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International audience; Multiword expressions (MWEs) are a class of linguistic forms spanning conventional word boundaries that are both idiosyncratic and pervasive across different languages. The structure of linguistic processing that depends on the clear distinction between words and phrases has to be re-thought to accommodate MWEs. The issue of MWE handling is crucial for NLP applications, where it raises a number of challenges. The emergence of solutions in the absence of guiding principles motivates this survey, whose aim is not only to provide a focused review of MWE processing, but also to clarify the nature of interactions between MWE processing and downstream applications. We propose a conceptual framework within which challenges and research contributions can be positioned. It offers a shared understanding of what is meant by “MWE processing,” distinguishing the subtasks of MWE discovery and identification. It also elucidates the interactions between MWE processing and two use cases: Parsing and machine translation. Many of the approaches in the literature can be differentiated according to how MWE processing is timed with respect to underlying use cases. We discuss how such orchestration choices affect the scope of MWE-aware systems. For each of the two MWE processing subtasks and for each of the two use cases, we conclude on open issues and research perspectives.

Pre-Pottery Neolithic assemblages are best known from the fertile areas of the Mediterranean Levant. The archaeological site of Jebel Qattar 101 (JQ-101), at Jubbah in the southern part of the Nefud Desert of northern Saudi Arabia, contains a large collection of stone tools, adjacent to an Early Holocene palaeolake. The stone tool assemblage contains lithic types, including El-Khiam and Helwan projectile points, which are similar to those recorded in Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and Pre-Pottery Neolithic B assemblages in the Fertile Crescent. Jebel Qattar lies ,500 kilometres outside the previously identified geographic range of Pre-Pottery Neolithic cultures. Technological analysis of the typologically diagnostic Jebel Qattar 101 projectile points indicates a unique strategy to manufacture the final forms, thereby raising the possibility of either direct migration of Levantine groups or the acculturation of mobile communities in Arabia. The discovery of the Early Holocene site of Jebel Qattar suggests that our view of the geographic distribution and character of Pre-Pottery Neolithic cultures may be in need of revision. International audience

This paper investigates the Holocene vegetation dynamics for Burmarrad in Northwest Malta and provides a pollen-based quantitative palaeoclimatic reconstruction for this centrally located Mediterranean archipelago. The pollen record from this site provides new insight into the vegetation changes from 7280 to 1730 cal BP which correspond well with other regional records. The climate reconstruction for the area also provides strong correlation with southern (below 40 40 degrees N) Mediterranean sites. Our interpretation suggests an initially open landscape during the early Neolithic, surrounding a large palaeobay, developing into a dense Pistacia scrubland ca. 6700 cal BP. From about 4450 cal BP the landscape once again becomes open, coinciding with the start of the Bronze Age on the archipelago. This period is concurrent with increased climatic instability (between 4500 and 3700 cal BP) which is followed by a gradual decrease in summer moisture availability in the late Holocene. During the early Roman occupation period (1972-1730 cal BP) the landscape remains generally open with a moderate increase in Olea. This increase corresponds to archaeological evidence for olive oil production in the area, along with increases in cultivated crop taxa and associated ruderal species, as well as a rise in fire events. The Maltese archipelago provides important insight into vegetation, human impacts, and climatic changes in an island context during the Holocene. International audience

Climate evolution of the Mediterranean region during the Holocene exhibits strong spatial and temporal variability, which is notoriously difficult for models to reproduce. We propose here a new proxy-based climate synthesis synthesis and its comparison -at a regional (similar to 100 km) level - with a regional climate model to examine (i) opposing northern and southern precipitation regimes and (ii) an east-to-west precipitation dipole during the Holocene across the Mediterranean basin. Using precipitation estimates in-ferred from marine and terrestrial pollen archives, we focus on the early to mid-Holocene (8000 to 6000 cal yr BP) and the late Holocene (4000 to 2000 cal yr BP), to test these hypotheses on a Mediterranean-wide scale. Special attention was given to the reconstruction of season-specific climate in-formation, notably summer and winter precipitation. The reconstructed climatic trends corroborate the north-south partition of precipitation regimes during the Holocene. During the early Holocene, relatively wet conditions occurred in the south-central and eastern Mediterranean regions, while drier conditions prevailed from 45 degrees N northwards. These patterns then reverse during the late Holocene. With regard to the existence of a west-east precipitation dipole during the Holocene, our results show that the strength of this dipole is strongly linked to the reconstructed seasonal parameter; early-Holocene summers show a clear east-west division, with summer precipitation having been highest in Greece and the eastern Mediterranean and lowest over Italy and the western Mediterranean. Summer precipitation in the east re-mained above modern values, even during the late-Holocene interval. In contrast, winter precipitation signals are less spatially coherent during the early Holocene but low precipita-tion is evidenced during the late Holocene. A general drying trend occurred from the early to late Holocene, particularly in the central and eastern Mediterranean. For the same time intervals, pollen-inferred precipita-tion estimates were compared with model outputs, based on a regional-scale downscaling (HadRM3) of a set of global climate-model simulations (HadAM3). The high-resolution detail achieved through the downscaling is intended to enable a better comparison between site-based paleo-reconstructions and gridded model data in the complex terrain of the Mediterranean; the model outputs and pollen-inferred precipitation estimates show some overall correspondence, though modeled changes are small and at the absolute margins of statistical significance. There are suggestions that the eastern Mediterranean experienced wetter summer conditions than present during the early and late Holocene; the drying trend in winter from the early to the late Holocene also appears to be simulated. The use of this high-resolution regional climate model highlights how the inherently patchy nature of climate signals and paleo-records in the Mediterranean basin may lead to local signals that are much stronger than the large-scale pattern would suggest. Nevertheless, the east-to-west division in summer precipitation seems more marked in the pollen reconstruction than in the model outputs. The footprint of the anomalies (like today, or dry winters and wet summers) has some similarities to modern analogue atmospheric circulation patterns associated with a strong westerly circulation in winter (positive Arctic Oscillation-North Atlantic Oscillation (AO-NAO)) and a weak westerly circulation in summer associated with anticy-clonic blocking; however, there also remain important differences between the paleo-simulations and these analogues. The regional climate model, consistent with other global models, does not suggest an extension of the African summer monsoon into the Mediterranean. Therefore, the extent to which summer monsoonal precipitation may have existed in the southern and eastern Mediterranean during the mid-Holocene remains an outstanding question. International audience