Musings on XQuery

Abstract:

XQuery is a newly proposed XML query language which is in the process of being ratified by the W3C. I've been looking at it recently with a view to using it as a model for an annotation query language. XQuery consists of the XPath language for path expressions augmented with various query language constructs (FOR..LET..WHERE..RETURN or flower statements).

Embedded in this talk will be a presentation I'm making at the Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC) in late May (paper available on request) on a use case analysis of XQuery for annotation queries. However, I'll also give a broader view of XQuery in it's more traditional guise as an XML query langague and cover some of the W3C use cases.

Bio:

Dr.Steve Cassidy is a Computer Scientist who has worked in various areas relating to language and cognition over the last 15 years. He completed a PhD in Wellington, New Zealand on computer models of reading development and then moved to Macquarie University, Sydney to work in the Speech Hearing and Language Research Centre (SHLRC). At SHLRC he worked on applying statistical models to acoustic phonetics problems and on the development of the Emu Speech Database System. His work on Emu has led to an involvement with groups in the US and Europe who are aiming to define standards for Linguistic annotation. Steve is now working in the Computing department at Macquarie where he is persuing research in Linguistic annotation and speech technology systems.

Steve is currently secretary of the Australian Speech Science and Technology Association.

Enquiries: sals@mri.mq.edu.au