Alexis M.
Palmer
Postdoctoral
researcher, SEASIDE
MMCI Cluster of
Excellence
Computational Linguistics
and Phonetics,
Saarland University
Building C7.4, Room 3.01
phone: +49-681-302-70027
email: apalmer@coli.uni-sb.de
Current
Thesis
Defended October 2009.
Semi-Automatic Annotation and
Active Learning for Language Documentation
Research
1. SEASIDE: working on analysis of
situation entities and genre distinctions.
2. SEASIDE: looking at
lexical cohesion, non-literal language, and discourse structure.
3. CYBERLING: Cyberinfrastructure for
linguistics. White papers, case studies, and other resources now
available from the Cyberling
wiki. One of my contributions is
a case
study on making data from documentation projects suitable for
use in machine learning.
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
2009
* Alexis Palmer and Caroline Sporleder
Situation entities and genre
distinctions in the Penn Discourse TreeBank (abstract)
Presented at TLS
2009, Austin, Texas
* Jason Baldridge and Alexis Palmer
How well does active learning actually work? Time-based evaluation of cost-reduction strategies for language documentation,
EMNLP 2009, Singapore
* Alexis Palmer, Taesun Moon, and Jason Baldridge
Evaluating automation
strategies in language documentation,
NAACL HLT 2009 Workshop on Active Learning for Natural Language Processing, Boulder, CO
* Invited working group participant and
co-chair, Cyberling 2009,
Workshop at LSA 2009 Summer Institute, Berkeley
* Talk given at FEAST,
Saarbrücken
(slides)
Computational linguistics and language documentation:
evaluating automation strategies for documenting endangered
languages
2008
* 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
* 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
Currently seeking musical outlets in my new home...
French horn
I (used to) play French horn
in the Austin Symphonic Band, a local community wind ensemble.
Handbells
I (used to) play in the Austin Handbell Ensemble, a semi-professional community ensemble. It's unlike anything you've seen or heard before!
Yoga
I (used to) do yoga at Yoga Yoga, an Austin studio.
last modified: September 14, 2009