- Corpora - ELRA lists

Student contest: 2024 Babel Young Writers' Competition
by Tristan Miller 22 Aug '24

22 Aug '24

Dear all, Below is a call for submissions to our annual contest for student writers. Contributions from undergraduate students of computational linguistics are most welcome. Sincerely, Tristan Miller Babel Advisory Panel ---------------------- This year, Babel: The Language Magazine <https://babelzine.co.uk/> will be running the tenth edition of our Young Writers' Competition, which encourages young linguists who are starting out on their study of language. The competition is open to anyone studying a linguistics-related subject at the 16–18-year-old or undergraduate level. The winner(s) will have their article published in Babel's 50th issue (Spring 2025) and receive a year's subscription to the magazine. Keep an eye on @Babelzine on X or @babel_zine on Instagram for inspiration from previous winners on topics ranging from sign language to spoonerisms, and from language birth to language death. Competition rules are as follows: Topic: An original discussion of any linguistic topic, written in an accessible and interesting style Length: 2000 to 2500 words Deadline: Monday, 16 December 2024 Format: Word file Submission: By e-mail to babelthelanguagemagazine(a)gmail.com with the subject "Young Writer's Competition" Please e-mail babelthelanguagemagazine(a)gmail.com if you have any questions about the competition. -- Dr. Tristan Miller, Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science, University of Manitoba https://clam.logological.org/ | Tel. +1 204 474 6792

2 1

[CfP] Diversity and Change in Easy German @ DGfS 2025
by lena.wieland＠uni-saarland.de 22 Aug '24

22 Aug '24

CfP: Diversity and Change in Easy German (Workshop at DGfS 2025) Date: March 5-7, 2025 Location: University of Mainz, Germany Meeting Email: workshop-easy-german-dgfs2025(a)uni-saarland.de<mailto:workshop-easy-german-dgfs2025@uni-saarland.de> Website: https://sfb1102.uni-saarland.de/vielfalt-und-wandel-in-leichter-sprache/ Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics, Psycholinguistics Language Family: Germanic Call Deadline: August 18, 2024 Shortened Workshop Description: Easy German, which has been systematically developed since the 2000s to aid individuals with learning difficulties among others, focuses on enhancing text comprehensibility by avoiding linguistic complexity. Despite its intended uniformity, there is a lack of consensus on its precise conceptualization, with various frameworks and guidelines proposing different approaches. This workshop aims to: 1. Provide a platform for researchers to discuss the production and evolution of Easy German texts. 2. Highlight dynamic changes and variability in Easy German texts compared to Standard German. 3. Examine the cognitive processing of Easy German through psycholinguistic studies involving the target demographic. 4. Critically assess AI-driven systems for Easy German text production, exploring their implications, opportunities, and challenges. For further information, please visit the workshop website: https://sfb1102.uni-saarland.de/vielfalt-und-wandel-in-leichter-sprache/ Organizers: Ingo Reich (Saarland University, Germany) Heike Zinsmeister (University of Hamburg, Germany) Sarah Jablotschkin (University of Hamburg, Germany) Lena Wieland (Saarland University, Germany) Invited Speakers: Bettina Bock (University of Cologne) Ted Sanders (Utrecht University) Call for Papers: We invite contributions on all aspects of Easy German and easy-to-read variants in other Germanic languages. The workshop will include a small poster session, and submissions for both talks and posters are welcome. Contributions in English are preferred, but submissions in German are also accepted. * Submission Details: * Abstract submission deadline: August 18, 2024 * Abstracts should be submitted to workshop-easy-german-dgfs2025(a)uni-saarland.de<mailto:workshop-easy-german-dgfs2025@uni-saarland.de> * Abstracts should not exceed one page (DIN A4, 2.5 cm margins, 12pt font) * Examples, graphics, or references may be included on a second page Important Workshop Information: The workshop is part of the 47th annual meeting of the German Linguistic Society (DGfS 2025) at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Participants must register for the DGfS conference and pay the conference fee. For more information, visit http://dgfs.uni-mainz.de<http://dgfs.uni-mainz.de/>. Important Dates: Deadline for abstract submission: August 18, 2024 Notification of acceptance: September 2, 2024 Workshop dates: March 5-7, 2025 -- Lena Wieland SFB 1102, Project T1 – Information Density and Linguistic Encoding in “Leichte Sprache” Universität des Saarlandes Campus A2.2 Raum 3.12 D-66123 Saarbrücken T: +49 681 302 57543 www.uni-saarland.de/fakultaet-p/nds/team/wieland<https://www.uni-saarland.de/fakultaet-p/nds/team/wieland.html>

2 2

Release: 𝐐𝐚𝐛𝐚𝐬 - 𝐚𝐧 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧-𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐜 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐚𝐬
by Mustafa Jarrar 22 Aug '24

