The 21st Century COE Program "Usage-Based Linguistic Informatics"(2002-2006)

It is commonly known that linguistic theory and computer science have long had a significant impact on language education and language acquisition theory. However, this does not necessarily mean that integration of and collaboration among these three research fields has been carried out thus far. This COE project is aimed at integrating these academic fields, and the resulting integrated research field is referred to as Linguistic Informatics. Through Linguistic Informatics, conventional results from linguistics and applied linguistics can be integrated on the foundation of computer science. Participants of this international conference not only learned about the new integrated field of study known as Linguistic Informatics and its current status, but also considered its future potential. The conference was comprised of three sessions.

This international conference was a tremendous success with as many as 300 in attendance, and it brought the field of Linguistic Informatics to the attention of people in and outside Japan. Moreover, the collection of reports presented at this conference was published by John Benjamins Publishing Company of the Netherlands under the name Linguistic Informatics – State of the Art and the Future –.