REFLECTIONS ON 20 YEARS OF THE ACL 
AN INTRODUCTION 
Donald E. Walker 
Artificial In~elligence Center 
SRI International 
Menlo Park, California 94025, USA 
Our society was founded on 13 June 1962 as 
the Association for Machine Translation and 
Computational Linguistics. Consequently, this 
1982 Annual Meeting represents our 20th 
anniversary. We did, Of course, change our name 
to the Association for Computational Linguistics 
in 1968, but that did not affect the continuity of 
the organization. The date of this panel, 17 
June, misses the real anniversary by four days, 
but no matter; the occasion still allows us to 
reflect on where we have been and where we are 
going. I seem to be sensitive to opportunities 
for celebrations. In looking through my AMTCL/ACL 
correspondence over the years, I came across a 
copy of a memo sent to Bob Simmons and Hood 
Roberts during our lOth anniversary year, 
recommending that something in commemoration might 
be appropriate. I cannot identify anything in the 
program of that meeting or in my notes about it 
that suggests they took me seriously then, but 
that reflects the critical difference between 
volunteering a recommendation and Just plain 
volunteerlngl 
My invitation to participate in this panel 
was sent out to the presidents of the Association, 
who were, in order, Vic Yngve, Dave Hays, Win 
Lehmann, Paul Garvin, Susumo Kuno, (I fit here in 
the sequence), Martin Kay, Warren Plath, Joyce 
Friedman, Bob Simmons, Bob Barnes, Bill Woods, 
Aravind Joshi, Stan Petrick, Paul Chapin, Jon 
Allen, RonKaplan, Bonnie Webber, Norm Sondheimer, 
and Jane Robinson, and to my predecessor as 
Secretary-Treasurer, Hood Roberts. Harry 
Josselson, our first Secretary-Treasurer, is no 
longer among us, but he would have enjoyed such a 
gathering, being one for ceremony and celebration. 
Vic, Dave, Martin, Warren, Joyce, Bob 
Simmons, Bill, Aravind, Stan, Paul, Jon, Ron, 
Bonnie, and Norm agreed to Join me on the panel. 
Jane refused on the grounds that she was not yet 
part of history and that her Presidential Address 
provided ample platform to convey her reflections. 
Win, Paul, Susumo, and Bob Barnes were not able to 
come, and Hood was still waffling when this piece 
was being written. Vic, Dave, Win, Bob Simmons, 
Aravind, Paul, Jon, Norm, and I have written down 
some of our reflections; they appear on the 
following pages. 
My charge to the panelists, with respect to 
both oral and written tradition, was quite broad: 
"You are asked to reflect on significant 
experiences during your tenure of that office, in 
particular as they reflect on the state of 
computational linguistics then and now, and 
perhaps with some suggestions for what the future 
will bring." The written responses are varied, as 
you can see; I am sure that the oral responses 
will prove to be equally so. 
To provide some perspective--and record some 
history, I am attaching a synopsis of "officers, 
editors, committees, meetings, and program 
chairing" (please let me know about errors!). It 
is interesting to note the names of people--many 
of whom are still prominent in the field, the 
practices associated with our annual meetings, and 
our publication history. I will comment on the 
latter two. 
Our first meeting was held in conjunction 
with the 1963 ACM National Conference, but it is 
clear that our primary allegiance has been with 
the Linguistic Society of America, since we met 
seven times in conjunction with its summer 
meetings. For a period, we alternated between the 
LSA and the Spring Joint Computer Conference--and 
actually included that schedule in our membership 
flyer. We Joined with the American Society for 
Information Science twice, and the Cognitive 
Science Society once. The convocation of the 
first International Conference on Computational 
Linguistics, now known popularly as COLING, 
replaced our annual meeting in 1965, and we are 
scheduled to host COLING-84 in two years. 
Recently, we have been meeting independently, 
reflecting an increased confidence in our ability 
to "make it on our own!" 
The publication history of the Association 
has been equally varied. The Finite String, our 
newsletter, was published as a separate under the 
editorship of Hood Roberts from 1964 through 1973, 
and has continued in various forms ever since. In 
1965, the Association adopted MT: Mechanical 
Translation, a Journal founded by Vic Yngve in 
1954, changing its name to Mechanical Translation 
and Computational Linguistics in the process. 