22 Aug '24

We are very happy to release 𝐐𝐚𝐛𝐚𝐬 - 𝐚𝐧 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧-𝐒𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐜 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞 Birzeit University’s SinaLab for Computational Linguistics and Artificial Intelligence <https://sina.birzeit.edu/> has officially launched Qabas <https://sina.birzeit.edu/qabas>, an open-source lexicographic database for Arabic, designed specifically for Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications. Qabas stands out by linking its lexical entries (lemmas) with lemmas from 110 different lexicons and numerous morphologically annotated corpora (around 2 million tokens), creating an extensive lexicographic graph. This project has been under development for over fourteen years. Lexicons have evolved from being primarily hard-copy resources for human use to having substantial significance in NLP applications. Although Arabic is a highly resourced language in terms of traditional lexicons, not enough attention is given to developing AI-oriented lexicographic databases. Additionally, none of the Arabic lexicons are available open-source, due to copyright restrictions imposed by their owners. As for Qabas, it is an open-source Arabic lexicon designed for NLP applications, and its novelty lies in its synthesis of many lexical resources. Each lexical entry (i.e., lemma) in Qabas is linked with equivalent lemmas in 110 other lexicons, and with 12 morphologically-annotated corpora (about 2M tokens); The philosophy of Qabas is to construct a large lexicographic data graph by linking existing Arabic lexicons and annotated corpora. Qabas stands as the largest Arabic lexicon, encompassing about 58K lemmas (45K nominal lemmas, 12.5K verbal lemmas, and 500 function word lemmas). Prof. Mustafa Jarrar, the project’s manager and main author, emphasized the importance of making Qabas freely available as an open-source resource, allowing everyone to access and use it for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. Prof. Jarrar hopes that researchers, companies, and software developers will leverage the lexicon’s data to develop innovative content and applications that benefit humanity. Prof. Talal Shahwan, President of Birzeit University, stated that despite the challenging conditions in Palestine, the university remains committed to excellence and to its mission towards knowledge. He emphasized that this achievement was made possible by the dedication of the university’s faculty and researchers. Qabas is publicly available online at: https://sina.birzeit.edu/qabas To download Qabas and find out more, see: https://sina.birzeit.edu/qabas/about Article: https://www.jarrar.info/publications/JH24.pdf We’d love your feedback: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=880418097306662 LinkedIn: https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=880418097306662 Best --Mustafa __________________________ Mustafa Jarrar, PhD Professor of Artificial Intelligence Chair, PhD Program in Computer Science Birzeit University, Palestine Page: http://www.jarrar.info SinaLab: https://sina.birzeit.edu

2 1

Lecturer/Associate Professor in Natural Language Processing at University College London (UCL)
by Yilmaz, Emine 22 Aug '24

22 Aug '24

University College London (UCL) Department of Computer Science invites applications for a Lecturer/Associate Professor position in Natural Language Processing. Interested applicants can submit their applications until September 5th using this link<https://www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/search-ucl-jobs/details?jobId=25979&jobTi…>. About UCL UCL’s Department of Computer Science (CS) is a top-ranked Computer Science Department in the UK. In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF) evaluation, UCL Computer Science was ranked second in the UK for research power and first in England. London is a global hub for AI, where UCL plays a central role through close collaborations and joint PhD programmes with for example Meta and Google DeepMind. About the role University College London, Department of Computer Science is seeking a Lecturer (equivalent of Assistant Professor in the UK)/Associate Professor to join the Natural Language Processing Group. Successful candidates are expected to contribute to the teaching and research activities at the department. Expected duties and responsibilities include conducting research in the broader field of natural language processing, securing funding and engagement in the management of research projects, and dissemination of research through publications at top conferences/journals, talks and external engagements. About you Candidates should have a PhD (or equivalent qualification) or have held a previous postdoctoral position in natural language processing, information retrieval, machine learning, or a strongly related field. Candidates are expected to have a strong publication record in top conferences such as ACL, ICLR, NeurIPS, EMNLP, SIGIR. Experience in applying for research funding is not necessary, but highly desired. We also welcome applications from candidates with research experience from industry. Please contact Emine Yilmaz (emine.yilmaz(a)ucl.ac.uk<mailto:emine.yilmaz@ucl.ac.uk>) if you need any further information.

