Grad B: I was thinking about that .
Grad D: Hmm .
Grad B: I think I will try to work on the SmartKom stuff and I 'll if I can finish it today , I 'll help you with that tomorrow , if you work on it ? I don't have a problem with us working on it though ? So .
Grad D: OK .
Grad B: And it Grad D: So you would say it 's funky cool .
Grad B: I mean we just I mean it wouldn't hurt to write up a paper , cuz then , I mean , yeah I was talking with Nancy and Nancy said , you don't know whether you have a paper to write up until you write it up . So .
Grad E: Yeah .
Grad D: Well
Grad B: And since Jerry 's coming back , we can run it by him too . So .
Grad D: Yep . Um , what 's your input ?
Grad E: Well , um , I don't have much experience with uh , conference papers for compu in the computer science realm , and so when I looked at what you had , which was apparently a complete submission , I just sort of said what just I I didn't really know what to do with it , like , this is the sort of the basic outline of the system or whatever , or or " here 's an idea " , right ? That 's what that paper was , " here 's here 's one possible thing you could do " ,
Grad D: Mm - hmm .
Grad E: short , eight pages , and I just don't know what you have in mind for expanding . Like I 'd I what I didn't do is go to the web site of the conference and look at what they 're looking for or whatever .
Grad D: Mm - hmm . Well , it seems to me that um Grad B: Wait , is this a computer science conference or is it a Grad D: Um , well it 's more It 's both , right ? It 's it 's sort of t cognitive , neural , psycho , linguistic , but all for the sake of doing computer science . So it 's sort of cognitive , psycho , neural , plausibly motivated , architectures of natural language processing . So it seems pretty interdisciplinary , and I mean , w w the keynote speaker is Tomasello and blah - blah - blah ,
Grad E: Right . Oh , yeah .
Grad D: so , W the the question is what could we actually do and and and keep a straight face while doing it .
Grad B: Well , I really can't keep a straight face doing anything .
Grad D: And i My idea is ,
Grad E: Setting that aside .
Grad D: well , you can say we have done a little bit and that 's this , and uh sort of the rest is position paper , " we wanna also do that " . Which is not too good . Might be more interesting to do something like let 's assume um , we 're right , we have as Jerry calls it , a delusion of adequacy , and take a " where is X " sentence ,
Grad E: Mm - hmm .
Grad D: and say , " we will just talk about this , and how we cognitively , neurally , psycho - linguistically , construction grammar - ally , motivated , envision uh , understanding that " .
Grad E: Mmm .
Grad D: So we can actually show how we parse it . That should be able to we should be able to come up with , you know , a sort of a a parse .
Grad E: Right .
Grad D: It 's on , just just put it on .
Grad A: I 'm OK .
Grad B: Did Ben harass you ?
Grad A: Yes .
Grad B: Good .
Grad A: Was he supposed to harass me ?
Grad B: Yes .
Grad A: Well , he just told me that you came looking for me .
Grad D: You don
Grad B: Oh .
Grad D :
Grad A: figure this out .
Grad D: You will suffer in hell , you know that .
Grad E: Backwards . There 's a s diagram somewhere which tells you how to put that Grad A: I know , I didn't understand that either !
Grad B: No wait . You have to put it on exactly like that ,
Grad D: This is it . Yeah .
Grad B: so put that those things over your ears like that .
Grad A: OK .
Grad B: See the p how the plastic things ar arch out like that ? There we go .
Grad A: OK . It hurts .
Grad B: It hurts . It hurts real bad .
Grad A: It does ! I 'm sorry I didn't mean to Grad E: But that 's what you get for coming late to the meeting .
Grad A: I 'm sorry . I 'm sorry , oh these are all the same . OK ! th this is not very on target .
Grad B: Is your mike on ?
Grad C: An
Grad A: Shoot .
Grad D: Yeah , it is .
Grad B: OK .
Grad A: Alright , you guys can continue talking about whatever you were talking about before .
Grad E: Um ,
Grad D: We 're talking about this um , alleged paper that we may , just , sort of w
Grad A: Oh ! Which Johno mentioned to me . Uh - huh .
Grad D: Yeah . And I just sort of brought forth the idea that we take a sentence , " Where is the Powder - Tower " ,
Grad A: Mm - hmm .
