Workshop

Introduction

We are excited to announce the First Annual Meeting of the ACL Special Interest Group on Turkic Languages, held in conjunction with Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics in Bangkok, Thailand. Our primary aim is to provide a new venue to foster research on computational linguistics in Turkic languages. By co-locating with ACL, we seek to facilitate interaction among researchers from diverse backgrounds, encouraging the exchange of ideas and the presentation of cutting-edge work in natural language processing (NLP) specific to Turkic languages.

The main objectives of the workshop are:

  • To construct and present a wide array of methodology and know-how, including foundational work for formulation and analysis of NLP models suitable for Turkic language processing.

  • To provide a better understanding on how Turkic language typology may impact the applicability of current methods and motivate the development of novel methods that are more generic or competitive in Turkic languages

  • Preparation of new corpora and resources in under-studied Turkic languages

  • To build infrastructure by means of software libraries and benchmarks for developing NLP models that would accelerate progress in the field

  • Promote collaborations across scientists from across the world that have specific interests in the study of computational linguistics in Turkic languages.

By supporting collaborations across research groups working on machine learning, Turkic linguistics, and real-life applications of NLP tasks in various languages, the ultimate goal of the workshop is to enlarge connections across our community and allow rapid development of NLP methods and tools that are applicable to a wide range of Turkic languages.

Important dates

EventDate

First call for papers

February 9, 2024 (Friday)

Second call for papers

March 4, 2024 (Monday)

Workshop Paper Submission Deadline

May 31, 2024 (Friday)

Notification of Acceptance

June 17, 2024 (Monday)

Camera-ready Papers Due

July 1, 2024 (Monday)

Workshop Dates

August 15-16, 2024 (Thursday-Friday)

Topics of interest

We welcome submissions on, but not limited to, the following topics:

  • Computational linguistics: models of all aspects of linguistics in Turkic languages (e.g., semantics, syntax, lexicon, morphology)

  • Systems: Case studies on the construction of NLP systems for Turkic languages

  • Evaluation: Understanding the applicability of current NLP methods in Turkic languages

  • Metrics: New metrics and measures for evaluating NLP systems suitable to Turkic languages

  • Learning from sparse data: Novel methods for learning from small or sparse data in Turkic languages

  • Resources: Datasets, benchmarks, and software libraries for NLP models in Turkic languages

Note: All deadlines are 11:59 pm UTC -12h (“anywhere on Earth”).

"Hack Together" programming event

In addition to the workshop itself, the second day will be devoted to a full-day collaborative programming event "Hack Together". Our goal is to demonstrate the SIGTURK NLP library and interested parties can contribute to the integration of new NLP methods and models into the SIGTURK pipeline. The SIGTURK infrastructure can be found at https://github.com/sigturk. Findings of the event will be combined into a system demonstration paper.

Submission guidelines

Research papers

We invite all potential participants to submit their novel research contributions in the related fields as long papers following the ACL 2024 long paper format (anonymized with 8 pages excluding the references, and an additional page for the camera-ready versions for the accepted papers). All accepted research papers will be published as part of our workshop proceedings and will be presented either through oral presentations or poster sessions. Our research paper track will accept submissions through our own submission system available at https://openreview.net/group?id=aclweb.org/ACL/2024/Workshop/SIGTURK.

Extended abstracts

Besides long paper submissions, we also invite previously published or ongoing and incomplete research contributions to our non-archival extended abstract track. All extended abstracts can use the same EMNLP template with a 2-page limit, excluding the bibliography. Extended abstracts can be submitted to the workshop submission system using the link: https://openreview.net/group?id=aclweb.org/ACL/2024/Workshop/SIGTURK.

Invited speakers

  • Kemal Oflazer, CMU

Awards

A best paper award will be presented at the workshop and will be announced on our website.

Diversity and inclusion statement

We are committed to promoting diversity and inclusion within our community.

Workshop format

The workshop will be conducted in a hybrid format, with both an in-person component and virtual participation options.

Registration

Details regarding registration will be available on our website closer to the event.

Venue

The workshop will be held in Bangkok, Thailand. Future details TBA.

Program committee

  • Askar Aituov, Google

  • Necva Bölücü, CSIRO

  • Çağrı Çöltekin, University of Tübingen

  • Ebru Ersöyleyen, Middle East Technical University

  • Orhan Fırat, Google Deepmind

  • Omer Goldman, Bar-Ilan University

  • Mammad Hajili, Microsoft

  • Rasul Karimov, Sharechat

  • Bekhzod Khoshimov, UW-Madison

  • Abdullatif Köksal, LMU Munich

  • Murathan Kurfalı, Stockholm University

  • Constantine Lignos, Brandeis University

  • Aziza Mirsaidova, Microsoft

  • Jamshidbek Mirzakhalov, Monic AI

  • Saliha Muradoğlu, Australian National University

  • Fırat Öter, Middle East Technical University

  • Arzucan Özgür, Bogaziçi University

  • Adnan Öztürel, Google

  • Gözde Gül Şahin, Koç University

  • Francis Tyers, Indiana University

  • Jonathan Washington, Swarthmore College

Organizing committee

  • Duygu Ataman, New York University

  • Deniz Zeyrek Bozşahin, Middle East Technical University

  • Mehmet Oguz Derin

  • Sardana Ivanova, University of Helsinki

  • Abdullatif Köksal, LMU Munich

  • Jonne Sälevä, Brandeis University

Contact information

More information

For further details and updates, please visit our workshop website: https://sigturk.com/workshop