2 1

Open Position in Human-centric ART(ificial Intelligence) at UNITOV
by znzfms00＠uniroma2.it 22 Aug '24

22 Aug '24

We are certain that YOU're the kind of researcher that wants to dive deep into Neural Networks (and, clearly, LLMs) to understand what happens inside. If this is the case, YOU are the person Human-centric ART looks for. Take your time to solve this >>> CHALLENGE<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.linkedin.com/posts/fabio-massimo-za…> <<< and, meanwhile, apply to our Open Position >>> https://pica.cineca.it/uniroma2/f4-2024-0005/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://pica.cineca.it/uniroma2/f4-2024-0005/__…> <<< To attract exactly YOU, we offer a competitive salary for a one-year position (34K€/annually with low taxation - Assegno di Ricerca IV Fascia) with possibility of renewal. DEADLINE: August 31st Drop me an email if you apply: fabio.massimo.zanzotto(a)uniroma2.it Requirements: - out-of-the-box thinking attitude - an adequate publication record track in ML and/or NLP Encouraged: - Ph.D. in CS, AI, ML, or NLP Research Group: Human-centric ART Institution: University of Rome Tor Vergata Location: Rome, Italy Position: Research Assistant (Assegno di Ricerca IV Fascia) Salary: 34K€/annually with low taxation Duration: 1 year with the possibility of renewal Application site: https://pica.cineca.it/uniroma2/f4-2024-0005/<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://pica.cineca.it/uniroma2/f4-2024-0005/__…> Check out our last publications: ‪Fabio Massimo Zanzotto‬ - ‪Google Scholar‬<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user…>

2 1

Call For Papers: RegNLP 2025 - Regulatory Natural Language Processing Workshop
by cengtubagokhan＠gmail.com 22 Aug '24

22 Aug '24

===Workshop Description=== The RegNLP 2025 Workshop will take place on January 20th, 2025, in conjunction with the COLING 2025 conference in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Regulatory documents are foundational to governance, compliance, and legal frameworks across various sectors. However, the sheer complexity, volume, and constantly evolving nature of these documents present significant challenges. To address these, the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) is increasingly being harnessed to develop tools and methodologies that enable the effective management, analysis, and utilization of regulatory content. This workshop seeks to bring together researchers and practitioners from NLP, legal informatics, compliance, and related fields to discuss the latest advancements and challenges in regulatory NLP. The focus will be on innovative methods for document parsing, entity recognition, automated compliance checking, and other applications critical to navigating the intricate landscape of regulatory requirements. We will explore how NLP can be adapted to the specialized language and context of regulatory texts and how it can be employed to enhance the accuracy, efficiency, and reliability of regulatory processes. By fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange, RegNLP 2025 aims to build a community dedicated to advancing the application of NLP in the regulatory domain and to identify promising directions for future research. ===Important Dates=== Paper Submission Deadline: November 5, 2024 Notification of Acceptance: December 3, 2024 Camera-Ready Papers Due: December 10, 2024 Workshop Date: January 20, 2025 ===Submission Topics=== We invite submissions of original and high-quality research papers on topics related to the application of NLP in regulatory contexts, including but not limited to: -Applications of NLP to Regulatory Tasks: --Compliance monitoring and management --Risk assessment and regulatory reporting --Interpretation and classification of regulatory changes --Summarization of regulatory documents for decision-making --Creation of domain-specific lexical resources -Adapting NLP Methods for Regulatory Data: --Information retrieval and anomaly detection --Clustering and multimodality analysis --Entity recognition, linking, and disambiguation --Syntax: Tagging, chunking, and parsing --Dialogue and discourse analysis --Text summarization and relation extraction --Question answering using regulatory data -Tasks and Resources: --New regulatory tasks and datasets for NLP --Evaluation frameworks for regulatory NLP tasks -Demos: --Systems and software solutions utilizing NLP for regulatory text processing -Industrial Research: --Case studies of industrial applications in regulatory compliance --Research involving proprietary regulatory data -Interdisciplinary Position Papers: --The role of NLP in the regulatory landscape --Reflections on the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) in regulatory contexts --Legal and ethical considerations in regulatory data processing ===More Details=== For more information about the workshop, please visit our website: https://regnlp.github.io/ ===Organization=== Workshop Chairs: Tuba Gokhan - MBZUAI Kexin Wang - UKP Lab, Technical University of Darmstadt Iryna Gurevych - UKP Lab, Technical University of Darmstadt & MBZUAI Ted Briscoe - MBZUAI ===Contact Information=== For inquiries, please contact us via email at: regnlp2025(a)gmail.com

2 1

CFP: 3rd Shared Task on Indian Language Summarization (ILSUM 2024)
by Parth Mehta 15 Aug '24