However, that Journal was not able to sustain a 
sufficient flow of manuscripts, and the last 
issue, dated 1968, was published in 1970. After a 
lengthy exploration of an alternative primary 
Journal, Dave Hays brought the American Journal of 
Computational Linguistics into being in 1974. Hi-as 
intention had been to create a printed Journal 
that contained extended abstracts, supplemented by 
microfiches that provided details, programs, and 
computer listings. This proposal was submitted to 
the National Science Foundation for support. A 
grant was approved, but it stipulated that we 
publish a microfiche-only Journal, and we did that 
until 1978, The Finite String being issued as a 
separate microfiche during this period. It became 
increasingly clear during the five microfiche 
years that the micropublishing industry was not 
going to develop as predicted in the early 1970s. 
89 
Microfiche readers that were both inexpensive and 
convenient had not materialized, and our members 
were reluctant to commit their manuscripts to a 
medium that restricted readership to a dedicated 
few. Consequently, George Heldorn set about 
converting the AJCL to a printed Journal, the 
first issue of which appeared in 1980. Respectful 
of its microformal origins, it is distributed with 
a microfiche that duplicates the printed version 
but sometimes contains additional material. The 
Finite Strin~ Newsletter continues to provide 
general information of interest to the membership 
as a special section. 
To complete our publlcatlon history, I can 
announce a new venture that the Association is 
Just beginning, Studies in Natural Language 
Processln~, a monograph series under the 
Editorship of Aravlnd Joshl. It was prompted by 
Norm Sondheimer and brought into being through the 
organizatlonal efforts of Paul Chapln. We are 
Just completing negotiations with Cambridge 
University Press, which will publish it for us. 
So much for general history, I will reserve 
my proper place down the llne for other kinds of 
commentary. 
ASSOCIATION FOR MACHINE TRANSLATION AND 
COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS 
(founded 6-13-1962) 
ASSOCIATION FOR COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS 
(renamed 7-24-1968) 
Officers, Editors, Committees, Meetings, 
and Program Chairing 
Program Chair 
1963 
President Yngve 
Vice-President Hays 
Set-Treasurer Josselson 
Executive Rhodes 
Committee Garvin 
Members Lehmann 
Editor (F8) Roberts 
Editor (MTCL) 
Nominating See 
Committee Oettlnger 
Members Lamb 
Annual Meeting Denver 
8/25-26 (ACM) 
Yngve 
1964 
Hays 
Alt 
Josselson 
Sebeok 
Garvin 
Lehmann 
Roberts 
Yngve 
Yngve 
Oettlnger 
Lamb 
Bloomington 
7/29-30 (LSA) 
Chafe 
1965 1966 
President Lehmann Garvin 
Vice-President Garvin Oettinger 
Set-Treasurer Josselson Josselson 
Executive Sebeok Sebeok 
Committee Hockett Hockett 
Members Kuno Prendergraft 
Editor (FS) Roberts Roberts 
~ditor (MTCL) Yngve Yngve 
Nominating Yngve Yngve 
Committee Rays Rays 
Members Lamb Lieberman 
Annual Meeting New York Los Angeles 
5/19-21 ffi ICCL 7/26-27 (LSA) 
Program Chair Pendergraft Kay 
1967 1968 
President Kuno Walker 
Vice-President Walker Mersel 
See-Treasurer Josselson Josselson 
Executive Satterthwalt Satterthwalt 
Committee Hockett Fromkln 
Members Pendergraft Pendergraft 
Editor (FS) Roberts Roberts 
Editor (MTCL) Yngve Yngve 
Assoc Editor Chapln 
Nominating Garvin Garvin 
Committee Hays Kuno 
Members Lieberman Lieberman 
Annual Meeting Atlantic City Urbana 
4/21 (SJCC) 7/24-25 (LSA) 
Program Chair Walker Petrlck 
1969 
President Kay 
Vice-Presldent Plath 
Set-Treasurer Josselson 
Executive Satterthwalt 
Committee Fromkln 
Members Montgomery 
Editor (FS) Roberts 
Editor (MTCL) Yngve 
Assoc Editor Chapin 
Nominating Garvin 
Committee Kuno 
Members Walker 
