Events Calendar

NL Seminar- Understanding Analogies: Theory and Method

Speaker: Devin Griffiths , USC/Dornsife

Talk Title: Understanding Analogies: Theory and Method

Series: Natural Language Seminar

Abstract: Analogies allow us to make connections between different domains of knowledge and to apply what we already know to new situations. For this reason, they're important to developing new theories and new understandings of the social and natural world, and have often been seen as an important task for machine learning. In my talk, I'll explore how different theories of how analogy works shape the different approaches that research teams take when modeling analogical thinking. Specifically, I'll contrast what I term "formal" or "top-down" theories of analogy with a "serial" or "bottom-up" approach. Finally, I'll describe a syntactic and semantic method for searching out analogies within corpora. I'm convinced that understanding analogies better, and being able to find locate new analogies in historical documents, can help us understand where new ideas come from.



Biography: Devin Griffiths is an assistant professor in the English Department at USC, where he studies nineteenth-century British literature and scientific history. His current book project, titled "Between the Darwins," explores how analogies were used in the nineteenth century to create new theories of evolution and social progress. His areas of research include science and literature, poetics, book history, and the digital humanities.

Host: Aliya Deri and Kevin Knight

More Info: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/

Webcast: http://webcasterms1.isi.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=56439af4a5cb41f49a2c5faef5683cd11d

Location: Information Science Institute (ISI) - Conference Room # 689, Marina del Rey

WebCast Link: http://webcasterms1.isi.edu/mediasite/Viewer/?peid=56439af4a5cb41f49a2c5faef5683cd11d

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Peter Zamar

Event Link: http://nlg.isi.edu/nl-seminar/