15 Aug '24

Apologies for the multiple postings. ----------------------------- *Indian Language Summarization (ILSUM 2024)* Website: https://ilsum.github.io/ To be organized in conjunction with FIRE 2024 (fire.irsi.org.in) 12th-15th December 2024, Gandhinagar, India ------------------------------ The third shared task on Indian Language Summarization (ILSUM) aims at extending evaluation benchmark dataset for Indian Language Summarization. Three Dravidian languages Kannada, Telugu and Tamil are introduced this year. We also extend the misinformation detection subtask to a cross-lingual setup. *Subtask 1*: This task builds upon the task from the first two editions. In the previous editions we covered three major Indian languages Hindi, Gujarati and Bengali alongside Indian English, a widely recognized dialect of the English Language. This year's edition adds the three Dravidian languages Kannada, Tamil and Telugu and an expanded dataset for the languages from last year. Like the previous edition, this will be a classic summarization task, where we will provide article-summary pairs for each language and the participants are expected to generate a fixed-length summary. *Subtask 2*: The task is centred around identifying factual errors in machine-generated summaries. While LLMs are very good at summarization, among other NLP tasks, they are often prone to hallucinations. This means the model generates information that is not accurate, not based on its training data, or is completely made up but looks accurate and reliable. Further, such tools can be misused to generate misleading or outright incorrect information. Identifying such inaccuracies can be a challenging task. This year's subtask builds upon a similar task from the previous edition in a cross-lingual setup. Participants will be provided with an article in English and its corresponding machine-generated summary in Hindi and Gujarati. The objective is to identify the presence of factual incorrectness in the summaries if any, and classify them in one of the predefined categories. *Tentative Timeline* ------------- 15th August - Training Data Released and Registrations open 30th August - Test Data Release 30th September - Run Submission Deadline 10th October - Results Declared 20th October - Working notes due 20th November - Camera Ready Submissions due 12th-15th December - FIRE 2024 at Gandhinagar, India *Organisers* ---------------- Shrey Satapara, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, India Sandip Modha, LDRP-ITR, Gandhinagar, India Shashirekha HL, Mangalore University, India Asha Hegde, Mangalore University, India Parth Mehta, Parmonic, USA Debasis Ganguly, University of Glasgow, Scotland *For regular updates subscribe to our mailing list: **ilsum(a)googlegroups.com**

1 0

Extended CFP - SIMBig 2024 in Peru - Artificial Intelligence
by Juan Antonio Lossio-Ventura 13 Aug '24

13 Aug '24

> [Apologies for cross-posting] > > ***** Deadline Extension for Paper Submission until August 24th, 2024 ****** > > ========================================================================== > EXTENDED CALL FOR PAPERS - SIMBig 2024 > ========================================================================== > > 11th International Conference on Information Management and Big Data - SIMBig 2024 > Where: Universidad Nacional de Moquegua, Ilo, PERU > When: November 20 - 22, 2024 > Website: https://simbig.org/SIMBig2024/ > Free of Cost: no fees associated with Publication > ========================================================================== > > OVERVIEW > ---------------------------------- > > SIMBig 2024 seeks to present new methods of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Science, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Semantic Web, and related fields, for analyzing, managing, and extracting insights and patterns from large volumes of data. > > > KEYNOTE SPEAKERS > ---------------------------------- > Aaron Courville, Université de Montréal, Canada Mona Diab, Carnegie Mellon University, USA Anna Korhonen, University of Cambridge, UK Huan Liu, Arizona State University, USA > > IMPORTANT DATES > ---------------------------------- > > August 10, 2024 August 24, 2024 --> Full papers and short papers due > September 30, 2024 --> Notification of acceptance > October 28, 2024 --> Camera-ready versions > November 20-22, 2024 --> Conference held in Moquegua, Peru > > PUBLICATION > ---------------------------------- > > All accepted papers of SIMBig 2024 (tracks including) will be published with Springer CCIS Series <https://www.springer.com/series/7899>. > > > CONFERENCE FEES > ---------------------------------- > > To disseminate new advances in data science, SIMBig 2034 offers a conference registration fee of 30 USD, which includes access to the conference, materials, and publication of the proceedings for the authors. Submit your articles HERE <https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/User/Login?ReturnUrl=%2FSIMBIG2024>. > > > TOPICS OF INTEREST > ---------------------------------- > > SIMBig 2024 has a broad scope. We invite contributions on theory and practice, including but not limited to the following technical areas: > > Artificial Intelligence > Big/Masive Data > Data Science > Machine Learning > Deep Learning > Natural Language Processing > Semantic Web > Data-driven Software Engineering > Healthcare Informatics > Biomedical Informatics > Data Privacy and Security > Information Retrieval > Ontologies and Knowledge Representation > Social Networks and Social Web > Information Visualization > > SPECIAL TRACKS > ---------------------------------- > > SIMBig 2024 proposes a special track in addition to the main conference: > > DISE <https://simbig.org/SIMBig2024/call-for-paper/track-on-data-driven-software-…> - Data-Driven Software Engineering > > CONTACT > ---------------------------------- > > SIMBig 2024 General Chairs > > Juan Antonio Lossio-Ventura, National Institutes of Health, USA (juan.lossio(a)nih.gov <mailto:juan.lossio@nih.gov>) > Hugo Alatrista-Salas, Léonard de Vinci Pôle Universitaire Research Center, Paris, France (hugo.alatrista_salas(a)devinci.fr <mailto:halatrista@pucp.pe>)

1 0

Extended CFP - SIMBig 2024 in Peru - Artificial Intelligence
by Juan Antonio Lossio-Ventura 13 Aug '24

