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Encyclopedia > Computational linguistics
Linguistics
Theoretical linguistics
Phonetics
Phonology
Morphology
Syntax
Semantics
Lexical semantics
Structural semantics
Prototype semantics
Stylistics
Prescription
Pragmatics
Applied linguistics
Psycholinguistics
Sociolinguistics
Generative linguistics
Cognitive linguistics
Computational linguistics
Descriptive linguistics
Historical linguistics
Comparative linguistics
Etymology
List of linguists
Unsolved problems


Computational linguistics is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the statistical and logical modeling of natural language from a computational perspective. This modeling is not limited to any particular field of linguistics. Computational linguistics was formerly usually done by computer scientists who had specialized in the application of computers to the processing of a natural language. Recent research has shown that language is much more complex than previously thought, so computational linguistics work teams are now sometimes interdisciplinary, including linguists (specifically trained in linguistics). Computational linguistics draws upon the involvement of linguists, computer scientists, experts in artificial intelligence, cognitive psychologists and logicians, amongst others. Linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and someone who engages in this study is called a linguist. ... Theoretical linguistics studies diverse questions: how certain languages managed to communicate, what properties all languages have in common, what knowledge a person must have to be able to use a language, and language acquisition. ... Phonetics (from the Greek word φωνή, phone = sound/voice) is the study of sounds (voice). ... The vowels of modern (Standard) Arabic and (Israeli) Hebrew from the phonological point of view. ... Morphology is a subdiscipline of linguistics that studies word structure. ... {{ Categories: | | ... In the main, semantics (from the Greek and in greek letters σημαντικός or in latin letters semantikós, or significant meaning, derived from sema, sign) is the study of meaning, in some sense of that term. ... Lexical semantics is a field in computer science and linguistics which deals mainly with word meaning. ... Prototype Theory is a model of graded categorization in Cognitive Science, where all members of a category do not have equal status. ... Stylistics is the study of style used in literary, and verbal language and the effect the writer/speaker wishes to communicate to the reader/hearer. ... In linguistics, prescription is the laying down or prescribing of normative rules for the use of a language. ... Pragmatics is generally the study of natural language understanding, and specifically the study of how context influences the interpretation of meanings. ... Applied linguistics is concerned with using linguistic theory to address real-world problems. ... Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, and understand language. ... Sociolinguistics is the study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used. ... Generative linguistics is a school of thought within linguistics that makes use of the concept of a generative grammar. ... In linguistics and cognitive science, cognitive linguistics (CL) refers to the currently dominant school of linguistics that views the important essence of language as innately based in evolutionarily-developed and speciated faculties, and seeks explanations that advance or fit well into the current understandings of the human mind. ... Descriptive linguistics is the work of analyzing and describing how language is actually spoken now (or how it was actually spoken in the past), by any group of people. ... Historical linguistics (also diachronic linguistics or comparative linguistics) is primarily the study of the ways in which languages change over time. ... Historical linguistics (also diachronic linguistics or comparative linguistics) is primarily the study of the ways in which languages change over time, by means of examining languages which are recognizably related through similarities such as vocabulary, word formation, and syntax, as well as the surviving records of ancient languages. ... Etymology is the study of the origins of words. ... A linguist is a person who studies linguistics. ... Lack or scarcity of data can hold the clasification of a language. ... Interdisciplinary work is that which integrates concepts across different disciplines. ... Logic, from Classical Greek λόγος (logos), originally meaning the word, or what is spoken, (but coming to mean thought or reason) is most often said to be the study of criteria for the evaluation of arguments, although the exact definition of logic is a matter of controversy among philosophers. ... The term natural language is used to distinguish languages spoken and signed (by hand signals and facial expressions) by humans for general-purpose communication from constructs such as writing, computer-programming languages or the languages used in the study of formal logic, especially mathematical logic. ... Linguistics is the scientific study of human language, and someone who engages in this study is called a linguist. ... Computer science (informally: CS or compsci) is, in its most general sense, the study of computation and information processing, both in hardware and in software. ... The term natural language is used to distinguish languages spoken and signed (by hand signals and facial expressions) by humans for general-purpose communication from constructs such as writing, computer-programming languages or the languages used in the study of formal logic, especially mathematical logic. ...   Computer science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their implementation and application in computer systems. ... Hondas intelligent humanoid robot AI redirects here. ... Cognitive psychology is the psychological science that studies cognition, the mental processes that underlie behavior, including thinking, reasoning, decision making, and to some extent motivation and emotion. ... Logic, from Classical Greek λόγος (logos), originally meaning the word, or what is spoken, (but coming to mean thought or reason) is most often said to be the study of criteria for the evaluation of arguments, although the exact definition of logic is a matter of controversy among philosophers. ...

