*** Workshop on Semantic Approximation, Granularity, and Vagueness ***
April 11, 2000
A Workshop of the Seventh International Conference on
Principles of Knowledge Representation and Reasoning
April 12-16
Breckenridge, Colorado, USA
http://www.citizen.infi.net/~ledragon/KR2000sem_approx_workshop.html
DESCRIPTION
It has been recognized in recent years that similar issues, problems, and
approaches underlie research on semantic approximation, partiality,
granularity (abstraction, precisification), and vagueness in four fields:
- knowledge representation in artificial intelligence (formalization of
context, spatial and temporal knowledge bases)
- formal modeling (including denotational semantics, finite model theory and
descriptive complexity) in computer science
- formal ontology in analytical philosophy
- formal semantics and pragmatics in natural language (discourse
interpretation, semantics of plurals, tense, aspect,
underspecification,etc.)
Some commonalities include the use of modal, temporal, and higher-order
logics and possible worlds semantics for characterizing the dynamic
interpretation of context, the employment of mereological and topological
methods for modeling concepts and domains, theories of semantic abstraction
and precisification, domain modeling using structured formal constructs such
as partially ordered sets, lattices, boolean algebras, categories, topoi,
etc.
It might also be said that the notion of similarity requires a notion of
semantic approximation, that one gauge of semantic approximation is location
on a scale from more precise (or concrete or specific) to less precise (or
abstract or general), but that such a gauge is inherently multidimensional.
In addition, the notion of a boundary region between conceptually
approximate objects may have to be explicated: How does one know that A is
approximately but not quite B? How does one determine with increasing
confidence an object to be in the extension of one predicate rather than
another, for example, that an object is tall or is red? How should we
interpret the formal constructs we use to characterize these notions of
approximation, granularity, and abstraction, i.e., linguistically (as
technical vocabulary only) or ontologically (the formal objects have real
existence), and what are the implications of how we interpret these?
This workshop intends to bring together researchers in the computer science,
artificial intelligence, linguistics, and philosophy communities for the
exchange of ideas and approaches to address issues they may have in common,
such as:
- Approximation, Partiality, Indefiniteness, and Vagueness
- Similarity, Commonality, Accessibility
- Abstraction and Precision: Notions of Semantic/Pragmatic Granularity
- Dynamic Interpretation and Incremental Meaning
- Formal Structures for Domain Models of Approximation
- Imprecise Ontologies
- Computational Implementations and Applications
Potential applications where the ideas of this workshop can be utilized
include information integration on the web, knowledge management,
multi-agent systems, software component composition, text summarization, and
natural language understanding.
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Leo Obrst, Ontologies Group, VerticalNet, Horsham, PA, USA
(lobrst@vertical.net)
Inderjeet Mani, Artificial Intelligence Center, The MITRE Corporation,
McLean, Virginia, USA (imani@mitre.org)
Paolo Bouquet, Mechanized Reasoning Group, Department of Computer and
Management Sciences, University of Trento, Trento, Italy
Pat Hayes, Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, University of West
Florida, Pensacola, Florida, USA
Aris M. Ouksel, College of Business Administration, The University of
Illinois at Chicago, Illinois, USA
Maarten de Rijke, Institute for Logic, Language, and Computation, University
of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Gérard Becher, GREYC, Université de Caen, Caen, France
Massimo Benerecetti, Department of Computer and Management Sciences,
University of Trento, and IRST, Trento, Italy
Brandon Bennett, Division of Artificial Intelligence, School of Computer
Studies University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
Patrick Cousot, Département de Mathématiques et Informatique (DMI), École
Normale Supérieure (ENS), Paris, France
Chiara Ghidini, Department of Computing and Mathematics, Manchester
Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
Angelo Montanari, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, University
of Udine, Udine, Italy
Manfred Pinkal, Department of Computational Linguistics, Univ. of
Saarbruecken, Saarbruecken, Germany
Paul Porter, Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University, Washington,
DC, USA
James Pustejovsky, Department of Computer Science and Volen Center for
Complex Systems, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA
Barry Smith, Department of Philosophy, University of New York at Buffalo,
Buffalo, New York, USA
Achille C. Varzi, Department of Philosophy, Columbia University, USA
Henk Verkuyl, Utrecht Institute for Linguistics OTS, University of Utrecht,
Utrecht, The Netherlands
PAPER SUBMISSION
Authors should submit papers on one of the topics addressed by the workshop
or a related topic, with a maximum length of 10 pages (excluding
references). Papers should be submitted electronically (in postscript
format) to KRSemApp@citizen.infi.net no later than January 15, 2000. Author
names, affiliations, and primary author contact information should accompany
the submission. Queries should be sent to KRSemApp@citizen.infi.net also.
IMPORTANT DATES
January 15, 2000 Submission deadline
February 15, 2000 Notification of acceptance
March 8, 2000 Camera-ready copy due
April 11, 2000 Workshop
______________________________
Dr. Leo Obrst, Director of Ontologies
VerticalNet, 700 Dresher Rd., Suite 100, Horsham, PA 19044
Phone: 215-315-3558 Fax: 215-784-1965 Cell: 215-353-7385
Email: lobrst@vertical.net