Call for papers

Universal Dependencies (UD) is a framework for cross-linguistically consistent treebank annotation that has so far been applied to over 100 languages (https://universaldependencies.org). The framework is aiming to capture similarities as well as idiosyncrasies among typologically different languages (e.g., morphologically rich languages, pro-drop languages, and languages featuring clitic doubling). The goal in developing UD was not only to support comparative evaluation and cross-lingual learning but also to facilitate multilingual natural language processing and enable comparative linguistic studies.

The Universal Dependencies workshop series was started to create a forum for discussion of the theory and practice of UD, its use in research and development, and its future goals and challenges. The five workshops so far were held at NoDaLiDa in Gothenburg (2017), at EMNLP in Brussels (2018), at SyntaxFest in Paris and Online (2019 and 2021) and at COLING online (2020). The sixth workshop on Universal Dependencies will take place during the week of March 9th-12th, 2023 in Washington D.C. on the campus of Georgetown University as part of GURT 2023. We invite papers on all topics relevant to UD, including but not limited to:

  • Theoretical foundations and universal guidelines
  • Linguistic analysis of specific languages and/or constructions
  • Language typology and linguistic universals
  • Treebank annotation, conversion and validation
  • Word segmentation, morphological tagging and syntactic parsing
  • Downstream applications in natural language processing
  • Linguistic studies based on the UD data

Priority will be given to papers that adopt a cross-lingual perspective.

Submission informations

We invite paper submissions in two distinct tracks:

  • Regular papers on substantial, original, and unpublished research, including empirical evaluation results, where appropriate
  • Short papers on smaller, focused contributions, work in progress, negative results, surveys, or opinion pieces.

All papers accepted for presentation at the workshop will be included in the UDW 2023 proceedings volume, which will be part of the ACL Anthology.

Long papers may consist of up to 8 pages of content (excluding references and appendices). Short papers may consist of up to 4 pages of content (excluding references and appendices). Accepted papers will be given an additional page to address reviewer comments. All submissions should follow the two-column format and the ACL style guidelines. We strongly recommend the use of the LaTeX style files, OpenDocument, or Microsoft Word templates created for ACL: https://github.com/acl-org/acl-style-files

All papers must be anonymous, i.e., not reveal author(s) on the title page or through self-references. So, e.g., “We previously showed (Smith, 2020) …”, should be avoided. Instead, use citations such as “Smith (2020) previously showed …”. Papers must be submitted digitally, in PDF, and uploaded through the on-line conference system (link forthcoming).

Double submission policy: We will accept submissions that have been or will be submitted elsewhere, but require that the authors notify us, including information on where else they are submitting. We also require that authors withdraw work that will be published elsewhere (no double publication).

Submissions that violate these requirements will be rejected without review.

Papers should describe original work; they should emphasise completed work rather than intended work, and should indicate clearly the state of completion of the reported results. Submissions will be judged on correctness, originality, technical strength, significance and relevance to the conference, and interest to the attendees.

All papers will be refereed through a double-blind peer review process with final acceptance decisions made by the workshop organisers. Submissions may be selected for publication in a GURT venue other than UDW at the discretion of the organisers.

Venue

The Georgetown University Round Table on Linguistics (GURT) is a peer-reviewed annual linguistics conference held continuously since 1949 at Georgetown University in Washington DC, with topics and co-located events varying from year to year. Under an overarching theme of ‘Computational and Corpus Linguistics’, GURT 2023 will feature four workshops focused on computational and corpus approaches to syntax: UDW, Depling, TLT, and CxGs+NLP. Talks will take place in plenary sessions to promote cross-fertilization of ideas across subcommunities. Proceedings will be published in the ACL Anthology.

In order to support rich discussions and networking with minimal overhead and cost, GURT will be primarily an in-person event; we will, however, accommodate a limited number of live/synchronous remote presentations, prioritizing those with circumstances that prevent travel. University policies regarding COVID safety will be in force during the event.L

Georgetown University is located in a historic neighbourhood in the heart of the nation’s capital. The city is a premier tourist destination, accessible by train via the Washington Union station, and the region is served by the Reagan National (DCA), Dulles (IAD), and Baltimore-Washington (BWI) airports.