Grad D: and we we p pretend to parse it , we pretend to understand it , and we write about it .
Grad E: Hmm . About how all of these things Grad A: What 's the part that 's not pretend ? The writing ?
Grad D: OK , then we pretend to write about .
Grad E: The submitting to a major international conference . {comment} {comment} Yeah .
Grad A: Tha - Which conference is it for ?
Grad D: It 's the whatever , architectures , eh you know , where There is this conference , it 's the seventh already international conference , on neu neurally , cognitively , motivated , architectures of natural language processing .
Grad A: Oh . Wow . Interesting .
Grad D: And the keynote speakers are Tomasello , MacWhinney ?
Grad A: Whinney . {comment} MacWhinney. Uh - huh .
Grad D: We - MacWhinney , I think .
Grad E :
Grad A: So , interesting , both , like , child language people .
Grad D: Yeah . Yep .
Grad A: OK .
Grad D: So maybe you wanna write something too .
Grad A: Yeah , maybe I wanna go . Um , why are they speaking at it if it Grad E: Mmm . Mmm .
Grad A: is is it normally like like , dialogue systems , or , you know , other NLP - ish things ?
Grad D: No no no no no no no no . It 's it 's like a Grad A: Oh , it 's cognitive . OK .
Grad D: Yeah . Yeah . Even neuro .
Grad A: And uh , both learning and like , comprehension , production , that kinda stuff .
Grad D: Psycho .  You could look at the web site .
Grad A: OK .
Grad D: I 'll Grad A: OK . I don't know about it .
Grad D: And the ad and and the deadline is the fifteenth of June .
Grad A: Yeah that 's pretty soon .
Grad E: Mmm .
Grad D: Hey . Plenty of time .
Grad E: Why , we 've got over a week !
Grad D: It would be nice to go write two papers actually . Yeah . And one one from your perspective , and one from our peve per per
Grad A: Mm - hmm . I mean , th that 's the kinda thing that maybe like , um , the general uh con sort of like NTL - ish like , whatever , the previous simulation based pers {comment} maybe you 're talking about the same kind of thing . A general paper about the approach here would probably be appropriate . And good to do at some point anyway .
Grad D: Yeah . Yeah .
Grad A: Um .
Grad D: Well , I I also think that if we sort of write about what we have done in the past six months , we we we could sort of craft a nice little paper that if it gets rejected , which could happen , doesn't hurt
Grad A: Mm - hmm .
Grad D: because it 's something we eh Grad A: Having it is still a good thing .
Grad D: having it is a good good thing .
Grad A: Yeah .
Grad D: It 's a nice exercise , it 's I usually enjoy writing papers . It 's not I don't re regard it as a painful thing .
Grad A: Mm - hmm . It 's fun .
Grad D: And um , we should all do more for our publication lists . And . It just never hurts . And Keith and - or Johno will go , probably .
Grad B: Will I ?
Grad A: When is it and where ?
Grad D: In case of Grad E: Hmm !
Grad D: It 's on the twenty second of September , in Saarbruecken Germany .
Grad A: Ah , it 's in Germany . Ah , OK . I s I see . Tomasello 's already in Germany anyway , so makes sense . OK .
Grad E: Just Grad A: Um . OK . So , is the What Are you just talking about you know , the details of how to do it , or whether to do it , or what it would be ?
Grad E: What would one possibly put in such a paper ?
Grad D: What to write about .
Grad A: Or what to write about ?
Grad D: What is our what 's our take home message . What what do we actually Because I mean , it I don't like papers where you just talk about what you plan to do . I mean , it 's obvious that we can't do any kind of evaluation , and have no you know , we can't write an ACL type paper where we say , " OK , we 've done this
Grad A: Mm - hmm .
Grad D: and now we 're whatever percentage better than everybody else " . You know .
Grad A: Mm - hmm .
Grad D: It 's far too early for that . But uh , we we can tell them what we think . I mean that 's never hurts to try . And um , maybe even That 's maybe the time to introduce the the new formalism that you guys have cooked up .
Grad A: Mm - hmm .
Grad B: But that Grad E: Are in the process of Grad A: How many pages ?
Grad B: don't they need to finish the formalism ?