13 Aug '24

> [Apologies for cross-posting] > > ***** Deadline Extension for Paper Submission until August 24th, 2024 ****** > > ========================================================================== > EXTENDED CALL FOR PAPERS - SIMBig 2024 > ========================================================================== > > 11th International Conference on Information Management and Big Data - SIMBig 2024 > Where: Universidad Nacional de Moquegua, Ilo, PERU > When: November 20 - 22, 2024 > Website: https://simbig.org/SIMBig2024/ > Free of Cost: no fees associated with Publication > ========================================================================== > > OVERVIEW > ---------------------------------- > > SIMBig 2024 seeks to present new methods of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Data Science, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Semantic Web, and related fields, for analyzing, managing, and extracting insights and patterns from large volumes of data. > > > KEYNOTE SPEAKERS > ---------------------------------- > Aaron Courville, Université de Montréal, Canada Mona Diab, Carnegie Mellon University, USA Anna Korhonen, University of Cambridge, UK Huan Liu, Arizona State University, USA > > IMPORTANT DATES > ---------------------------------- > > August 10, 2024 August 24, 2024 --> Full papers and short papers due > September 30, 2024 --> Notification of acceptance > October 28, 2024 --> Camera-ready versions > November 20-22, 2024 --> Conference held in Moquegua, Peru > > PUBLICATION > ---------------------------------- > > All accepted papers of SIMBig 2024 (tracks including) will be published with Springer CCIS Series <https://www.springer.com/series/7899>. > > > CONFERENCE FEES > ---------------------------------- > > To disseminate new advances in data science, SIMBig 2034 offers a conference registration fee of 30 USD, which includes access to the conference, materials, and publication of the proceedings for the authors. Submit your articles HERE <https://cmt3.research.microsoft.com/User/Login?ReturnUrl=%2FSIMBIG2024>. > > > TOPICS OF INTEREST > ---------------------------------- > > SIMBig 2024 has a broad scope. We invite contributions on theory and practice, including but not limited to the following technical areas: > > Artificial Intelligence > Big/Masive Data > Data Science > Machine Learning > Deep Learning > Natural Language Processing > Semantic Web > Data-driven Software Engineering > Healthcare Informatics > Biomedical Informatics > Data Privacy and Security > Information Retrieval > Ontologies and Knowledge Representation > Social Networks and Social Web > Information Visualization > > SPECIAL TRACKS > ---------------------------------- > > SIMBig 2024 proposes a special track in addition to the main conference: > > DISE <https://simbig.org/SIMBig2024/call-for-paper/track-on-data-driven-software-…> - Data-Driven Software Engineering > > CONTACT > ---------------------------------- > > SIMBig 2024 General Chairs > > Juan Antonio Lossio-Ventura, National Institutes of Health, USA (juan.lossio(a)nih.gov <mailto:juan.lossio@nih.gov>) > Hugo Alatrista-Salas, Léonard de Vinci Pôle Universitaire Research Center, Paris, France (hugo.alatrista_salas(a)devinci.fr <mailto:halatrista@pucp.pe>)

1 0

CFP: The 1st Workshop on NLP for Languages Using Arabic Script (AbjadNLP 2025)
by amalhaddad 10 Aug '24

