Kees van Deemter
Computing Science Department
University of Aberdeen


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Background

I am an academic working in Computational Linguistics, the area of Artificial Intelligence where Computer Science meets Linguistics. My main expertise is in Computational Semantics and (especially) Natural Language Generation. I take a lively interest in logical and philosophical issues arising in these areas. More recently I've started to work closely with psycholinguists interested in algorithmic models of language production.

Brief CV: (An extended version can be found here)


Current and recent teaching


Research

My work centers around the question how information can be expressed in a way that is suitable for human readers and hearers. Examples include the use of computers for generating text from the numbers or formulas in a knowledge base, and the design of Embodied Conversational Agents.

One of my main research interests is the automatic generation of complex referring expressions, as when we program a computer to refer to 'your last email to University Registry', to 'the icon at the top-left of your screen', or '(the moment) when it started to rain'. I am particularly intrigued by situations where language use appears to be flawed, as when we use words and phrases that are ambiguous or vague. Ambiguity was the topic of the seminal collection "Semantic Ambiguity and Underspecification" (CSLI Publications 1996; see this review). Vagueness is the focus of my recent book "Not Exactly: in Praise of Vagueness", Oxford University Press 2010. (See this web site for reviews and other material related to the book).

I try to bridge the gap that sometimes exists between theoretical and applied work, solving practical problems in a theoretically sound way (on a good day!) and using concrete algorithms to address theoretical problems. This often brings me in contact with neighbouring disciplines such as psycholinguistics, philosophical logic, and Description Logic.

Projects (recent and ongoing)


Selected publications: I try to keep a complete listing in my extended CV . Publications after 2004 should be available from Aberdeen's departmental publications page (see under `external publications'). Here are some selected publications, organised by research topic (hence with some duplicates). Where possible, final or near-final versions of papers have been made downloadable.

Other interests


Contact Details

Kees van Deemter
Computing Science
Meston Building
King's College
University of Aberdeen
Aberdeen AB24 3UE
Scotland, UK

Email: k.vdeemter atnospamplease abdn dot ac dot uk