Grad D: It 's just like four pages .
Grad A: Four pages ?
Grad D: I mean it 's it 's not even a h
Grad E: Yeah .
Grad A: OK , so it 's a little thing .
Grad D: Mm - hmm .
Grad A: Oh .
Grad B: Well , you said it was four thousand lines ?
Grad E: Oh .
Grad B: Is that what you s
Grad A: OK . Four pages is , like , really not very much space .
Grad D: I don't know w Did you look at it ? Yeah , it depends on the format .
Grad E: Oh my gosh . Oh , I thought you were I thought we were talking about something which was much more like ten or something .
Grad D: No that 's I mean that 's actually a problem . It 's difficu it 's more difficult to write on four pages than on eight .
Grad A: It 's Yeah .
Grad E: Yeah .
Grad A: And it 's also difficult to even if you had a lot of substance , it 's hard to demonstrate that in four pages , basically .
Grad E: Yeah .
Grad A: Um .
Grad E: That would be hard .
Grad A: I mean it 's still it 's still Grad D: Well I uh maybe it 's just four thousand lines . I do I don't They don't want any They don't have a TeX f style @ @ guide .
Grad A: Uh - huh , uh - huh .
Grad D: They just want ASCII . Pure ASCII lines ,
Grad A: OK .
Grad D: whatever . Why , for whatever reason ,
Grad A: Not including figures and such ?
Grad D: I don't know . I don't know . Very unspecific unfortunately .
Grad A: OK . Well ,
Grad D: We 'll just uh Grad B: I would say that 's closer to six pages actually . Four thousand lines of ASCII ?
Grad D: OK then . It 's Grad E: Four thousand lines . I mean . Isn't a isn't it about fifty s fifty five , sixty lines to a page ?
Grad D: I d don't quote me on this . This is numbers I I have from looking o
Grad B: How many characters are on a line ?
Grad D: OK .
Grad A: ASCII ?
Grad D: Let 's let 's wh wh what should we should should we uh , um , discuss this over tea and all of us look at the web ? Oh , I can't . I 'm wizarding today .
Grad A: OK , look at the web page ?
Grad D: Um .
Grad A: Wha - w
Grad D: Look at the web page and let 's talk about it maybe tomorrow afternoon ?
Grad A: More cues for us to find it are like , neural cons
Grad D: Johno will send you a link .
Grad A: Oh , you have a link . OK . OK .
Grad B: I got an email .
Grad A: OK .
Grad B: By the way , Keith is comfortable with us calling him " cool Keith " .
Grad A: Oh . Cool . Keith .
Grad E: He he decided I 'm chilling in the five - one - O .
Grad A: Cool , " cool Keith " .
Grad E: Yeah .
Grad A: Excellent .
Grad D: OK .
Grad A: That 's a very cool T - shirt .
Grad E: Thank you .
Grad D: And I 'm also flying Grad E: I got this from the two one two .
Grad A: New York ? Excellent .
Grad E: Yeah .
Grad A: Sorry . Yes ?
Grad D: I 'm flying to Sicily next in a w two weeks from now ,
Grad A: Oh , lucky you .
Grad D: w and a week of business in Germany . I should mention that for you . And otherwise you haven't missed much , except for a really weird idea , but you 'll hear about that soon enough .
Grad A: The idea that you and I already know about ? That you already told me ? Not that OK .
Grad D: No , no , no . Yeah , that is something for the rest of the gang to to g
Grad E: The thing with the goats and the helicopters ?
Grad D: Change the watchband . It 's time to walk the sheep .
Grad C: like
Grad A: OK .
Grad D: Um . Did you catch that allusion ? It 's time to walk the sheep ?
Grad E: No .
Grad D: It 's a a uh presumably one of the Watergate codes they uh Grad E: Oh .
Grad D: Anyways , th um , um , don't make any plans for spring break next year . That 's Grad E: Oh , shoot .
Grad D: That 's the other thing . We 're gonna do an int EDU internal workshop in Sicily .
Grad A: That 's what That 's what he says .
Grad D: I 've already got the funding .
Grad A: I kn That 's great !
Grad D: So , I mean .
Grad A: Does that mean Does that mean you 'll get you 'll fly us there ?