10 Aug '24

The 1st Workshop on NLP for Languages Using Arabic Script (AbjadNLP 2025) Abu Dhabi, UAE 19-20 January 2024 Submission URL: https://softconf.com/coling2025/AbjadNLP25/ Co-located with COLING 2025 Conference, Abu Dhabi, UAE (19-20 January 2025) AbjadNLP is dedicated to advancing innovation and gaining deeper insights into Natural Language Processing (NLP) for languages that use the Arabic script. Our primary focus is on Abjad and Ajami languages that utilise the Arabic script or its variations. Traditionally associated with Semitic languages, Abjad scripts represent consonants in every syllable. In contrast, Ajami scripts denote the alphabetic use of the Arabic script in various African contexts, representing non-Arabic languages. We are interested in research on languages that fall under the Abjad or Ajami categories that use the Arabic script or any variations of it. We invite contributions, discussions, and explorations that delve deep into the unique linguistic structures, resources, challenges, and untapped potential presented by Abjad and Ajami languages within the realm of NLP and language resources. Our goal is to create synergies among researchers by addressing the diverse phenomena and challenges inherent in these rich linguistic traditions. The workshop is proud to highlight our connections with the Masakhane NLP community and collaborations with institutions worldwide, such as COMSATS on Urdu, and the long-standing UCREL NLP Group at Lancaster University, whose work encompasses over 20 languages worldwide, including Abjad and Ajami languages. Note: We chose the name Abjad for simplicity, but our focus includes Abjad and other languages that have adopted the Arabic and Perso-Arabic scripts, as well as Ajami languages. We acknowledge that Sorani Kurdish, when written in Arabic script, follows an alphabet style rather than an Abjad style. Workshop Description: We welcome contributions, discussions, and explorations that thoroughly investigate the distinctive linguistic structures, resources, challenges, and untapped potential of Abjad and Ajami languages within the field of NLP and language resources. Our aim is to foster collaboration among researchers by addressing the varied phenomena and challenges inherent in these rich linguistic traditions. Ajami languages, representing a myriad of African languages that have adopted the Arabic script, span at least 43 distinct languages, including Hausa, Fulfulde, Mandingo, Swahili, Wolof, Kanuri, and Tamazight. The combined number of speakers of these languages is estimated to exceed 200 million within Africa alone. Although Abjad has been traditionally associated with Semitic languages such as Arabic, Hebrew and Syriac, it has been adopted for writing by many other language communities as in Perso-Arabic scripts used in Persian, Urdu, Pashto, Sorani Kurdish, Azeri Turkish, Sindhi, and Uyghur, with a collective estimated speaker population exceeding 500 million. Altogether, these languages represent an approximate global aggregate of 1 billion speakers. The adoption of the Arabic script across diverse linguistic landscapes highlights its expansive and varied application, transcending genres such as governmental correspondences, poetic compositions, religious texts, and journalistic pursuits. This widespread use underscores the imperative need to enhance digital infrastructure, tools, and resources for these under-resourced languages. Advancing such resources is crucial to nurturing linguistic diversity and resilience in both digital and print media, ensuring the preservation of linguistic heritage in the digital age. Currently, there is an increasing interest in various NLP communities, both in academia and industry, in writing systems. However, there is a lack of initiatives focusing on the diverse phenomena and challenges of the languages using an Abjad script. The AbjadNLP workshop aims to fill this gap, fostering collaboration and innovation in this vital area of study. Motivation Languages employing an Abjad script signify a pivotal and diverse fragment of the global linguistic mosaic, traversing numerous countries and regions and embodying a considerable populace of speakers. The linguistic wealth and geographical diffusion of languages covered by AbjadNLP present a prolific environment for exploration and advancement in NLP. By channeling attention towards these languages, the realm of NLP is poised to unlock access to an expansive and varied array of linguistic constructions, subtleties, and cultural contexts, pivotal for bolstering the versatility and adaptability of NLP models and applications. The extensive spectrum of these languages not only unfolds a valuable opportunity to amplify multilingualism and multiculturalism in NLP research but also forges pathways for addressing the requisites and challenges intrinsic to a diverse and extensive speaker population. The broad adoption of Abjad scripts transcends diverse genres, including governmental correspondences, poetic compositions, religious texts, and journalistic pursuits. The sustained use of such scripts underscores the imperative need to enhance digital infrastructure, tools, and resources that elucidate the varied writing systems inherent to under-resourced languages. Such advancement is crucial to nurturing linguistic diversity and resilience in both digital and print media, ensuring that the linguistic heritage does not diminish in the digital age. This workshop can contribute to more inclusive and equitable progressions in NLP, accommodating a broader assortment of languages and dialects and promoting enhanced comprehension and interconnectivity amongst varied linguistic communities. The assimilation and prioritization of these linguistically affluent and diverse languages are indispensable for the comprehensive progression and the universal adaptability of NLP technologies. While our workshop primarily targets