Natural Language Processing
There have been high hopes for Natural Language Processing. Natural
Language Processing, also known simply as NLP, is part of the broader field of
Artificial Intelligence, the effort towards making machines think. Computers may appear intelligent as they crunch numbers and process information with blazing speed. In truth, computers are nothing but dumb slaves who only understand on or off and are limited to exact instructions. But since the invention of the computer, scientists have been attempting to make computers not only appear intelligent but be intelligent. A truly intelligent computer would not be limited to rigid computer language commands, but instead be able to process and understand the English language. This is the concept behind Natural Language
Processing.
The phases a message would go through during NLP would consist of message, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and intended meaning. (M. A. Fischer,
1987) Syntax is the grammatical structure. Semantics is the literal meaning.
Pragmatics is world knowledge, knowledge of the context, and a model of the sender. When syntax, semantics, and pragmatics are applied, accurate Natural
Language Processing will exist.
Alan Turing predicted of NLP in 1950 (Daniel Crevier, 1994, page 9):
"I believe that in about fifty years' time it will be possible to program computers .... to make them play the imitation game so well that an average interrogator will not have more than 70 per cent chance of making the right identification after five minutes of questioning."
But in 1950, the current computer technology was limited. Because of these limitations, NLP programs of that day focused on exploiting the strengths the computers did have. For example, a program called SYNTHEX tried to determine the meaning of sentences by looking up each word in its encyclopedia. Another early approach was Noam Chomsky's at MIT. He believed that language could be analyzed without any reference to semantics or pragmatics, just by simply looking at the syntax. Both of these techniques did not work. Scientists realized that their Artificial Intelligence programs did not think like people do and since people are much more intelligent than those programs they decided to make their programs think more closely like a person would. So in the late
1950s, scientists shifted from trying to exploit the capabilities of computers to trying to emulate the human brain. (Daniel Crevier, 1994)
Ross Quillian at Carnegie Mellon wanted to try to program the associative aspects of human memory to create better NLP programs. (Daniel
Crevier, 1994) Quillian's idea was to determine the meaning of a word by the words around it. For example, look at these sentences: After the strike, the
They would be under too much stress to produce the intellectual results (i.e. writing code for the software).
From the moment that we are born, we are exposed to means of language and communication. Though technically we can not speak as babies; we give our parents small signals to let them know what we need such as, being hungry or needing a diaper change. Language is proven to be essential and an important part of life. In the essays, Homemade Education, by Malcolm X and Spanish Lessons, by Christine Marin both essays give a strong example of why language is important. In Malcolm’s essay, he explains how when he was prison the power of language completely changed his life. In Marin’s essay she talks about her experience with the English and Spanish language and how both languages opened up new doors for her in her life and
What really is a language and how does it affect the world around us? Language is just a structure of words put together to communicate with one another. When one speaks all they are doing is causing their vocal cords to vibrate to produce different sound waves. This sounds so simple, but there are thousands of languages spoken throughout the world and each language is usually connected to a certain place. When someone travels to a different place where a language is foreign to them it can be life-changing as in The Naked Eye. Language constricts our thoughts and identities with the world around us. I’m arguing that language is as much of a necessity in our world as food or water, it’s the basis on how we get through each and every day.
...elieve that an employer will be more impressed with the abilities someone possesses instead of having a bunch of facts crammed into their brain.
In the memoir The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls writes about her family's struggles with poverty, family dysfunction, and constantly moving. Specifically in this excerpt (pages 96-98), Jeannette’s family moves again from her grandparent’s house to a more desolate one. The house they now live in is described as shabby, poorly built, and dangerous, which none of the kids are happy about. Despite her dad’s reassurance of a future house being built, Jeannette still wants to leave and move back to their ‘home’ in Phoenix, Arizona. Throughout the excerpt, Walls uses figurative language and repetition to portray the big idea of a lack of contentment.
should enable them and see them through the scaring mindset that something major is about to
Grammar and the English language is taught schools across the United States. There are many different students in each classroom and as teachers we need to differentiate our instruction. English language learners; also known as ELL; students tend to struggle with grammar but we help them with learning this through implementing a few techniques. There are two types of ELL students; they are students that are not native to where they are living and students that are bilingual. The students that are bilingual are can range from being fluent to in the process of learning another language. These learners are in the process/know the English language but they have difficulty in often make mechanical errors with their grammar and syntax. The goal of the ELL program is a high intensity language program designed to help students to improve their level of English. The English language is complex and learning it is a long process. ELL students should be taught with strategies such as learning through speaking and listening. ELL teachers work with non-native speakers of the English language to help them develop the language skills as well as social skills. The programs they are going through are grammar conversational English, reading, listening comprehension, writing and vocabulary. Researchers have found the ELL students learn best relating subjects that they are interested in. They can be taught through strategies such as Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP). The U.S department of Education, National Center for Education statistics states that, “The percentage of public school students in the United States who were English language learners (ELL) was higher is 2010-11(10 percent) than in 2002-03(9 percent).”(2013). The st...
enrichment tools, and enrolling them in a large variety of opportunities. The idea is that
...to make sure that grades of the tutors don’t slip as they take on more responsibility and that the tutees grades improve as they get this assistance. This has the potential to significantly improve academics with minimal cost to the school.
Language is an essential thing needed to communicate and to develop the skills one needs to be a complete, whole, intelligent individual. Language is what separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. Here we shall define language and lexicon, evaluate the key features of language, describe the four levels of language structure and processing, and analyze the role of language processing in cognitive psychology.
The Features of Written Language and Speech In English language there are two different ways of actually presenting language. These are written language and speech. These two factors of speech both include many different features between themselves. These features are mostly opposite to each other as they are completely different ways of presenting language. Written language is structured into paragraphs unlike general speech which is hardly thought about before being said and is flowing naturally.
In the past, I have participated in a lot of classes and training dealing with many different topics, but unfortunately, public speaking and/or communications was not one of them. In fact, the last class that I took even relatively close to this one was while I was in the military. In some sense, I guess that this class could be thought of as a good experience, because now I can learn at a college level and be more at ease with getting up in front of a group of people and giving a presentation.
to help themselves. Just going into a meeting with a client and not understanding the steps
Humans can expand their knowledge to adapt the changing environment. To do that they must “learn”. Learning can be simply defined as the acquisition of knowledge or skills through study, experience, or being taught. Although learning is an easy task for most of the people, to acquire new knowledge or skills from data is too hard and complicated for machines. Moreover, the intelligence level of a machine is directly relevant to its learning capability. The study of machine learning tries to deal with this complicated task. In other words, machine learning is the branch of artificial intelligence that tries to find an answer to this question: how to make computer learn?
Word Processing is using a computer to create, edit, and print documents. Of all computer applications, word processing is the most commonly used. To perform word processing, a computer, a special program called a word processor and a printer are required.