Join us to try your hand at surface realization!

During the workshop+tutorial days at INLG 2016, we will host the first SIGGEN Hackathon, focusing on generation for controlled natural languages (CNLs; Kuhn 2014). Based on a particular natural language, a controlled natural language aims to preserve most of its natural properties while restricting the lexicon, syntax, and/or semantics. These restrictions make hacking together a surface realizer in 24 hours a tractable enough task that we'd like you to try it!

If you're asking yourself what a CNL might look like, you can think of the extended form of Basic English popularized by xkcd's Up-Goer Five comic, which explained the parts of the Saturn V rocket using only the 1000 most common words in the English language. Alternatively, you might consider AirSpeak, the standardized phraseology of air traffic controllers or Attempto Controlled English (ACE), which is a constrained English with a straightforward mapping to first-order logic.

At the hackathon you will split into small teams of 2-5 people and work on each of the elements of a basic surface realizer, starting with basic morphology and progressing through syntax to produce a system which can generate a majority of the forms allowed in the CNL you choose.

We're hoping for a wide range of participants, from new students to senior researchers, to get the community collaborating, allow us to learn from each other, and get our hands dirty developing our own simple realizers.

For more information on controlled natural languages, check out Tobias Kuhn's "A Survey and Classification of Controlled Natural Languages".