[E-Job] PhD STUDENTSHIP for October 1999 (fwd)

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 22 FEB 1999 10:42:25 GMT From: alex(a)cogsci.ed.ac.uk To: luz(a)cogsci.ed.ac.uk Subject: [E-Job] PhD STUDENTSHIP for October 1999 School for Cognitive Science, Division of Informatics, University of Edinburgh PhD STUDENTSHIP for October 1999 Application deadline: March 31st 1999 Applications received after this deadline may be considered, but this cannot be guaranteed. The School for Cognitive Science (SCS) within the Division of Informatics invites applications for a three-year EPSRC studentship award to commence in October 1999. The successful applicant will work on a project entitled "Fragments in Dialogue". A summary of the aims of this project is given at the end of this message. Applicants should have a good honours degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Computational Linguistics or Linguistics. Familiarity with current linguistic theory in syntax and semantics is essential. Applicants with expertise in HPSG and good programming skills will be preferred. EPSRC studentships are restricted to UK or EU residents. Residents of the UK are eligible for fees and a maintenance allowance; other EU residents are eligible for fees only (and so would need to be able to support themselves during their studies). The EPSRC baseline rate of maintenance allowance is currently approx 5,295 pounds sterling per annum. For further general information on EPSRC studentships, please consult: http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/in-depth/indpfram.htm. The School for Cognitive Science has close research links with the Institute for Communicating and Collaborative Systems, which is also part of the Division of Informatics. Both the school and the institute were formed out of the Centre for Cognitive Science. The project "Fragments in Dialogue" is one of several projects on computational linguistics that are held within the Institute. In addition to having close connections with other researchers in the institute and elsewhere in the Division, the research on this project will also be closely related to ongoing research at CSLI, Stanford University. For more information about the School of Cognitive Science and the Institute for Communicating and Collaborative Systems (ICCS), see the following home page: http://www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/ Information about students, the PhD Programme, and how to apply for a PhD can be found by following the various links from the following URL: http://www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/ccs/study/ Please note that applicants must fill in the faculty's postgraduate application form. Details on how to receive this form can be found by following the relevant links from the above URL (see http://www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/ccs/study/apply/). Please note that the above URLs still refer to the Centre for Cognitive Science, as these pages haven't been updated with the Centre's new identity. If we already have your application on file for consideration this year, you do not need to apply again. Deadline for applications: March 31st 1999 Applications received after this deadline may be considered, but this cannot be guaranteed. For additional advice and information on how to apply for this PhD studentship, please contact: Admissions Chair The Graduate School Division of Informatics The University of Edinburgh James Clerk Maxwell Building King's Buildings Mayfield Road Edinburgh EH8 3JZ Email: phd-admissions(a)inf.ed.ac.uk Tel: +44 131 650 5156 Fax: +44 131 667 7209 PLEASE MARK "FRAGMENTS IN DIALOGUE" ON THE APPLICATION. For additional information on the project "Fragments in Dialogue", please contact: Alex Lascarides ICCS, Division of Informatics The University of Edinburgh 2 Buccleuch Place Edinburgh EH8 9LW Email: alex(a)cogsci.ed.ac.uk Tel: +44 131 650 4428 Fax: +44 131 650 6626 FRAGMENTS IN DIALOGUE: PROJECT SUMMARY People frequently produce utterances which aren't complete sentences, such as "Next Tuesday", "Perhaps on Tuesday" and "How about Tuesday?". In general, these utterances are comprehensible in the context of the dialogue, and their meaning is affected by the words used in the fragment, and the context in which they're uttered. In spite of recent advances in computational semantics, interpreting these so-called fragments is beyond the scope of current natural language processing technology. The aim of this project is to rectify this by doing the following two tasks: (a) provide a linguistically principled and computationally effective theory of the meaning of fragments, which does justice to both their grammatical constraints, and the ways in which pragmatic information in the context affects their interpretation; and (b) implement the result, and in particular, incorporate the grammatical theory of fragments into an existing wide-coverage on-line grammar, which can be used for both parsing and generation. - ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ : ELSNET European Network in Language and Speech - http://www.elsnet.org/ : ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~