain has a crucial ability to manipulate perceptions. Manipulation of
perceptions plays a key role in human recognition, decision and
execution processes. Zadeh also points out that measurements are crisp
whereas perceptions are fuzzy. In general, the relationship between
perceptions and their linguistic descriptions is not as
straightforward as often suggested, for instance, by many logicians.
It is this fundamental difference that makes it necessary to use fuzzy
sets and fuzzy systems. Evans (2002) points out that reasoning is
highly contextualized by relevant prior knowledge and belief. He also
refers to the dual process theories of reasoning that make a division
between a heuristic system and an analytical system. The heuristic
system has evolved early, it is shared with animals, it is rapid and
parallel, has high capacity and is pragmatic. According to Evans, the
analytic system is conscious and it has evolved late in the evolution.
In this presentation, I will discuss how the division into heuristic
and analytic system supports Zadeh's arguments. I will also show how
some issues in philosophy of language become resolved when fuzzy
systems thinking is applied. Some examples related to the
computational modeling of the heuristic system are given. Finally, I
will discuss how the theory of emergent intersubjectivity (Honkela et
al. 2003, Honkela 2006, Lindh-Knuutila et al. 2006), closely related
to fuzzy set theory, could contribute among other things to the
progress of sustainable development in the society.
About the Speaker: Prof. Timo Honkela is currently chief research
scientist at Adaptive Informatics Research Center of Helsinki
University of Technology (TKK). The unit is a center of excellence
appointed by the Academy of Finland with almost one hundred
researchers. In the center, Honkela is the head of one of the five
research groups called Computational Cognitive Systems. Earlier he has
served as a professor at the laboratory of computer and information
science at TKK and as well as in another university. He is also a
docent in three universities in Finland and has given hundreds of
presentations and dozens of invited talks in locations such as Kobe,
Beijing, Dubai, Washington D.C., Boston and many European major
cities.
Honkela has conducted research on several areas related to knowledge
engineering, cognitive modeling, natural language processing and
statistical machine learning. He had a initiating and central role in
the development of the WEBSOM method for visual information retrieval
and text mining. The current research interests include cognitive
modeling, statistical machine translation, adaptive knowledge
representation and reasoning based on fuzzy and continuous formal
systems, and the underlying cognitive, linguistic, societal and
philosophical issues.
Honkela is a former long-term chairman of the Finnish Artificial
Intelligence Society. He is currently the vice chair of Finnish
Cognitive Linguistics Association and the chair of the IFIP working
group on knowledge representation and reasoning (WG 12.1).
____________
STANFORD SECURITY SEMINAR
on Tuesday, 7 November 2006, 4:30pm
Gates 4B center area (opposite 490)
http://theory.stanford.edu/seclab/sem.html
"Hacking Intranet Websites from the Outside:
JavaScript malware just got a lot more dangerous"
Jeremiah Grossman
WhiteHat Security
Imagine you're visiting a popular website and invisible JavaScript
exploit code steals your cookies, captures your keystrokes, and
monitors every web page that you visit. Then, without your knowledge
or consent, your web browser is silently hijacked to transfer out bank
funds, hack other websites, or post derogatory comments in a public
forum. No traces, no tracks, no warning sirens. In 2005's "Phishing
with Superbait" presentation we demonstrated that all these things
were in fact possible using nothing more than some clever JavaScript.
And as bad as things are already, further web application security
research is revealing that outsiders can also use these hijacked
browsers to exploit intranet websites.
Most of us assume while surfing the Web that we are protected by
firewalls and isolated through private NAT'ed IP addresses. We assume
the soft security of intranet websites and that the Web-based
interfaces of routers, firewalls, printers, IP phones, payroll
systems, etc. even if left unpatched, remain safe inside the protected
zone. We believe nothing is capable of directly connecting in from the
outside world. Right? Well, not quite.
Web browsers can be completely controlled by any web page, enabling
them to become launching points to attack internal network resources.
The web browser of every user on an enterprise network becomes a
stepping stone for intruders. Now, imagine visiting a web page that
contains JavaScript malware that automatically reconfigures your
company's routers or firewalls, from the inside, opening the internal
network up to the whole world. Even worse, common Cross-Site Scripting
vulnerabilities make it possible for these attacks to be launched from
just about any website we visit and especially those we trust. The age
of web application security malware has begun and it's critical that
understand what it is and how to defend against it.