Grad E: We 'll see .
Grad D: No , that 's Yeah , that 's what it means .
Grad A: Hhh ! OK , cool . Uh - a a
Grad B: And he 'll put us up , too .
Grad E: Huh .
Grad A: I know I know about that part . I know about the the almond trees and stuff . Not joking .
Grad D: OK .
Grad A: Name a vegetable , OK . Oh , um , kiwi ?
Grad E: Yeah .
Grad D: Mmm , too easy .
Grad A: Coconut .
Grad D: Ki
Grad A: Pineapple . See ? Mango ? OK . OK . Too easy ?
Grad D: Too easy . Yeah , mangos go everywhere .
Grad A: Really ?
Grad D: So do kiwi .
Grad A: Oh . OK , but I was trying to find something that he didn't grow on his farm .
Grad D: But coconut anana pineapple , that 's that 's tricky , yeah .
Grad A: Sorry . Anyway . Cantaloupe .
Grad E: So , but we have to decide what , like , sort of the general idea of Grad B: Potatoes . So . Sorry !
Grad E: Um , I mean , we 're gonna have an example case um , right ? I m the the point is to like this " where is " case , or something .
Grad D: Yeah , maybe you have It would be kind of The paper ha would have , in my vision , a nice flow if we could say , well here is th the th here is parsing if you wanna do it c right , here is understanding if you wanna do it right , and you know without going into technical Grad E: Mm - hmm .
Grad A: But then in the end we 're not doing like those things right yet , right ? Would that be clear in the paper or not ?
Grad D: That would be clear , we would Grad A: OK .
Grad D: I I mailed around a little paper that I have Grad A: It would be like , this is the idea . Oh , I didn't get that ,
Grad D: w we could sort of say , this is Grad A: did I ? Oops . Did I ?
Grad D: No ,
Grad A: Oops . {comment} Sorry .
Grad B: No , y I don't think you got it .
Grad D: See this , if you if you 're not around , and don't partake in the discussions , and you don't get any email ,
Grad A: I 'm sorry . I 'm sorry , I 'm sorry . Sorry .
Grad D: and
Grad A: OK , go on . So parsing done right is like chicken done right .
Grad D: Su So we could we could say this is what what 's sort of state of the art today . Nuh ?
Grad A: OK .
Grad D: And say , this is bad . Nuh ?
Grad A: Yeah .
Grad D: And then we can say , uh well what we do is this .
Grad A: OK .
Grad D: Yeah .
Grad A: Parsing done right , interpretation done right , example .
Grad D: Mm - hmm . Yeah . And
Grad A: And how much to get into the cognitive neural part ?
Grad B: That 's the only That 's the question mark .
Grad D: We
Grad B: Don't you need to reduce it if it 's a or reduce it , if it 's a cognitive neuro Grad A: Well , you don't have t I mean the conference may be cognitive neural , doesn't mean that every paper has to be both . Like , NLP cognitive neural .
Grad D: Yeah , and you can you can just point to the to the literature ,
Grad E: Mmm .
Grad D: you can say that construction - based You know Grad A: So i so this paper wouldn't particularly deal with that side although it could reference the NTL - ish sort of , like , um , approach .
Grad D: Mm - hmm .
Grad A: Yeah .
Grad D: Yeah .
Grad A: The fact that the methods here are all compatible with or designed to be compatible with whatever , neurological neuro neuro - biol su stuff .
Grad D: Mm - hmm .
Grad A: Yeah , I guess four pages you could I mean you could definitely it 's definitely possible to do it . It 's just It 'd just be small . Like introducing the formalism might be not really possible in detail , but you can use an example of it .
Grad E: Well , l looking at yeah , looking at that paper that that you had , I mean you know , like , you didn't really explain in detail what was going on in the XML cases or whatever you just sorta said well , you know , here 's the general idea , some stuff gets put in there . You know , hopefully you can you can say something like constituents tells you what the construction is made out of , you know , without going into this intense detail .
Grad A: Yeah , yeah . So it be like using the formalism rather than you know , introducing it per se .
Grad E: Yeah .
Grad A: So .
Grad E: Give them the one paragraph whirlwind tour of w w what this is for ,
Grad A: Yeah .
Grad E: and Yeah .