Contents


Origins

Computational linguistics as a field predates artificial intelligence, a field under which it is often grouped. Computational linguistics originated with efforts in the United States in the 1950s to have computers automatically translate texts in foreign languages into English, particularly Russian scientific journals. Since computers had proven their ability to do complex mathematics much faster and more accurately than humans, it was thought to be only a short matter of time before the technical details could be taken care of that would allow them the same remarkable capacity to process language. Euclid, a famous Greek mathematician known as the father of geometry, is shown here in detail from The School of Athens by Raphael. ...


When machine translation (a.k.a. mechanical translation) failed immediately to yield accurate translations, the problem was recognized as far more complex than had originally been assumed. Computational linguistics was born as the name of the new field of study devoted to developing algorithms and software for intelligently processing language data. When artificial intelligence came into existence in the 1960s, the field of computational linguistics became that sub-division of artificial intelligence dealing with human-level comprehension and production of natural languages. Machine translation, sometimes referred to by the acronym MT, is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates the use of computer software to translate text or speech in between natural languages. ... Flowcharts are often used to represent algorithms. ... Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ...


In order to translate one language into another, it was observed that one had to understand the syntax of both languages, and at least at the level of morphology (the syntax of words) and whole sentences. In order to understand syntax, one had to also understand the semantics of the vocabulary, and even to understand something of the pragmatics of how the language was being used. Thus, what started as an effort to translate between languages evolved into an entire discipline devoted to understanding how to represent and process individual natural languages using computers. {{ Categories: | | ... Morphology is a subdiscipline of linguistics that studies word structure. ... In the main, semantics (from the Greek and in greek letters σημαντικός or in latin letters semantikós, or significant meaning, derived from sema, sign) is the study of meaning, in some sense of that term. ... Pragmatics is generally the study of natural language understanding, and specifically the study of how context influences the interpretation of meanings. ...


Subfields

Computational linguistics can be divided into major areas depending upon the medium of the language being processed, whether spoken or textual; and upon the task being performed, whether analyzing language (parsing) or creating language (generation).


Speech recognition and speech synthesis deal with how spoken language can be understood or created using computers. Parsing and generation are sub-divisions of computational linguistics dealing respectively with taking language apart and putting it together. Machine translation remains the sub-division of computational linguistics dealing with having computers translate between languages. Speech recognition (in many contexts, also known as automatic speech recognition, computer speech recognition or voice recognition) is the process of converting a speech signal to a set of words, by means of an algorithm implemented as a computer program. ... Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. ...


Some of the areas of research that are studied by computational linguistics include:

  • Computer aided corpus linguistics
  • Design of parsers for natural languages
  • Design of taggers like POS-taggers (part-of-speech taggers)
  • Definition of specialized logics like resource logics for NLP
  • Research in the relation between formal and natural languages in general
  • Machine Translation, e.g. by a translating computer

The Association for Computational Linguistics defines computational linguistics as: Corpus linguistics is the study of language as expressed in samples (corpora) or real world text. ... The term natural language is used to distinguish languages spoken and signed (by hand signals and facial expressions) by humans for general-purpose communication from constructs such as writing, computer-programming languages or the languages used in the study of formal logic, especially mathematical logic. ... Natural language processing (NLP) is a subfield of artificial intelligence and linguistics. ... Machine translation, sometimes referred to by the acronym MT, is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates the use of computer software to translate text or speech in between natural languages. ... The Association for Computational Linguistics (ACL) is the international scientific and professional society for people working on problems involving natural language and computation. ...

...the scientific study of language from a computational perspective. Computational linguists are interested in providing computational models of various kinds of linguistic phenomena.

An abstract machine, also called an abstract computer, is a theoretical model of a computer hardware or software system. ...

See also

Hondas intelligent humanoid robot AI redirects here. ... A Dialog system is a computer system intended to converse with a human. ... Natural language processing (NLP) is a subfield of artificial intelligence and linguistics. ... Machine translation, sometimes referred to by the acronym MT, is a sub-field of computational linguistics that investigates the use of computer software to translate text or speech in between natural languages. ... A translation memory, or TM, is a type of database that is used in software programs designed to aid human translators. ... Computational Linguistics, published by MIT Press for the ACL, is the journal in the field of Computational Linguistics. ...

External links


  Results from FactBites:
 
Computational linguistics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (544 words)
Computational linguistics is an interdisciplinary field dealing with the statistical and logical modeling of natural language from a computational perspective.
Computational linguistics was formerly usually done by computer scientists who had specialized in the application of computers to the processing of a natural language.
Computational linguistics was born as the name of the new field of study devoted to developing algorithms and software for intelligently processing language data.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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