During this presentation we'll demonstrate a wide variety of
cutting-edge web application security attack techniques and describe
best practices for securing websites and users against these threats.
You'll see:
* Port scanning and attacking intranet devices using JavaScript
* Blind web server fingerprinting using unique URLs
* Discovery NAT'ed IP addresses with Java Applets
* Stealing web browser history with Cascading Style Sheets
* Best-practice defense measures for securing websites
* Essential habits for safe web surfing
____________
BERKELEY SEMINAR
on Wednesday, 8 November 2006, 2:00pm - 4:00pm
465 Soda Hall (Berkeley)
http://coe.berkeley.edu/events/
"Improving Systems Management Policies Using Hybrid
Reinforcement Learning"
Gerry Tesauro
IBM
The emerging field of self-managing ("autonomic") computing systems
faces a major "knowledge bottleneck" in that designing accurate models
of complex distributed systems, along with rules for intelligently
managing the system according to a set of high-level objectives,This
can be a daunting task requiring a great deal of highly skilled human
expert labor. Machine Learning offers the hope of automatically
extracting knowledge from large amounts of data, but pure "tabula
rasa"online learning may be infeasible and prohibitively costly.Our
recent work on dynamic server allocation shows how to have the best of
both worlds by combining Reinforcement Learning with initial
knowledge-based models and policies in a hybrid approach,in which RL
trains offline on data collected while a queuing-theoretic policy
controls the system. By training offline we avoid suffering
potentially poor performance in live online training. Our results show
that hybrid RL training can achieve significant performance
improvements over a variety of initial model-based policies. We also
give several interesting insights as to how RL, as expected, can deal
effectively with both transients and switching delays, which lie
outside the scope of traditional steady-state queuing theory.
About the Speaker: Gerry Tesauro received a PhD in theoretical physics
from Princeton University in 1986, and subsequently converted to
machine learning research after being swept up in the neural networks
craze of that era. In his career at IBM he has worked on theoretical
and applied machine learning in wide variety of settings, including
multi-agent learning,dimensionality reduction, credit scoring,
computer virus recognition,computer chess (Deep Blue), intelligent
e-commerce agents, and most notoriously, TD-Gammon, a self-teaching
program that learned to play backgammon at human world championship
level. He is currently interested in exploring potential wide
applicability of ML approaches throughout the huge emerging domain of
self-managing computing systems.
____________
SRI CSL SEMINAR
on Wednesday, 8 November 2006, 3:30pm - 4:30pm
EK255, SRI International
http://www.ai.sri.com/seminars/
"PATIKAweb: A Web-based tool for querying and visualizing PATIKA
database, integrating pathway data from various popular databases"
Ugur Dogrusoz
Head, Center for Bioinformatics, Bilkent Univ., Ankara, Turkey
http://www.cs.bilkent.edu.tr/~patikaweb/
Despite the enormous effort for creating standards and tools, current
bioinformatics infrastructure is far from coping with biological
systems data accumulating on an exponential scale. The PATIKA Project
aims to provide the community with an integrated environment for
modeling, analyzing and integrating cellular processes.
The PATIKA server acts as a central database and provides XML-based
Web services for querying and integrating pathway models, currently
containing data integrated from several databases including Reactome
and interfaces with major databases and ontologies such as
Entrez-Gene, UniProt and GO.
In this talk, we will present PATIKAweb, a Web-based, user-friendly
interface, including a multiple-view schema for bioentity (e.g., PPI)
and mechanistic levels (e.g. covalent modification and
transportation), compartments and compound graphs for visualizing
molecular complexes, pathways and black-box reactions. Specialized
algorithms are used to automatically layout pathways along with many
state-of-the-art graph editing functionalities. Constructed models can
be saved in XML, exported to standard formats such as BioPAX or
converted to static images. In addition, models in BioPAX format can
be imported for analysis.
The latest revision of the tool includes a querying component
supporting both SQL-like queries and an array of graph-theoretic
queries for finding feedback loops, positive/negative paths, common
targets and regulators, or 'interesting subgraphs' based on user's
genes of interest. This version also includes a microarray data
analysis component, facilitating analysis of expression data, or
comparison of two related experiments, on top of the pathway data,
through visual techniques such as color-coding and labeling. The tool
also features clustering of pathway objects based on expression data.
PATIKAweb's unique visualization, querying and microarray data
analysis features fill an important gap in the pool of currently
available tools and databases.
