(with apologies for cross mailing) ** CMNA 2019, the 19th workshop on Computational Models of Natural Argument ** 9th April 2019, Limassol, Cyprus in conjunction with Persuasive 2019 *Special theme: The Role(s) of Argument in Persuasion* DEADLINE 20 February 2019 ===================================================================== CMNA 2019 will be held as part Persuasive 2019, in the beautiful Limassol, Cyprus. Since its inception in 2001, the CMNA workshop series focuses on the issue of modelling “natural” argumentation, where naturalness may range across a variety of forms, perhaps involving the use of visual rather than linguistic means to illustrate a point, for example using graphics or multimedia, or applying more sophisticated rhetorical devices, interacting at various layers of abstraction, or exploiting “extra-rational” characteristics of the audience, taking into account emotions and affective factors. The study of Argumentation, and in particular, argumentative behaviour within natural, real-world communication, compliments the scope and directions of the behaviour change communities and aligns neatly with several aspects of the PERSUASIVE conference. Computers and related digital technologies are tools that are increasingly used to help influence and persuade, as well as to manage and support. Similarly, the use of computers in argumentation has been varied, providing both a medium in which argumentative practises can flourish, and tools with which to study those practises. There appears however to be a natural alignment between the notion of argument as a rational process that can underpin reasoned action, and the idea of persuasive technologies leading to changes in behaviour and habitual action. Special theme for this edition is the *role(s) of argumentation in persuasion*. This theme would be interpreted broadly, to support both polemical positions on, for example, whether argumentation can help or hinder persuasion, and to enable dissemination of recent work at the intersection of the fields. For example, recent work within the argumentation community has considered the use of arguments in formal models of persuasion as well as the role of argumentative dialogue in building motivation for behaviour change. Notwithstanding the special theme, we also solicit contribution addressing, but not limited to, the following areas of interest: - The characteristics of “natural” arguments (e.g. ontological aspects, cognitive issues, legal aspects). - Rhetoric and affect in argumentation and persuasion: the role of emotions, personalities, etc. in argumentation. - The linguistic characteristics of natural argumentation, including discourse markers, sentence format, referring expressions, and style. - The generation of natural argument - Corpus argumentation results and techniques - Argumentation mining - The roles of licentiousness and deceit and the ethical implications of implemented systems demonstrating such features. - Natural argumentation in multi-agent systems. - Methods to better convey the structure of complex argument, including representation and summarisation. - Natural argumentation and media: visual arguments, multi-modal arguments, spoken arguments. - Evaluative arguments and their application in AI systems (such as decision-support and advice-giving). - Non-monotonic, defeasible and uncertain argumentation. - The computational use of models from informal logic and argumentation theory. - Computer supported collaborative argumentation, for pedagogy, e-democracy and public debate. - Tools for interacting with structures of argument. - Applications of argumentation based systems. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We are accepting submissions of long and short papers, demonstrations and short abstracts. CMNA19 proceedings will be published as CEUR proceedings———————————————————————————————————————————————————— Key dates are as follows: - Paper submission (all categories): 20 February 2019 at this link https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cmna19 - Notification: 1 March 2019 - Early registration: 5 March 2019 (to be done through the Persuasive 2019 website at http://www.persuasive2019.org/ - Final papers: 25 March 2019 - CMNA 19: 9th April 2019 Please visit http://cmna.info//CMNA19/ <http://cmna.info//CMNA17/> for more information. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Floriana Grasso - University of Liverpool Nancy Green - University of North Carolina at Greensboro Jodi Schneider - University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL Simon Wells - Edinburgh Napier University, UK