languages using an Abjad script, we recognize that many historical languages such as Aramaic , Sogdian, Parthian and Phoenician employed such a writing system. As such, we believe that our workshop can enforce links with researchers working on endangered languages as well. We are proud to highlight our existing connections with the Masakhane NLP community (www.masakhane.io) and collaborations with institutions worldwide, such as COMSAT on Urdu (www.comsats.edu.pk), and the long-standing UCREL NLP Group at Lancaster University, whose work encompasses over 20 languages worldwide, including Abjad and Ajami languages (http://ucrel-web-dev.lancs.ac.uk/ucrelng/). Team Our team is uniquely diverse and gender-balanced, comprising individuals from a wide range of ethnic backgrounds. We represent a spectrum of languages that use the Arabic script and include researchers from both Linguistics and NLP, enriching the ever-needed collaboration between these two fields. With expertise in language technology, Unicode, NLP, resources, and multilingual text analysis, together, we aim to foster a dynamic and inclusive environment for research and collaboration in the field of NLP. Call for papers We invite submissions on topics that include, but are not limited to, the following: * Enabling core technologies: morphological analysis, disambiguation, tokenisation, POS tagging, named entity detection, chunking, parsing, semantic role labelling, sentiment analysis, language modelling, etc. * Applications: machine translation, speech recognition, speech synthesis, optical character recognition, pedagogy, assistive technologies, social media, etc. * Resources: dictionaries, annotated data, corpus, etc. In addition, we extend a warm invitation to researchers and stakeholders across the spectrum to contribute papers focusing on, but not limited to, the following dimensions: * Orthography descriptions (Constable 2002; Hosken 2003) * Advancements in Font Technology, Glyph Rendering, and OCR * Text Input Methodologies * Development and Utilisation of Exploitable Dictionaries * Enhancements in Spell-Checking Support * Advancements in Speech-to-Text Solutions * Progressive Natural Language Processing Techniques * BLARK - Basic Language Resource Kit descriptions for languages using Abjad or Ajami * Insights and Experiences Utilising Data Supplied by the Unicode Hosted Common Locale Data Repository in Abjad or Ajami. * Morphological and syntactical challenges in Abjad or Ajami Orthographies. * Development of open access corpora in Abjad or Ajami. * Text processing and transliteration challenges and solutions for languages using Abjad or Ajami. * Cultural and sociolinguistic considerations in NLP applications for Abjad or Ajami. * Languages resources and NLP tools for Abjad or Ajami. Summary of the Call: We welcome submissions of papers centred around the Abjad and Ajami theme, focusing on supporting NLP language resources for non-Arabic languages utilising Arabic script. We encourage submissions that span a spectrum from theoretical investigations to practical applications, aiming to underscore the distinctive challenges, solutions, and insights that languages using Ajami and Abjad scripts introduce to the field of NLP. For the submission format and guidelines, we follow the COLING 2025 standards. Authors are encouraged to thoroughly review and adhere to the COLING 2025 submission guidelines and author kit, which can be found at: https://coling2025.org/calls/submission_guidlines/. If authors are describing an orthography, we request that they include the points recommended in (Hosken 2003 https://scripts.sil.org/WP-Encoding). For continuity across the workshop and greater impact across industry applications, authors should consider terminological (orthography, script, writing system, etc.) differences presented by Constable (2002) https://www.sil.org/resources/publications/entry/7853. The model presented by Constable is the current Unicode model. Please ensure that all submissions strictly conform to these standards to streamline the review process and maintain uniformity across all contributions. Both long papers (up to 8 pages) and short papers (up to 4 pages) are welcome. All submissions will undergo a rigorous peer-review process, emphasizing originality, relevance, and clarity. Submissions may be of two types: * Long papers - up to eight (8) pages maximum, presenting substantial, original, completed, and unpublished work. * Short papers - up to four (4) pages, describing a small focused contribution, negative results, system demonstrations, etc. Submission URL: https://softconf.com/coling2025/AbjadNLP25/ Submission Guidelines: https://coling2025.org/calls/submission_guidlines/ Provisional Key Dates: * 1st Call for Papers Announcement: 16 July 2024 * 2nd Call for Papers Announcement: 16 August 2024 * Paper Submission Deadline: 15 November 2024 * Notification of Paper Acceptance: 6 December 2024 * Camera-ready Paper Deadline: 13 December 2024 * Workshop Date: either on 19 or 20 January 2024 Anti-Harassment Policy: The workshop supports the COLING anti-harassment policy https://coling2022.org/policy Organising Committee: General Chair: * Dr. Mo El-Haj, Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University, is a Natural Language Processing expert with a focus on Arabic and under-resourced languages. He founded the FNP workshop series in 2018 and has organised workshops at top NLP conferences including LREC and COLING. http://elhaj.uk/ [1] Programme Chairs: * Mr Hugh Paterson III. Collaborative Scholar in linguistics, writing systems, metadata, and archives. http://hugh4.us [2] * Dr Saad Ezzini. Lecturer at Lancaster University, UK. Saad has experience working on low-resource languages with a focus on machine translation, QA, IR, and language modelling. http://ezzini.github.io [3] * Dr Ignatius Ezeani. Senior Research Associate working on multilingual NLP, Lancaster University, UK