____________
BERKELEY HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF LOGIC, MATHEMATICS, AND SCIENCE
on Wednesday, 8 November 2006, 6:00pm - 7:30pm
234 Moses (Berkeley)
http://hplms.berkeley.edu/
"Rethinking Figure/Ground Organization"
Stephen Palmer
Psychology, UC Berkeley
Several new results on figure-ground organization from our laboratory
will be presented that question the classical view of figure-ground
organization as a unitary phenomenon and/or process. What emerges is a
different view in which the perceptual interpretation near a depth
edge results from a complex interaction among at least four different
components: perception of local depth across the edge, shape
perception, visual attention, and both modal and amodal completion of
the partly occluded surface.
____________
STANFORD HUMANITIES CENTER CONFERENCE
on Wednesday-Friday, 8-10 November 2006
Cubberley Auditorium
http://shc.stanford.edu/events/
"Imaging environment: Maps, Models, and Metaphors"
Disciplines vary significantly in the ways they represent "nature."
Strategies for depicting local, regional, and global ecosystems--and
their problems--range from statistics to poetics and from computer
modeling to maps and paintings. This conference will bring together
scholars from the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural
sciences to explore the different histories and techniques of
representing the environment on a global scale, and discuss the rights
and responsibilities--individual and collective--that derive from this
knowledge. Do underlying assumptions about nature converge or conflict
in these differing techniques? Are interdisciplinary perspectives,
especially those bridging the humanities and natural sciences, giving
rise to new representations of nature?
Models of the natural world are profoundly shaped by cultural and
political assumptions. Environmental disputes around the globe are
driven by conflicts over different views of nature and particularly
over the place of the human--inside or outside of nature. Alternative
views of the human/nature boundary often translate into conflicting
actions. At stake in these representations are thus material
inequality and economic development, access to political power,
gender, nationalism, indigenous status, and colonial legacies. What
then are the ethical consequences of particular approaches to the
representation of the natural? Which depiction of the actual or
imagined history of a site should be the goal of our restoration
efforts? And what insights about being human emerge from a
re-examination of assumptions about the natural environment?
The relation between local representative strategies and the
increasingly systemic and global character of environmental problems
poses specific challenges and opportunities for interdisciplinary
explorations. From the scientific perspective, we might think about
the ways phenomena change in kind and not just in size when they are
studied at different scales. From the cognitive and cultural side, we
could ask how individuals locate themselves in a global environment,
as well as how global systems can be adequately comprehended in works
of art. The effects of globalization on the natural environment and
its representations confront academic disciplines with the task of
finding new approaches to charting the present and shaping the future.
This conference will take on this challenge by reaching beyond
disciplinary specificity to interrogate the very ways we figure the
natural world, and the consequences of these figurations for our
actions in the global environment.
____________
CSLI COGLUNCH
on Thursday, 9 November 2006, 12 noon - 1:00pm
Cordura Hall 100
http://www-csli.stanford.edu/events/Coglunch/
"Neural Oscillators and the Brain"
Jose Acacio de Barros
Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Brazil.
http://www.stanford.edu/~barros
Neurons in the brain often fire synchronously, creating neural
oscillators. Because these oscillators are weakly coupled, they may
synchronize. I will discuss weakly coupled oscillators and their use
to model learning. Our learning models are based on assumptions
supported by neurophysiological evidence. We then compare the
learning behavior of the neural oscillator model to psychological
experimental results.
____________
SSP10: SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS FORUM
on Thursday, 9 November 2006, 4:15pm
Bldg. 380:380C (Math Corner)
http://symsys.stanford.edu/ssp_events
"Wired for Speech:
How Voice Activates and Advances the Human-Computer Relationship"
Clifford Nass
Communication, Stanford
Interfaces that talk and listen are populating computers, cars, call
centers, and even home appliances and toys, but voice interfaces
invariably frustrate rather than help. I will present a series of
experiments, including new unpublished studies, which demonstrate that
people are "voice-activated": people respond to voice technologies as
they respond to actual people and behave as they would in any social
situation. Among the questions I will address are: Can the emotion of
a car's voice improve driving performance? Will people automatically
attempt to imitate a computer's language? If a person's voice and
body are separate, where will the listener think the person "is"?
When should a computer-based voice say "I"? Should people be able to
choose a voice interface's voice? For each question, I will discuss
the basic theory, the experiment(s) and its results, and implications
for design.
