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Projects at CSLI

Center for the Explanation of Consciousness

The CEC is a research initiative at CSLI which is devoted to studying explanations of consciousness. The CEC hosts talks and symposia from a variety of viewpoints exploring the nature of conscious experience. We also sponsor reading groups during the term, led by faculty and graduate students.

Computational Semantics Lab

The Computational Semantics Laboratory works on research projects involving semantics -- the study of meaning -- at the intersection of linguistics and computer science. A unifying theme in the lab's research is an emphasis on the role of context in determining meaning. The lab has particular interest in theoretical models of communication, language, dialogue, computation, and inference which take into account the context in which these activities are occurring.

Language and Natural Reasoning

Knowing what a text means involves drawing inferences based in the information in the text. Our group works on inferential properties of linguistic expressions to enable automated reasoning for NL understanding.

Our group works on inferential properties of linguistic expressions to enable automated reasoning for NL understanding.

We want to contribute to the theoretical understanding of how language and reasoning interact and to the computational modeling of such interactions.
Currently we concentrate on:

LinGO Project

The CSLI LinGO Lab is committed to the development of linguistically precise grammars based on the HPSG framework, and general-purpose tools for use in grammar engineering, profiling, parsing and generation. Early work in the CSLI LinGO Lab focused on the construction of a general-purpose grammar of English in the form of the English Resource Grammar (or ERG), and on further development of the LKB grammar engineering system. The LKB was also used at CSLI as the testbed for a number of teaching grammars and smaller-scale grammars for other languages including Japanese and Spanish.

Logical Dynamics Lab

LDL research in logic covers a range from theory to applications, with an outreach interest to philosophy, computation and cognition. Current topics include information-driven agency, causal inference, reasoning in natural language, and interfaces of logic and probability.

Active participants in the LDL since its founding:

Tomohiro Hoshi (PhD 2009), https://onlinehighschool.stanford.edu/people/tomohiro-hoshi

Psychosemantics Lab

Dedicated to the study of linguistic meaning as a cognitive phenomenon, with particular attention to its connections with grammar, reasoning, and decision-making. Methods include web-based experiments, eye-tracking, and logical and computational models rooted in linguistics, cognitive science, and philosophy. 

Recent student work

[See the PI's website for additional, non-student work]

The Metaphysics Research Lab

The Metaphysics Research Lab consists of a group of researchers located around the world collaborating with Edward N. Zalta on the axiomatic theory of abstract objects.  This theory consists of principles that govern the abstract objects presupposed in the natural sciences, such as mathematical objects and relations, possible states, possible and future objects, etc.

The Openproof Project

The Openproof project at Stanford's Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI) is concerned with the application of software to problems in logic. Since the early 1980's we have been developing applications in logic education which are both innovative and effective. The development of these courseware packages has in turn informed and influenced our research agenda.