https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/scc/about-us/people/ignatius-ezeani [4] Review Committee: * Dr Manum Hayat Khan. Cognitive Linguistics Researcher at the University of La Rioja, Spain. https://investigacion.unirioja.es/investigadores/1183/detalle * Dr Muhammad Sharjeel. Assistant Professor working on Urdu NLP, COMSATS University Islamabad, Pakistan https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xUF3l9gAAAAJ&hl=en [5] Publication Chair: * Dr Sina Ahmadi. Postdoctoral researcher at University of Zurich focusing on leveraging language technology to assist languages with constrained digital resources, with an emphasis on adapting current natural language processing approaches and existing resources for less-resourced languages. https://sinaahmadi.github.io/ Publicity Chairs: * Ms Cynthia Amol. NLP Researcher focusing on low-resource languages at Maseno University, Kenya. https://ke.linkedin.com/in/cynthia-amol-779668119 * Ms Amal Haddad Haddad. PhD Student in translations and terminologies at the University of Granada, Spain. http://lexicon.ugr.es/haddad * Dr Jaleh Delfani. Research Fellow in Translation at University of Surrey https://www.surrey.ac.uk/people/jaleh-delfani [6] Advisory Committee: * Prof. Ruslan Mitkov, Professor of Computing and Communications at Lancaster University, actively working on different research topics from the areas of Natural Language Processing (NLP), Computational Linguistics and Translation Technology.https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/mitkov/ [7] * Prof. Paul Rayson, Director of UCREL research centre at Lancaster University, specialises in semantic-based NLP across 20 languages, including Urdu and Arabic. With 25 years of experience, he excels in noisy language environments like financial disclosures and has organised various conferences and workshops. https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/staff/rayson/ [8] Programme Committee* * Abdoulaye Diallo. Fula & Wolof. Independent Researcher * Ahmed Abdelali. Arabic/Multilingual NLP. Qatar Computing Research Institute (QCRI), Qatar. * Ahmed AbuRa'ed. Arabic. UBC. Canada. * Alp Oktem. Tigrinya and Kanuri. Translators without Borders * Antonio Moreno Sandoval. Low Resourced Languages. UAM. Spain * Azizud Din. Pashto. University Malaysia Sarawak. Malaysia * Behnam Sabeti. Persian. Miras Technologies International. Iran * Chenggang Mi. Uyghur. Xinjiang Technical Institute. China * Clement Oyeleke. Yoruba. University of Ibadan. Nigeria * Daniel Whitenack. Kimbundu, Fulfulde, Pular. SIL International. USA * Derguene Mbaye. Wolof. Baamtu. Senegal * Djamel Mostefa. Pashto. ELDA, France. * Doaa Samy. Arabic. Cairo University, Egypt and LLI-UAM. Spain * Elias W BA. Fula and Wolof. Baamtu. Senegal * Eric Atwell. Arabic/Multilingual NLP. Leeds University, UK. * Frederick Apina. Swahili. Parrot.AI. Tanzania * George Giannakopoulos. Multilingual NLP. SKEL Lab - NCSR Demokritos. Greece * Haithem Afli. Arabic/Multilingual NLP. Dublin City University, Ireland. * Hazem Hajj. Arabic/Multilingual NLP. American University of Beirut, Lebanon. * Houda Bouamor. Arabic/Multilingual NLP. CMU. Qatar * Ignatius Ezeani. Igbo, African Languages NLP. Lancaster University, UK. * Imed Zitouni. Arabic/Multilingual NLP. Microsoft Research, USA. * Karim Bouzoubaa. Arabic/Multilingual NLP. Mohamed Vth University, Morocco. * Mariam Masoud. Sorani Kurdish. National University of Ireland Galway. Ireland * Lei Wang. Uyghur. Xinjiang Technical Institute. China * Marina Litvak. Hebrew and Arabic. Sami Shamoon College of Engineering, Israel * Mo El-Haj. Arabic/Multilingual and Low resourced Languages. Lancaster University, UK * Muhammad Sharjeel. Urdu. COMSATS University Islamabad, Pakistan. * Omid Momenzadeh. Persian. Miras Technologies International. Iran * Paul Rayson. Multilingual and Low resourced Languages. Lancaster University, UK * Preni Golazizian. Persian. Miras Technologies International. Iran * Rao Muhammad Adeel Nawab. Urdu. COMSATS University Islamabad, Pakistan. * Reza Fahmi. Persian. Miras Technologies International. Iran * Samuel Olanrewaju. Yoruba, Yagba and Basa. University of Ibadan. Nigeria * Scott Piao. Multilingual and Low resourced Languages. Lancaster University, UK * Seyed Arad Ashrafi Asli. Persian. Miras Technologies International. Iran * Shervin Malmasi. Sorani Kurdish. Macquarie University. Australia * Sina Ahmadi. Sorani Kurdish. National University of Ireland Galway. Ireland * Sokhar Samb. Wolof. ML & NLP. Senegal * Tonghai Jiang. Uyghur. Xinjiang Technical Institute. China * Waziri Shebogholo. Swahili. Parrot.AI. Tanzania * Wole Akin. IsiXhosa, Yorùbá, Hausa, and Igbo. University of Johannesburg. South Africa * Xi Zhou. Uyghur. Xinjiang Technical Institute. China * Yating Yang. Uyghur. Xinjiang Technical Institute. China * Zahra Majdabadi. Persian. Miras Technologies International. Iran _*We are in the process of forming a linguistically diverse program committee who are experts in languages that use Arabic Script (Abjad and Ajami), with the majority of the list already confirmed to serve as reviewers. As soon as we gain access to SoftConf, we will extend invitations to the remaining committee (if you see your name on the list and want it removed, please contact any of the organisers). If your name appears in this list and you want it removed, please contact us as soon as possible and we'll make sure it's removed. Thanks_ Links: ------ [1] http://elhaj.uk/ [2] http://hugh4.us/ [3] http://ezzini.github.io/ [4] https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/scc/about-us/people/ignatius-ezeani [5] https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xUF3l9gAAAAJ&hl=en [6] https://www.surrey.ac.uk/people/jaleh-delfani [7] https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/mitkov/ [8] https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/staff/rayson/

1 0

2025

2024

2023

2022