The central task of future-oriented computational linguistics is the development of cognitive machines which humans can freely speak to in their natural language. This will involve the development of a functional theory of language, an objective method of verification, and a wide range of practical applications. Natural communication requires not only verbal processing, but also non-verbal perception and action. Therefore, the content of this book is organized as a theory of language for the construction of talking robots with a focus on the mechanics of natural language communication in both the listener and the speaker.

The central task of a future-oriented computational linguistics is the development of cognitive machines which humans can freely talk with in their respective natural language. In the long run, this task will ensure the development of a functional theory of language, an objective method of verification, and a wide range of practical applications. Natural communication requires not only verbal processing, but also non-verbal perception and action. Therefore the content of this textbook is organized as a theory of language for the construction of talking robots. The main topic is the mechanism of natural language communication in both the speaker and the hearer. The content is divided into four parts: Theory of Language, Theory of Grammar, Morphology and Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics. The book contains more than 700 exercises for reviewing key ideas and important problems. In the Second Edition, changes are most noticeable in Chapters 22-24, which have been completely rewritten. They present a declarative outline for programming the semantic and pragmatic interpretation of natural language communication. The presentation is now simpler and more comprehensive. It is defined as a formal fragment and includes a new control structure, an analysis of spatio-temporal infer-encing, and an analysis of internal matching based on the notion of a task analysis. Examples and explanations which were contained in the old versions of Chapters 22-24 have been moved to the new Appendix. A schematic summary and a conclusion have been added as well.

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.

This comprehensive reference work provides an overview of the concepts, methodologies, and applications in computational linguistics and natural language processing (NLP). Features contributions by the top researchers in the field, reflecting the work that is driving the discipline forward Includes an introduction to the major theoretical issues in these fields, as well as the central engineering applications that the work has produced Presents the major developments in an accessible way, explaining the close connection between scientific understanding of the computational properties of natural language and the creation of effective language technologies Serves as an invaluable state-of-the-art reference source for computational linguists and software engineers developing NLP applications in industrial research and development labs of software companies

How does human language work? How do we put ideas into words that others can understand? Can linguistics shed light on the way the brain operates? Foundations of Language puts linguistics back at the centre of the search to understand human consciousness. Ray Jackendoff begins by surveying the developments in linguistics over the years since Noam Chomsky's Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. He goes on to propose a radical re-conception of how the brain processes language. This opens up vivid new perspectives on every major aspect of language and communication, including grammar, vocabulary, learning, the origins of human language, and how language relates to the real world. Foundations of Language makes important connections with other disciplines which have been isolated from linguistics for many years. It sets a new agenda for close cooperation between the study of language, mind, the brain, behaviour, and evolution.

As an interdisciplinary field, computational linguistics has its sources in several areas of science, each with its own goals, methods, and historical background. Thereby, it has remained unclear which components fit together and which do not. This suggests three possible approaches to designing a computational linguistics textbook. The first approach proceeds from one's own school of thought, usually determined of study, rather than by a well-informed, delib by chance, such as one's initial place erate choice. The goal is to extend the inherited theoretical framework or method to as many aspects of language analysis as possible. As a consequence, the issue of com pat ibility with other approaches in the field need not be addressed and one's assumptions are questioned at best in connection with 'puzzling problems. ' The second approach takes the viewpoint of an objective observer and aims to survey the field as completely as possible. However, the large number of different schools, methods, and tasks necessitates a subjective selection. Furthermore, the pre sumed neutrality provides no incentive to investigate the compatibility between the elements selected. The third approach aims at solving a comprehensive functional task, with the differ To arrive at the desired solution, suitability ent approaches being ordered relative to it. and compatibility of the different elements adopted must be investigated with regard to the task at hand.

This book provides a systematic study of three foundational issues in the semantics of natural language that have been relatively neglected in the past few decades. focuses on the formal characterization of intensions, the nature of an adequate type system for natural language semantics, and the formal power of the semantic representation language proposes a theory that offers a promising framework for developing a computational semantic system sufficiently expressive to capture the properties of natural language meaning while remaining computationally tractable written by two leading researchers and of interest to students and researchers in formal semantics, computational linguistics, logic, artificial intelligence, and the philosophy of language