Annual Meeting Boston 
5113 (sJcc) 
Program Chair Fraser 
1970 
Plath 
Friedman 
Josselson 
Wall 
Fromkin 
Montgomery 
Roberts 
Yngve 
Chapin 
Kay 
Kuno 
Walker 
Columbus 
7/22-23 (LSA) 
Wall 
1971 1972 
President Friedman Simmons 
Vice-Pres Simmons Fromkin 
Sec-Treas Josselson Roberts 
Executive Wall Wall 
Committee Robinson Robinson 
Members Montgomery Chapln 
Editor (FS) Roberts Roberts 
Nominating Kay Kay 
Committee Plath Plath 
Members Walker Friedman 
Annual Meeting Atlantic City Chapel Hill 
5/17 (SJCC) 7/26-27 (LSA) 
Program Chair Barnes Schank 
Program Chair 
1973 
President Barnes 
Vice-President Woods 
Set-Treasurer Roberts 
Executive Martins 
Committee Robinson 
Members Chapin 
Editor (FS) Roberts 
Editor (AJCL) 
Nominating Simmons 
Committee Plath 
Members Friedman 
Annual Meeting Ann Arbor 
8/1-2 (LSA) 
Friedman 
1974 
Woods 
Wall 
Roberts 
Martins 
Joshl 
Chapln 
Hays 
Simmons 
Barnes 
Friedman 
Amherst 
7/26-27 (LSA) 
Nash-Webber 
90 
1975 1976 
President Joshi Petrick 
Vice-Preaident Petrick Grimes 
Sec-Treasurer Roberts Roberts/Walker 
Executive Martins Diller 
Committee Rieger Rieger 
Members Nash-Webber Nash-Webber 
Editor (AJCL) Hays Hays 
Nominating Simmons Joshl 
Committee Barnes Barnes 
Members Woods Woods 
Annual Meeting Boston San Francisco 
10/30-11/I(ASIS)5/IO (ASIS) 
Program Chair Diller Chapin 
1977 1978 
President Ch'apin Allen 
Vice-President Allen Kaplan 
Sec-Treasurer Walker Walker 
Executive Diller Diller 
Committee Hobbs Hobbs 
Members Nash-Webber Bruce 
Editor (AJCL) Hays Hays 
Assoc Editor Heldorn Heidorn 
Nominating Joshi Joshi 
Committee Petrick Petrick 
Members Woods Chapin 
Annual Meeting Georgetown Urbana 
3/16-17 (RTLL) 7/25-27 = TNLP 
Program Chair Allen Waltz 
1979 1980 
President Kaplan Webber 
Vice-President Webber Sondheimer 
Sec-Treasurer Walker Walker 
Executive Rosenschein Rosenschein 
Committee Hobbs Lehnert 
Members Bruce Bruce 
Editor (AJCL) Heidorn Heldorn 
Assoc Editor McCord 
Nominating Allen Allen 
Committee Petrlck Kaplan 
Members Chapln Chapln 
Annual Meeting La Jolla Philadelphia 
8/11-12 (CSS) 6/19-22 
Program Chair Sondheimer Hendrix 
1981 1982 
President Sondheimer Robinson 
Vice-President Robinson Perrault 
Sec-Treasurer Walker Walker 
Executive Rosenschein Karttunen 
Committee Lehnert Lehnert 
Members Mann Mann 
Editor (AJCL) Heldorn Petrick/Damerau 
Assoc Editor McCord McCord 
Editor (SNLP) Joshi 
Nominating Allen Sondhelmer 
Committee Kaplan Kaplan 
Members Webber Webber 
Annual Meeting Stanford Toronto 
6/29-7/1 6/16-18~ 
Program Chair Perrault Bates 
President 
Vice-President 
Sec-Treasurer 
Executive 
Committee 
Members 
Editor (AJCL) 
Assoc Editor 
Editor (SNLP) 
Nominating 
Committee 
Members 
Annual Meeting 
Program Chair 
1983 1984 
Karttunen 
Mann 
Karttunen 
Joshi 
Sondheimer Sondheimer 
Webber " 
Cambridge Stanford 
June July = COLING-84 
SOME ABBREVIATIONS 
Publications: 
FS = The Finite String (1964-present) 
MTCL = Machine Translation and Computational 
Linguistics (1965-1968) 
AJCL = AmericanJournal of Computational 
Linguistics (1974-present) 
SNLP = Studies in Natural Language Processin~ 
(Cambridge University Press Monograph 
Series, 1982-1987) 
Other organizations in conjunction () with which 
our meeting was held or which coopted = our 
meeting: 
ACM 
LSA 
ICCL 
SJCC 
ASIS 
RTLL 
TNLP 
CSS 
COLING 
= Association for Computing Machinery 
= Linguistic Society of America 
- International Conference on Computational 
Linguistics (now called COLING) 
m Spring Joint Computer Conference (now 
called National Computer Conference) 
- American Society for Information Science 
- Georgetown Round Table on Languages and 
Linguistics 
m Theoretical Issues on Natural Language 
Processing-2 
= Cognitive Science Society 
- International Conference on Computational 
Linguistics 
91 
