Computers and Human Language - Softcover

Smith, George W.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195062825 ISBN 13: 9780195062823

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1991

Synopsis

Offering an inquiry into the nature of language from the perspective of computing, Computers and Human Language synthesizes recent research in linguistics, computer science, and experimental psychology as it explores the major computational approaches to language, especially the modeling of processes by which language is comprehended. Among the topics considered are the computationally symbolic basis of language, lexicons as repositories of information, automated text processing, phonology, phototactics, speech synthesis and the persisting challenge of continuous speech, transformational grammars and their successors, linguistic and conceptual approaches to sentence meaning, and discourse coherence and plan-based bridging inferences. The book also explores such up-to-the-minute subjects as neurally-inspired computing, parsing and psychological plausibility, the controversial representation hypothesis, and the ramifications of discourse "focus."
With its clear, engaging style and gradual, systematic exposition, Computers and Human Language makes the fast-moving world of computational linguistics accessible to the non-specialist reader.

About this title

About the Author

George W. Smith is at University of Massachusetts, Boston.

From the Back Cover

Offering an inquiry into the nature of language from the perspective of computing, Computers and Human Language synthesizes recent research in linguistics, computer science, and experimental psychology as it explores the major computational approaches to language. Among the topics considered are the computationally tractable, symbolic basis of language, the mental lexicon as repository of knowledge, the elegantly recursive structure of syntax, and the compositional nature of meanings, together with the segmentation, focus, and hierarchical construction of extended discourse.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1991
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195062825
• ISBN 13: 9780195062823
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 496