Award of an Honorary Doctorate to
Annie Zaenen

The University of Konstanz and its Department of Linguistics look forward to
awarding an honorary doctorate to Annie Zaenen on the 14th of October, 2024.

Several activities will take place to mark this occasion.

1. A Workshop on Large Language Models (LLMs) in Linguistic Theory
2. The formal presentation of the honorary doctorate.
3. Activities on the weekend of October 12-13, featuring an excursion
   to the Reichenau in honor of its 1300th anniversary.
    
   
    
   
    
   

   Large Language Models (LLMs) in Linguistic Theory

   October 14, 2024

   The last few years have seen substantial progress in machine learning methods. LLMs have solved the natural language parsing problem nearly completely and made substantial progress in the area of lexical semantics and Natural Language Inferencing (NLI). But they present a conundrum: even their developers do not understand their inner workings or how they relate to older insights about linguistic structure. Figuring this out promises to yield insights not only into LLMs but also into how humans process language by showing the similarities and the differences even if at this time one has the feeling we are like the blindfolded sages exploring an elephant. This workshop proposes to spend a day exploring together and comparing approaches.

   Venue: ZT 1204 (Data Theatre)

   9:30-9:45	George Walkden (Konstanz) and Miriam Butt (Konstanz) Introductory Remarks and Welcome
   9:45-10:30	Christin Beck (Konstanz) GHisBERT - A language model for historical German (Talk via Zoom)
   10:30-10:45	Coffee
   10:45-11:30	Anette Frank (Heidelberg) Large Language Models and Linguistic Insights
   11:30-12:15	Kyle Mahowald (Austin) Language Models as Linguistic Glass Boxes
   12:15-13:30	Lunch
   13:30-14:15	Hinrich Schütze (LMU) El-El-Em-Ology: Are LLMs Good for Linguistics?
   14:15-15:00	Annie Zaenen (Stanford) Can the CMC tell us anything about how GPT4 interprets natural language?
   15:00-15:15	Coffee
   15:15-16:45	Round Table Discussion Joan Bresnan (Stanford), Annette Hautli-Janisz (Passau), Katerina Kalouli (Bundesdruckerei), Ronald Kaplan (Stanford), Ken Kahn (ToonTalk), Tracy King (Adobe).

   
    
   

   Presentation of the Honorary Doctorate

   Venue: ZT 1204 (Data Theatre)

   17:00	Kyle Wohlmut on the Celtic Harp I
   17:05	Bernd Stiegler (Dean of the Faculty of Humanities) Introduction and Welcome I
   17:10	Theodoros Marinis (Head of the Department of Linguistics) Introduction and Welcome II
   17:15	Miriam Butt (Department of Linguistics) Laudatio: Part I
   17:25	Kyle Wohlmut on the Celtic Harp II
   17:30	Ronald Kaplan (Co-opted by Department of Linguistics) Laudatio: Part II
   17:40	Katharina Holzinger (Rektor) Presentation of the Honorary Doctorate
   17:45	Annie Zaenen (Stanford) Thanks and Final Remarks
   18:00	Reception