News
- The workshop was held September 2005 and was a great success!
- The workshop program is now available, both in html and in pdf (including a map of Amsterdam).
- You can download the poster for the workshop (make sure to use the option "shrink oversized pages to paper size" if you want to print the poster).
- Registration is closed.
Program
- The workshop program is here. Also available in pdf (including a map of Amsterdam).
- Check here for abstracts as they become available.
Invited Speakers
- Ted Briscoe (Cambridge University)
- Christine Caldwell (University of Stirling)
- Bill Croft (University of Manchester)
- Tecumseh Fitch (University of St. Andrews)
- Carmel Houston-Price (University of Reading)
- Simon Kirby (LEC, University of Edinburgh)
- Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (Sony CSL-Paris)
- Andrew Smith (LEC, University of Edinburgh)
- Kenny Smith (LEC, University of Edinburgh)
- Klaus Zuberbühler (University of St. Andrews)
- Joost Beltman (Leiden University)
- Rens Bod (ILLC, University of Amsterdam)
- Bart de Boer (AI, University of Groningen)
- Carel ten Cate (Behavioural Biology, Leiden University)
- Robert Lachlan (Behavioural Biology, Leiden University)
- Asli Özyürek (Radboud University & Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen; Koç University, Istanbul)
- Robert van Rooij (ILLC, University of Amsterdam)
- Arie Verhagen (Leiden University)
- Paul Vogt (LEC, University of Edinburgh)
- Henk Zeevat (ILLC, University of Amsterdam)
- Willem Zuidema (ILLC, University of Amsterdam)
Commentators:
- Wolfram Hinzen (Philosophy/ILLC/ACLC, University of Amsterdam)
Description:
Language is a defining characteristic of the human species. Theories of the biological evolution of the capacity for language and the cultural evolution of languages have often been speculative in nature. Recently, techniques from mathematical biology and computer science have allowed for more rigorous tests of the internal coherence of theories. At the same time, researchers in comparative biology and historical and developmental linguistics have started to test their consistency with empirical data. The workshop will highlight and strengthen these developments, by bringing together world-class researchers from the relevant disciplines, and by presenting exciting new approaches to make interesting theories testable.
The workshop will take place on Friday September 2nd and Saturday September 3d (both days from 9am until 6pm). It will be held at University of Amsterdam (exact location to be determined). The workshop is organised in 4 sessions, each with a 15 minute introduction by the session chair, 6 invited talks of 30 minutes and a 15 minute discussion. Each session features both linguistic and biological approaches, and both empirical and modelling results.
Organisers:
- Kenny Smith (University of Edinburgh)
- Willem
Zuidema (University of Amsterdam, email:
)
- Bart de Boer (University of Groningen)
- Andrew Smith (University of Edinburgh)
Sponsors:
- The UK-Netherlands Partnership Programme of NWO and the British Council.
- The Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) of the University of Amsterdam.