About the Speaker: Clifford Nass (Ph.D., Sociology, Princeton
University) is the Thomas M. Storke Professor in the Department of
Communication at Stanford University. He has courtesy appointments in
computer science; science, technology, and society; sociology; and
symbolic systems. He is director of the CHIMe (Communication between
Humans and Interactive Media) Lab and the co-Director of the Kozmetsky
Global Collaboratory. He is the co-author of two books, The Media
Equation and Wired for Speech, and over 100 papers concerning
human-technology interaction. He has consulted on the design of over
200 information products and services for companies including
Microsoft, Toyota, Nissan, Philips, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Sony, and
Charles Schwab.
____________
SYMPOSIUM
on Thursday, 9 November 2006, 7:30pm
Cubberley Auditorium, School of Education
http://www.stanford.edu/~shyeo/wholeearth.htm
"From Counterculture to Cyberculture:
The Legacy of the Whole Earth Catalog"
Stewart Brand, Kevin Kelly, Howard Rheingold and Fred Turner
During the 1960s, student marchers chanted "Do not fold, spindle or
mutilate!" as they railed against computers and the Cold War-era
military industrial complex they seemed to represent. But within just
three decades, computers had become emblems of countercultural
revolution. This symposium will feature a conversation with three
people who played key roles in that transformation:
Stewart Brand, founder of the Whole Earth Catalog and co-chairman of
the Long Now Foundation
Kevin Kelly, former executive editor of Wired magazine and author of
Out of Control: The Rise of Neo-Biological Civilization and New Rules
for the New Economy
Howard Rheingold, author of The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the
Electronic Frontier and Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution
Fred Turner, moderator and assistant professor of communication,
Stanford University, author of "From Counterculture to Cyberculture:
Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Catalog, and the Rise of Digital
Utopianism".
This event is sponsored by the Stanford University Libraries, the
Department of Communication, and the American Studies Program.
It will be introduced by Henry Lowood, of the Stanford University
Libraries, and followed by a public reception.
____________
CS547: HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION SEMINAR
on Friday, 10 November 2006, 12:30-2:00pm
Gates B01 (HP Auditorium)
http://www-pcd.stanford.edu/cs547/
"From Personal Computers to Personal Information Environments"
Jeff Pierce
IBM Almaden Research
http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/people/jspierce/
While today's users work with and encounter a growing number and
variety of computational devices (desktop PCs, laptops, tablets, PDAs,
cellphones, etc.), continued adherence to the model of working with a
single, personal computer has resulted in little support for
coordinating activities across those devices. In fact, most devices
are still completely unaware that a user might own other devices. As
users shift from working with a personal computer to working within a
personal information environment, we need to make it easier for them
to coordinate their activities across their personal devices as well
as effectively leverage devices in the local environment
About the Speaker: Jeff Pierce is a research staff member in IBM
Research at the Almaden Research Center in the User Sciences &
Experience Research (USER) group. Previously he was an Assistant
Professor in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of
Technology, where he led the Personal Information Environments
research group and co-directed the Adaptive Personalized Information
Environments lab with Charles Isbell.
____________
STANFORD SEMANTICS AND PRAGMATICS WORKSHOP
on Friday, 10 November 2006, 3:30pm
Margaret Jacks Hall 460:126
http://www-linguistics.stanford.edu/semgroup/
"Been There, Marked That: A Theory of Second Occurrence Focus"
Daniel Buering
University of California--Los Angeles
Sentence (1) illustrates `second occurrence focus' (2OF). The object
DP `vegetables' is the semantic focus of `only' in both (1a) and (1b).
As expected, it is accented in (1a), but, surprisingly, it is not in
(1b) (when read as a continuation of (1a)), where the only pitch
accent is on `Paul'. Intuitively this is possible because the DP
`vegetables', although a focus in both sentences, is repeated in (1b)
(whence the name):
(1) a. Everyone already knew that Mary only eats [vegetables]_{F}
b. Even [Paul]_{F} knew that Mary only eats [vegetables]_{2OF}.
Recent work (Beaver et al 2004, a.o.) has shown, however, that 2OFi,
though unaccented, are nevertheless prosodically prominent, mostly
through lengthening. I will present a novel account of focus
representation and realization that predicts the different
realizations of these foci, and also ties them in with a more general
theory of free focus. The account blends together elements of the
theories of Rooth (1992) and Schwarzschild (1999), and is embedded
within a prosodic theory of prominence as advocated in Truckenbrodt
(1999) and my own earlier work.
____________
END MATERIAL
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____________