Alexis M.
Palmer
PhD candidate, Computational
Linguistics
Department of
Linguistics, UT Austin
office: Calhoun
400
office hours: Tuesdays, 12pm - 3pm
contact: alexispalmer@mail.utexas.edu
my CV (pdf)
Latest
news
October 2008
Main projects this month are the writing and the annotation studies. We're also thinking about preparing a submission to the NIPS Workshop on Cost-Sensitive Learning, deadline of October 17. Another important event for the month is the Chronos 8 conference on Tense, Aspect, Mood, and Modality being held here at UT October 3-5. The conference is dedicated to Carlota's memory. October 10 is the EACL submission deadline.
September 2008
The Uspanteko data is ready to go, and the annotation tool is nearly finished. We're just a step or two away from running the real-time, real-annotator active learning studies. Dissertation writing is progressing, expect to defend early-to-mid spring and graduate in May. The class is going very well... it makes such a difference to have texts. Saarbrücken postdoc application is due September 30.
August 2008
This month Telma and I are working on clean up of the Uspanteko data. So far this has involved a multi-step process of finding and correcting errors. Classes start at the end of the month, and I'll be teaching my LIN312 again, on Language and Music. I love teaching this class!
Research
Semi-automated annotation for language documentation
My dissertation work uses machine learning and NLP techniques, including active learning, in the context of the documentation and description of endangered languages. With my supervisors Jason Baldridge
and Katrin Erk and
fellow graduate student Taesun
Moon, I am
currently working on methods for decreasing the time and effort needed
to produce interlinearized glossed text (IGT) from transcribed texts in
language documentation projects. The name of our project is EARL
(Efficient Annotation of Resources by Learning). EARL is funded by a
grant from the National Science Foundation's
Documenting
Endangered Languages program (abstract).
Automatic classification of entities in discourse
Over the past 5 years I have done work on the automatic classification of situation entities in text, as a step toward better machine handling of discourse-related information.
Together with work on temporal classification of events and temporal progression in texts, this forms the core of the TexTime project with Carlota Smith, Elias Ponvert, and Jason Baldridge.
This work is also related to the Discor project on discourse parsing, discourse structure and coreference resolution.
Other research interests
Other areas of interest include syntax and semantics of Ojibwe (an Algonquian language), grammar engineering (see the OpenCCG project),
machine learning and active learning, structure of discourse and the discourse-syntax interface, indigenous languages of the americas, and relationships between language and music.
Publications,
presentations, other activities
2008
* (to appear) Nicholas Gaylord, Stephen Hilderbrand, Alexis Palmer, and Elias Ponvert, eds.
Proceedings of TLSX 2006: Computational Linguistics for Less-Studied Languages,
CSLI: Stanford, CA
2007
* Alexis Palmer, Elias Ponvert, Jason
Baldridge, and Carlota Smith
A Sequence Model
for Situation
Entity Classification, ACL 2007, Prague
* Alexis
Palmer and Katrin Erk
IGT-XML: An XML
format for
interlinearized glossed text, ACL 2007 Linguistic Annotation Workshop,
Prague
* (pre-print) Jason
Baldridge, Sudipta Chatterjee, Alexis Palmer, and Ben Wing
DotCCG and VisCCG: Wiki and
Programming Paradigms for Improved Grammar Engineering with OpenCCG,
Grammar
Engineering Across Frameworks, workshop at LSA 2007
Summer Institute, Stanford
*
Invited working group participant, Toward Interoperability of
Language Resources,
Workshop at LSA 2007 Summer
Institute, Stanford
2006
* Pascal Denis, Eric
McCready, Alexis Palmer, and Brian Reese, eds.
Proceedings of TLS8: Issues at the Semantics-Pragmatics Interface,
Cascadilla Press
* Co-chair, TLSX conference --
Computational Linguistics for Less-Studied Languages
* Invited working group participant, EMELD
2006: Tools and
Standards: The State of the Art
* Invited working group participant, Digital
Tools Summit in Linguistics
* Coordinator, 4th Workshop on
Discourse Structure
2004
* Alexis Palmer, Jonas Kuhn, and Carlota Smith
Utilization of Multiple Language
Resources for Robust Grammar-Based Tense and Aspect Classification,
LREC 2004, Lisbon
* Grammatical Inverse, Pragmatic Inverse, WAIL
2004, Santa Barbara, CA
* Co-organizer, TLS8 conference -- Issues at the
semantics-pragmatics interface
2003
* Inverse Agreement,
Argument Structure, and Hierarchy-Driven Phenomena in Ojibwe, WAIL
2003, Santa Barbara, CA
Teaching
LIN312: Language and Music F05, F06, F08
This is a course of my own design on language and music. All course materials are available on Blackboard to students registered for the class. If you are interested in the course materials but do not have access to the Blackboard class site, please email me!
Fall08 Syllabus
LIN306: Introduction to the Study of Language S04, F04
This is the department's introductory linguistics course. We cover topics from all of the major subfields of linguistics, and then some.
Teaching assistantships F02, S05, S06
I have been a teaching assistant for graduate-level Syntax I, undergraduate-level semantics, and the undergraduate intro course.
Music and other interests
French horn
I play French horn
in the Austin Symphonic Band, a local community wind ensemble.
Handbells
I play in the Austin Handbell Ensemble, a semi-professional community ensemble. It's unlike anything you've seen or heard before!
Yoga
I do yoga at Yoga Yoga, an Austin studio.
last modified: September 30, 2008