COMPUTER APPLICATIONS OF LINGUISTIC THEORY

1.1. FACT AND FICTION

Natural language vs. computer language, language is the basis of

communication and computer language is not just a different language.

The syntax of both can be modeled on the same types of formal systems.

But in natural language syntax is constrained by semantic ambiguities and

computer language is designed to avoid this ambiguity and sensitivity. So,

theres no formal system capable of enduring a perfect semantic account

for both languages.

The range of computer natural language applications are now easily

available and used in personal home computers allowing PC users to

interact with relational databases leaning on natural language.

1.2. THE LEAP FROM LINGUISTIC THEORY TO PROGRAMS

Linguistic theory vs. computational applications.

Generative linguistics has aimed to characterize the linguistic knowledge

of an idealized speaker-hearer.

Computational linguistics tries to mediate between competence theory

and the particular type of linguistic performance attributable to machines

by turning linguistic theory into algorithms. That is to permit the

simulation of linguistic behavior while obeying the linguistic constrains and

generalizations implied in both linguistic theory and competence

grammars.

The machine does not encode the knowledge that underlies the behavior in

humans. Computer applications need a theoretical base, which can endure

the desired behavior.

Programs of the complexity of natural language understanding systems are

focused on linguistic technology, which is derived from linguistic theory.

The limit between theory and application is in computational linguistics.

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1.3. COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS

It is the branch of artificial intelligence (AI) which is concerned with the

investigation and modeling of a cognitive capacity.

The goal is to identify and characterize the classes of processes and the

types of knowledge, which are implied in the ability to communicate and

assimilate information using natural language.

There are two problems in embedding a linguistic knowledge in a computer

implementation:

1 1. Conversion of a competence grammar to a parser.

2 2. How multiple linguistic knowledge sources can be integrated in the

analysis process.

Computational linguistics relies on insights from a number of disciplines

within both computer science and linguistics. Its major areas of activity are

parsing, language generation, natural language understanding, machine

translation and speech.

1.4. TEXT-TO-SPEECH CONVERSION (speech synthesis)

The best examples of commercially available linguistic technology are found

in the area of speech synthesis and text-to-speech conversion.

Several linguistic theories have contributed to the text-to-speech

conversion:

Speech synthesis: a theory of speech production.

Morphophonemic, phonological and prosodic rules.

The conversion has to be indirect: a text-to-speech device requires a

specification of the correspondences between letters and sounds.

Major advances are dependent on the availability of explicit linguistic rules

for allophonic variation and prosody and efficient implementations of these

in synthesis devices.

1.5. SPEECH RECOGNITION

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 It is the problem of identifying the segments, words or phrases in spoken

utterances. General-purpose patter-matching techniques have made it

possible to recognize an increasing number of isolated words. But

unknown techniques are necessary to recognize ordinary connected

speech.

Projects to recognize a limited vocabulary of isolated words are:

HARPY project connected speech with vocabulary from five different

speakers after training of those speakers.

HEARSAY and HWIM contributed to the study of different control

structures for natural language.

At present, a balanced picture has replaced the view that acoustic signal is

impoverished and that speech recognition is impossible without constant

support from semantics, syntax and pragmatics.

1.6. MACHINE TRANSLATION

It has enjoyed increasing attention and advances as progress in semantic,

syntactic and morphological processing. Also, more powerful computers

have made the dream of automatic translation possible.

The belief that translation was a problem of code-breaking was soon

abandoned as the properties of the linguistic code came to be more

recognized.

1.7. CONCLUSION

String manipulation now includes ambitious attempts at simulation of

complex linguistic behavior. Linguistic science is being reshaped by the

growing understanding of cognitive processes, which flows from joint

together artificial intelligence, psychology and linguistics.

Computer applications of linguistic theory will also improve in quality and

increase in number.