The German Society for Computational Linguistics and Language Technology (GSCL) is the scientific professional association in German-speaking countries and regions for machine language processing in research, teaching and the profession. It actively endeavours to forge links between universities and industry. It supports cooperation with neighbouring disciplines such as linguistics and semiotics, computer science and mathematics, psychology and cognitive science, and information and documentation science. It also maintains contacts with relevant professional associations.
About us
The GSCL is the scientific association for research, teaching and professional work on natural language processing. It registered as a non-profit association, the charter can be found here. The society represents the interests of its members and promotes cooperation between the members and their working fields, such as:
- automatic NL analysis and generation
- corpus engineering and corpus linguistics
- document processing and text technology
- information retrieval and knowledge management
- multimedia and hypermedia
- dictionaries and terminological databases
- machine translation
- human-machine communication
- artificial intelligence and machine learning
- tools for literary and linguistic research
There is a continuum between research and practical application. The GSCL actively endeavours to establish links between universities and industry. Outstanding student theses and dissertations are regularly honoured with the GSCL Prize or the Dissertation Prize.
The GSCL also supports shared task initiatives like GermEval, the cooperation with neighbouring disciplines (e.g., linguistics and semiotics, computer science and mathematics, psychology and cognitive science, data and information science, digital humanities), and keeps contact to the respective associations. There are international contacts with organisations like the Association for Computational Linguistics and the European Association for Digital Humanities (EADH), formerly Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing (ALLC).
GSCL Executive Board
The German Society for Language Technology and Computational Linguistics acts through its honorary mandate holders. The executive committee is responsible for all matters of the GSCL – e.g. convocation of the general meeting and implementation of its decisions, preparation of a budget, representation of GSCL to the outside – unless they are assigned by the statute to another body.
GSCL Advisory Board
The Advisory Board has the task of advising and assisting the Board in all matters relating to the work and tasks of the Association, including budgetary matters.
Prof. Dr. Torsten Zesch
FernUniversität in Hagen
PD Dr. Roman Schneider (Sprecher)
Leibniz-Institut für Deutsche Sprache
Dr. Fernando Benites
Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz
Prof. Dr. Bernhard Schroeder
Universität Duisburg-Essen
Prof. Dr. Heike Zinsmeister
Universität Hamburg
Dr. Nicolai Erbs
T-Systems
Dr. Bernhard Fisseni
Universität Duisburg-Essen
Tasks of the Executive Board (Selection)
(Vice) President
- planning and convening meetings
- communication with the DFG and scientific societies
- call for proposals and approval of funding
- executive board decisions by circulation procedure
- organization of the call for bids and assignment of Konvens conference
- preparation of elections
Information Office
- maintenance of the GSCL website
- organizing advertising material
- postcard campaigns
- communication with members
- management of the mailing list
Secretary
- documentation of the executive board deliberations
- documentation of decisions
- documentation of the general assemblies
Treasurer
- membership administration
- financial management
- budget preparation
- accounting
- annual accounts
- corporate income tax declaration (three-year interval)
The task of membership administration is supported by Ms. Jenny Felser on a voluntary basis.
Editor of the JLCL
- content planning JLCL
- organization of reviews
- archiving JLCL on ACL Anthology
- contact with the specialized information service (FID) linguistics (hosting OJS)
History of the GSCL
The German Society for Computational Linguistics and Language Technology (German: Gesellschaft für Sprachtechnologie und Computerlinguistik e.V., GSCL) was founded in 1975 as “LDV-Fittings e.V.”, later renamed to “Gesellschaft für Linguistische Datenverarbeitung (GLDV) e. V.” to foster linguistic data processing. Since September 2008, it has its current name.
Presidents
- 1975 bis 1976 – Prof. Dr. Hans G. Tillmann
- 1976 bis 1981 – Prof. Dr. Dieter Krallmann
- 1981 bis 1985 – Prof. Dr. Jürgen Krause
- 1985 bis 1987 – Prof. Dr. Peter Hellwig
- 1987 bis 1989 – Prof. Dr. Brigitte Endres-Niggemeyer
- 1989 bis 1991 – Prof. Dr. Burghard Rieger
- 1991 bis 1993 – Prof. Dr. Ursula Klenk
- 1993 bis 1997 – Prof. Dr. Winfried Lenders
- 1997 bis 2001 – Prof. Dr. Roland Hausser
- 2001 bis 2007 – Prof. Dr. Henning Lobin
- 2007 bis 2009 – Prof. Dr. Angelika Storrer
- 2009 bis 2015 – Prof. Dr. Manfred Stede
- 2015 bis 2017 – Prof. Dr. Heike Zinsmeister
- 2017 bis 2024 – Prof. Dr. Torsten Zesch
- 2024 bis heute – Prof. Dr. Annemarie Friedrich
Honorary Members
The German Society for Computational Linguistics and Language Technology (German: Gesellschaft für Sprachtechnologie und Computerlinguistik e.V., GSCL) was founded in 1975 as “LDV-Fittings e.V.”, later renamed to “Gesellschaft für Linguistische Datenverarbeitung (GLDV) e. V.” to foster linguistic data processing. Since September 2008, it has its current name.
Prof. Dr. Burghard Rieger †
On September 20, 2012 in Vienna, the German Society for Computational Linguistics and Language Technology decided to appoint Prof. Dr. Burghard Rieger as honorary member. As chairman of the former Association for Computational Linguistics (1989-1993) and as editor of the scientific journal LDV-Forum, he made a significant contribution to the development of computational linguistics in Germany. The honours ceremony took place on September 27, 2013 at the GSCL Conference in Darmstadt.
Professor Burghard Rieger passed away on July 19, 2021. With him, the GSCL loses a highly respected scientist and a longtime dedicated supporter of the association’s work. We will deeply miss him.
Prof. Dr. Winfried Lenders †
On 01.10.2009 in Potsdam, the German Society for Computational Linguistics and Language Technology decided to appoint Prof. Dr. Winfried Lenders for its first honorary member. With the founding of the LDV-Fittings in 1975, Professor Lenders established the pathbreaking precursor of the GSCL. From 1993 to 1997, he chaired the then renamed Association for Computational Linguistics (GLDV), and was a long-standing member of the Advisory Board. His ongoing commitment contributed significantly to the profile of our scientific society.
Professor Winfried Lenders passed away on May 1, 2015. With him, the GSCL loses not only a highly respected scientist, but also a longtime dedicated supporter of the association’s work. We will deeply miss him.
