Natural language

About: Natural language is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 31151 publications have been published within this topic receiving 806825 citations. The topic is also known as: ordinary language.

WordNet: a lexical database for English

Abstract: Because meaningful sentences are composed of meaningful words, any system that hopes to process natural languages as people do must have information about words and their meanings. This information is traditionally provided through dictionaries, and machine-readable dictionaries are now widely available. But dictionary entries evolved for the convenience of human readers, not for machines. WordNet1 provides a more effective combination of traditional lexicographic information and modern computing. WordNet is an online lexical database designed for use under program control. English nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are organized into sets of synonyms, each representing a lexicalized concept. Semantic relations link the synonym sets [4].

Foundations of Statistical Natural Language Processing

Abstract: Statistical approaches to processing natural language text have become dominant in recent years This foundational text is the first comprehensive introduction to statistical natural language processing (NLP) to appear The book contains all the theory and algorithms needed for building NLP tools It provides broad but rigorous coverage of mathematical and linguistic foundations, as well as detailed discussion of statistical methods, allowing students and researchers to construct their own implementations The book covers collocation finding, word sense disambiguation, probabilistic parsing, information retrieval, and other applications

A framework for representing knowledge

Abstract: : A partial theory is presented of thinking, combining a number of classical and modern concepts from psychology, linguistics, and AI. In a new situation one selects from memory a structure called a frame: a remembered framework to be adapted to fit reality by changing details as necessary, and a data-structure for representing a stereotyped situation. Attached to each frame are several kinds of information -- how to use the frame, what one can expect to happen next, and what to do if these expectations are not confirmed. The report discusses collections of related frames that are linked together into frame-systems.

Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning

Abstract: All Rights Reserved. This publication may be downloaded and copied without charge for all reasonable, non-commercial educational purposes, provided no alterations in the text are made. I have had a great deal of help and feedback from many people in writing this book. Among the many scholars and friends I am indebted to are also would like to express my thanks to those scholars whose work has stimulated my own thinking in the early stages of the research reported on here: John Upshur, Leonard Newmark, and S. Pit Corder all recognized the reality of language "acquisition" in the adult long before I did. I would also like the thank Introduction This book is concerned with what has been called the "Monitor Theory" of adult second language acquisition. Monitor Theory hypothesizes that adults have two independent systems for developing ability in second languages, subconscious language acquisition and conscious language learning, and that these systems are interrelated in a definite way: subconscious acquisition appears to be far more important. The introduction is devoted to a brief statement of the theory and its implications for different aspects of second language acquisitions theory and practice. We define acquisition and learning, and present the Monitor Model for adult second language performance. Following this, brief summaries of research results in various areas of second language acquisition serve as both an overview of Monitor Theory research over the last few years and as introduction to the essays that follow. Language acquisition is very similar to the process children use in acquiring first and second languages. It requires meaningful interaction in the target language-natural communication-in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding. Error correction and explicit teaching of rules are not relevant to language acquisition but caretakers and native speakers can modify their utterances addressed to acquirers to help them understand, and these modifications are thought to help the acquisition process (Snow and Ferguson, 1977). It has been hypothesized that there is a fairly stable order of acquisition of structures in language acquisition, that is, one can see clear 1 similarities across acquirers as to which structures tend to be acquired early and which tend to be acquired late (Brown, 1973; Dulay and Burt, 1975). Acquirers need not have a conscious awareness of the "rules" they possess, and may self-correct only on the basis of …

The Tacit Dimension

Abstract: 'Without symbolism the life of man would be like that of the prisoners in the cave of Plato's simile…confined within the limits of his biological needs and practical interests; it could find no access to the "ideal world" which is opened to him from different sides by religion, art, philosophy, science.' Ernst Cassirer 1 ABSTRACT I begin by outlining some of the positions that have been taken by those who have reflected upon the nature of language. In his early work Wittgenstein asserts that language becomes meaningful when we tacitly adhere to the rules of logic. In his later work he claims that lan- guages become meaningful when they are situated within forms of life. Polanyi describes language as a toolbox for deploying our tacit awareness. A meaning is generated when a point of view attends from a subsidiary to a focal awareness. Languages re-present these meanings. Although all languages rely upon rules, what it is to be a meaning is not reduc- ible to rules. Nor is there a universal grammar. Because it renders abstract reflection possi- ble, language renders minds possible. A mind is not the product of an innate language of thought; it is a consequence of indwelling within a natural language. Indwelling within languages enables us to access new realities. Languages however do not supply us with the boundaries of the world. Not only do we know more than we can say, we can also say more than we know. The ultimate context of our linguistic meanings is not our social practices; it is our embodied awareness of the world. A representationalist account is in accordance with the view that minds are Turing machines. But the symbols processed by a Turing ma- chine derive their meaning from the agents that use them to achieve their purposes. Only if the processing of symbolic representations is related to the tacit context within which they become meaningful, does a semantic engine becomes possible.