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conference
13.04.15 15.04.15

Causality in the language sciences

Although the tenet of "correlation does not imply causation" is still an important guiding principle in language research, a number of techniques developed in the last few decades opened new scenarios where testing causal relations becomes possible. Recent advances in information theory, time series analysis, phylogenetics, stochastic processes, dynamical systems, graphical models and Bayesian inference (among many others) set the stage for a new and exciting chapter in the field.

In parallel, in the last few decades an unprecedented amount of data became available on a large number of language-related phenomena. We have massive matrices of voxel activation in the neural circuits involved in speech production and comprehension, several years of annotated conversations between young children and their caregivers, hundreds of hours of phonetic and anatomical measurements and multiple environmental, genetic, and demographic variables related to populations of speakers for a large number of the world's languages.

The aim of this workshop is to address these two issues: how do we properly test causal relations in (eventually noisy, sparse or incomplete) data, and how can we infer or test the mechanisms underlying them?

Following a half-day school on cutting-edge methods for causal analysis, world class scientists will present their research on topics ranging from language history, writing systems, speech processing, typology, lexical semantics, and others.

We invite contributions from researchers facing specific problems in determining causality in language systems and also from researchers offering perspectives from the methodological and theoretical point of view of causal inference.

Child care is available on request for the duration of the conference.

We strongly encourage women and minorities to apply.

The workshop is co-organized by the following Max Planck Institutes (MPI):

Please see also the poster overview at Poster session in the entrance hall of the institute

Speakers

Tanmoy Bhattacharya

Santa Fe Institute, USA

Balthasar Bickel

University of Zurich, Switzerland

Morten H. Christiansen

Cornell University, USA

Dan Dediu

Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Netherlands

Michael Dunn

Uppsala University, Sweden

T. Florian Jaeger

University of Rochester, USA

Gerhard Jaeger

Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Germany

Anne Kandler

City University London, United Kingdom

Terry Regier

University of California, Berkeley, USA

Richard Sproat

Google, Inc., USA

Program

08:45 - 09:00
09:00 - 11:00
Mini-school:
Nihat Ay (Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Germany)
Concepts and formal tools for causality studies

11:00 - 11:30
11:30 - 12:30 Dan Dediu (Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Netherlands)
Across levels and timescales: causally linking genes, language processing and cultural evolution
12:30 - 14:30
14:30 - 15:30 Anne Kandler (City University London, United Kingdom)
Inferring cultural transmission processes from frequency data
15:30 - 16:30 Gerhard Jaeger (Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Germany), Katarina Harvati and Hugo Reyes-Centeno
Words and bones. Combining linguistic and phenotypic data to probe deep history
16:30 - 17:00
17:00 - 17:30
17:30 - 18:00
09:00 - 10:00 Morten H. Christiansen (Cornell University, USA)
The now-or-never bottleneck: a fundamental constraint on language
10:00 - 10:30
10:30 - 11:30 T. Florian Jaeger (University of Rochester, USA)
Pressures for processing and communicative efficiency bias language development: evidence from big(ish) data and direct causal manipulation
11:30 - 13:30
13:30 - 14:00
14:00 - 14:30 Eduardo Altmann (Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Germany)
Quantifying the strength of factors leading to lexical change
14:30 - 15:30 Tanmoy Bhattacharya (Santa Fe Institute, USA)
Language change and layered systems
15:30 - 16:00
16:00 - 17:00 Terry Regier (University of California, Berkeley, USA)
Word meanings across languages support efficient communication
17:00 - 18:30
Poster session in the entrance hall of the institute
19:30 -
09:00 - 10:00 Richard Sproat (Google, Inc., USA)
The statistics of non-linguistic symbol systems.
10:00 - 10:30
10:30 - 11:00
11:00 - 11:30
11:30 - 13:30
13:30 - 14:00
14:00 - 14:30
14:30 - 15:00
15:00 - 15:30
15:30 - 16:00
16:00 - 17:00 Michael Dunn (Uppsala University, Sweden)
Overestimating correlation between typological features
17:00 - 18:00 Balthasar Bickel (University of Zurich, Switzerland)
Moving beyond Pāṇini: causal theories in linguistics
18:00 - 18:30

