Commies is on hiatus during Autumn 2010, and is preempted by the Pragmatics-Dynamics seminar in Winter 2011 and Spring 2011.

Our past schedules remain available for viewing and reference.

To receive information on upcoming events and presentations, join the commies mailing list.

About

Manifesto

This is a weekly forum open to anyone with an interest in logic, language, information and computation (LLIC). The Linguistics Department is the official home of this forum, though given the subject matter, we encourage participation from interested parties in other departments -- especially mathematics, computer science and philosophy. We plan a varied schedule of work in progress presentations, general discussion and instructional tutorials. We do not shy away from the technical aspects, so be prepared to learn some math and theoretical computer science.

The main focus of LLIC is the intersection of linguistics, logic, and computation and information theory. Specifically, LLIC subject matter is drawn from

• Linguistics - Syntax, Semantics, Formal Pragmatics;
• Logic - Model Theory, Proof Theory;
• Algebra - Lattice Theory, Algebraic Semantics;
• Theoretical Computer Science - Formal Language Theory, Operational and Denotational Semantics;
• Information Theory - Dynamical Systems, Measure Theory, Machine Learning.

We welcome presentations on any of the material listed above. We try to coordinate our presentations with other linguistics and computer science reading groups:

• Clippers
• Slate Lab
• Synners
• Pragmatics Group

To get a sense of what kinds of presentations are given in which group, Clippers and Slate Lab focus primarily on machine learning, probabilistic language processing, and automatic speech recognition, Synners and Pragmatics Group primarily on syntax, semantics, and pragmatics phenomena and intuitive analysis. Commies focuses mainly on the algebra, logic, and theoretical computer science aspects used in cultivating and formalizing theory and developing practical applications.

Links

Category Theory

Asperti and Longo: Categories, Types and Structures
Barr and Wells: Category Theory Lecture Notes
Blute and Scott: Category Theory for Linear Logicians
Crouch and van Genabith: Linear Logic for Linguists
Pierce: Basic Category Theory for Computer Scientists
Scott: Some Aspects of Categories in Computer Science

Mathematics and Philosophy

MathSci
MathWorld
PlanetMath
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Linguistics

Convergent Grammar
Higher Order Grammar
LING 681: Algebraic Linguistics
LING 680: Formal Foundations

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