Some evaluation-based language engineering actions for French

The Aupelf-Uref launched the Francil research network on language engineering in 1994. The ARC program based on the use of the evaluation paradigm was started in conjunction. It addresses both written and spoken language processing, on seven different topics: natural language access to textual information; (bi/multi)lingual corpus alignment; automated terminological database design; message understanding; voice dictation; vocal dialogue; and text-to-speech synthesis. Each topic involves an organizer, a coordinating committee, the corpus providers and the participants. This paper gives an overview of the complete programme, and a brief summary of the content and results of the first campaign (1995-97) for each topic. More information may be found in the references or can be obtained on the Francil web site (http://www.limsi.fr/Recherche/FRANCIL/frcl.html). It also introduces other actions which are related to the ARC and Francil initiatives: the Aupelf Cooperative Research Actions (ARP), the joint Aupelf-CNRS Silfide project, the CNRS CCIIL Grace project and IL programme. (C) 1998 Academic Press.