Participants

Eduardo Altmann

Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Germany

Nihat Ay

Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Germany

Sebastian Bank

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany

Agata Barcik

University of Leipzig, Germany, Germany

Caroline Beese

Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany

Philipp Benner

Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Germany

Christian Bentz

University of Cambridge, England

Aleksandrs Berdicevskis

UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Norway

Tanmoy Bhattacharya

Santa Fe Institute, USA

Balthasar Bickel

University of Zurich, Switzerland

Damián Blasi

Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Germany

Gonzalo Castillo

Universitat de Barcelona, Spain

André Castro

Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Portugal

Daniel Chen

ETH Zurich, Switzerland

Rong Chen

Max Planck for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany

Jean-Pierre Chevrot

Université Stendhal, France

Morten H. Christiansen

Cornell University, USA

Jeremy Collins

Radboud University, Nijmegen, Netherlands

Bernard Comrie

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany

Christophe Coupé

Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage, France

Christine Cuskley

Institute for Scientific Interchange, Italy

Aymeric Daval-Markussen

Aarhus University, Denmark

Dan Dediu

Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Netherlands

Johannes Dellert

Universität Tübingen, Germany

Marisa Delz

University Tübingen, Deutschland

Michael Dunn

Uppsala University, Sweden

Aaron Ecay

University of Pennsylvania/University of York, USA

Ramon Ferrer-i-Cancho

Universtat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain

Martin Gerlach

Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Germany

Fakhteh Ghanbarnejad

Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Germany

Dariya Goranskaya

Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany

Tomás Goucha

Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany

Sven Grawunder

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany

Russell Gray

Max Planck Institute for History and the Sciences, Germany

Iulia Grosman

Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium

Matías Guzmán Naranjo

Universität Leipzig, Germany

Harald Hammarström

Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Netherlands

Stefan Hartmann

University of Mainz, Germany

Christian Höner zu Siederdissen

Leipzig University, Germany

Leonhard Horstmeyer

Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Science, Germany

T. Florian Jaeger

University of Rochester, USA

Gerhard Jaeger

Eberhard Karls University Tübingen, Germany

Jörg D. Jescheniak

Universität Leipzig, Germany

Jürgen Jost

Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Germany

Jaroslaw Jozefowski

The University of Sheffield, United Kingdom

Anne Kandler

City University London, United Kingdom

Jasmeen Kanwal

University of California, San Diego, USA

Seung-Goo Kim

Max Planck Institute for Human Brains and Cognitive Sciences, Germany

Mark Kirstein

TU Dresden, Germany

Jana Klaus

Universität Leipzig, Germany

Haidee Kruger

Macquarie University, Australia

Leonardo Lancia

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany

Evelina Leivada

Universitat de Barcelona, Spain

Stephen C. Levinson

MPI for Psycholinguistics, Netherlands

Natalia Levshina

F.R.S.-FNRS, Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium

Andreas Mädebach

Universität Leipzig, Germany

Fermin Moscoso del Prado

University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Lydia Müller

University of Leipzig, Germany

Marek Nagy

Palacký University, Czech Republic

Lyubov Nechaj

Donetsk physical-technical Institute of the NAS of Ukraine named after A.A. Galkin, Ukraine

Jakob Neels

University of Leipzig, Germany

Bruno Pace

Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences/Leipzig University, Germany

Michał B. Paradowski

University of Warsaw, Poland

Paolo Perrone

Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Germany

Andrea Ravignani

Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium

Terry Regier

University of California, Berkeley, USA

Nancy Retzlaff

University of Leipzig, Germany

Sean Roberts

Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Netherlands

Benjamin Rosenbaum

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Germany

Carmen Saldana

University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Estefania Santacreu Vasut

ESSEC Business School, France

Mohima Sanyal

University of Oxford, United Kingdom

Job Schepens

Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Germany

Julek Sienkiewicz

Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Germany

Richard Sproat

Google, Inc., USA

Peter Stadler

Leipzig University, Germany

Kevin Stadler

The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Omri Tal

Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Germany

Peeter Tinits

Tallinn University, Estonia

Tat Dat Tran

Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Germany

Edlira Troplini (Abdurahmani)

"Aleksander Moisiu" University, Faculty of Education, Albania

Albertus van Rooy

North-West University, South Africa

Annemarie Verkerk

University of Reading, United Kingdom

Johannes Wahle

Universität Tübingen, Germany

Shengwei Wang

Universität München, Germany

Alena Witzlack-Makarevich

University of Kiel, Germany

Yaqiong Xiao

Max Planck Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Germany

Organizing Committee

Damián Blasi

MPI for Mathematics in the Sciences and MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig), Germany

Jürgen Jost

Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences (Leipzig), Germany

Peter Stadler

Leipzig University, Germany

Russell Gray

Max Planck Institute for Human History (Jena), Germany

Bernard Comrie

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig), Germany

Stephen C. Levinson

MPI for Psycholinguistics (Nijmegen), Netherlands

Nihat Ay

Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences (Leipzig), Germany

Sean Roberts

Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (Nijmegen), Netherlands

Leonardo Lancia

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig), Germany

External Scientific Committee

Ewa Dabrowska

University of Northumbria (Newcastle upon Tyne), United Kingdom

Nick Enfield

University of Sydney, Australia

Simon Greenhill

Australian National University (Canberra), Australia

Martin Haspelmath

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig), Germany

Steve Piantadosi

University of Rochester, USA

Maria Polinsky

Harvard University (Cambridge), USA

Søren Wichmann

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (Leipzig), Germany

Administrative Contact

Antje Vandenberg

Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences Contact via Mail