Invited Lectures

06 December 2005. Perspective in Narratology and Computation of Narrative Perspective (Birte Lönneker-Rodman)
Coventry, UK, University of Warwick. Seminar at the Department of Computer Science (Empirical Modelling project).
06 December 2005, 11:00
Abstract:
Narrative perspective is one of the parameters investigated by Narratology, a literary approach that deals with the structure of narrative. The seminar gives a short introduction into Narratology and shows that narrative perspective operates on (or relates) different levels of a narrative. Several factors of narrative perspective can be distinguished: Schmid (2005) differentiates between space, perception, ideology, time, and language. The seminar presents a simple model of ingredients and processes for computing narrative perspective. But every model of perspective - even the simplest one - must include a number of complex knowledge components ("knowledge about the world"), because perspective operates on different kinds of knowledge in the broader sense. For illustration, a couple of systems that analyse or generate narrative perspective are briefly mentioned (Wiebe and Rapaport 1988; Ueda and Ogata 2004; Hovy 1988). The aim of this seminar is to open a discussion on the relation between the computational model of perspective presented here, and activities within the Empirical Modelling research project pursued at the University of Warwick.

25 October 2005. Linguistic Models of Semantic Change (Birte Lönneker-Rodman)
Interdisciplinary symposium on Conceptual Change, 25 - 27 October 2005, organized by Tom Kindt (Göttingen), Jasper Liptow (Frankfurt) and Matthias Schemmel (Berlin)
25 October 2005, 16:30 (Europäische Akademie Sankelmark)
Abstract: In German.

 6 October 2005. Computational Narratology oder: Kann man das Erzählen berechenbar machen? (Jan Christoph Meister)
Annuary Meeting of GfM, Association for Media Studies (Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft), University of Hamburg
6 October 2005, 14:00 (Location: Phil D)

 20 June 2005. Between Story Generation and Natural Language Generation. (Birte Lönneker)
Marina del Rey, CA, USA, Information Science Institute, University of Southern California, NL Seminar of the Natural Language Group
20 June 2005, 10:00 (Location: 11 Small)
Abstract:
Narratology analyzes the discursive structure of narratives as finalized products of human invention, such as novels, short-stories, or fairy-tales. Those narratives are rendered in a given surface form; Narratology focuses on narratives in natural language. Narratologists assume that each narrative surface representation is associated with a neutral, abstract event sequence, the "Story" (histoire, sjuzhet). The abstractness of Story is illustrated by the fact that the same Story can be realized in different surface texts. By discursive structure or "Discourse" (discours, fabula), narralogists mean the relation between an abstract Story and its concrete expression in a sequential text. For example, if the chronological order of the Story is not respected in its textual recount, we are dealing with the Discourse parameter of order. Other Discourse parameters include the frequency with which Story events are evoked, the point of view from which they are narrated (perceived, evaluated,...), or framed narratives with several narrative levels.
The Story Generator Algorithms project at the University of Hamburg evaluated several existing Story Generators with respect to their discursive abilities. It became obvious that most Story Generators concentrate on creating a coherent and chronological abstract Story, which is directly mapped onto natural language. This results in a predominance of 1:1 relations between Story and surface, and in most cases corresponds to a default or zero instantiation of Discourse parameters. As a consequence, Story Generator outputs tend to be very explicit and straightforward, and are likely to be perceived as uniform and boring.
Narratological expert knowledge might be useful to future enhanced Story Generators and to Natural Language Generation systems dealing with narrative. One of the aims of Computational Narratology is to model that expert knowledge. Ideally, narratological knowledge will be integrated into a Narratological Structurer, as a processing component of an advanced system that creates narratives. In such a system, the Narratological Structurer will be the interface between a Story Generator and subsequent Natural Language Generation modules. The talk also presents examples of the knowledge that is being modelled. (Birte Lönneker, 2005)

 15 March 2005. Lexikalische Semantik und Weltwissen. Anforderungen an linguistische Ressourcen bei der automatischen Generierung narrativer Diskurse. (Birte Lönneker)
Graz, Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, Grazer Linguistisches Kolloquium
15 March 2005, 18:00

 24 February 2005. Computational Narratology. The Role of Discursive Formations in Story Generation. (Birte Lönneker)
Madrid, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Informática, Departamento de Sistemas Informáticos y Programación
24 February 2005, 15:30 (Aula 15 de la Facultad de Informática)

The Story Generator Algorithms project is a sub-project of FGN.