(apologies for cross-posting)

Dear colleagues,

We are delighted to announce the first CfP for The 4th Workshop on Arabic Corpus Linguistics (WACL-4)  @ COLING 2025.

The 4th Workshop on Arabic Corpus Linguistics (WACL-4)

20 January 2025, in conjunction with COLING’2025 in Abu Dhabi (UAE).

URL: https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/wacl4/

Description

The 4th Workshop on Arabic Corpus Linguistics (WACL - 4) will serve as an outstanding international platform for exchanging knowledge and outcomes in the theory, methodology, and applications of language technologies tailored to the diverse range of Arabic dialects. We encourage submissions that span a spectrum from theoretical investigations to practical applications, aiming to address the unique challenges, solutions, and insights that Arabic dialects introduce to the field of NLP.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following

• Development and Utilisation of Arabic Dialectal Corpora
• Advancements in Natural Language Processing Techniques for Arabic Dialects
• Applications and Challenges of Large Language Models in Understanding and Generating Arabic Dialects
• Morphological and Syntactical Challenges in Arabic Dialects
• Dialect Identification and Classification
• Speech Recognition and Synthesis for Arabic Dialects
• Machine Translation involving Arabic Dialects
• Sentiment Analysis and Opinion Mining in Arabic Dialects
• Named Entity Recognition and Information Extraction for Arabic Dialects
• Development of Open Access Resources for Arabic Dialects
• Text Processing and Transliteration Challenges for Arabic Dialects
• Cultural and Sociolinguistic Considerations in NLP Applications for Arabic Dialects
• Resources and Tools for Computational Analysis of Arabic Dialects
• Applications of Arabic Dialects NLP in Real-World Scenarios

Paper Submission

Submissions should adhere to the COLING 2025 standards. Authors are strongly encouraged to review and follow the COLING 2025 submission guidelines and author kit, available at https://coling2025.org/.

Submission link: https://softconf.com/coling2025/WACL-4/

If authors are describing dialectal variations, we request that they include relevant linguistic details and sociolinguistic contexts to enrich the understanding of the presented work.

Submissions may be of two types

• Long papers – up to eight (8) pages including references, presenting substantial, original, completed, and unpublished work.
• Short papers – up to four (4) pages including references, describing a small focused contribution, negative results, or system demonstrations, etc.

Important dates

• Call for Papers Announcement: 07 August 2024
• Abstract Submission Deadline: 03 October 2024
• Paper Submission Deadline: 10 October 2024
• Notification of Paper Acceptance: 1 November 2024
• Camera-ready Paper Deadline: 15 November 2024
• Workshop Date: 20th January 2025

Organising Committee

• Saad Ezzini, Lancaster University, UK (General Chair)
• Hamza Alami, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Morocco (Programme Co-Chair)
• Ismail Berrada, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Morocco (Programme Co-Chair)

• Abdessamad Benlahbib, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Morocco (Programme Co-Chair)
• Abdelkader El Mahdaouy, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Morocco  (Review Chair)
• Salima Lamsiyah, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg (Publication Chair)
• Nouran Khallaf, Leeds University, UK (Publicity Co-Chair)
• Hatim Derrouz, Ibn Tofail University, Morocco (Publicity Co-Chair)
• Amal Haddad, University of Granada, Spain (Publicity Co-Chair)
• Mustafa Jarrar, Birzeit University, Palestine (Advisory Committee)
• Mo El-Haj, Lancaster University, UK (Advisory Committee)

• Ruslan Mitkov, Lancaster University, UK (Advisory Committee)
• Paul Rayson, Lancaster University, UK (Advisory Committee)

Anti-Harassment policy

The workshop supports the COLING anti-harassment policy https://coling2022.org/policy