Language and Computers - Softcover

Dickinson, Markus; Brew, Chris; Meurers, Detmar

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1405183055 ISBN 13: 9781405183055

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012

Synopsis

Language and Computers introduces students to the fundamentals of how computers are used to represent, process, and organize textual and spoken information. Concepts are grounded in real-world examples familiar to students’ experiences of using language and computers in everyday life.

• A real-world introduction to the fundamentals of how computers process language, written specifically for the undergraduate audience, introducing key concepts from computational linguistics.
• Offers a comprehensive explanation of the problems computers face in handling natural language
• Covers a broad spectrum of language-related applications and issues, including major computer applications involving natural language and the social and ethical implications of these new developments
• The book focuses on real-world examples with which students can identify, using these to explore the technology and how it works
• Features “under-the-hood” sections that give greater detail on selected advanced topics, rendering the book appropriate for more advanced courses, or for independent study by the motivated reader.

About this title

About the Author

Markus Dickinson is Assistant Professor at the Department of Linguistics, Indiana University and currently the director of the Computational Linguistics program. His research focuses on improving linguistic annotation for natural language processing technology and automatically analyzing the language of second language learners.

Chris Brew is a Senior Research Scientist with the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, where he is currently the scientific lead for the c-rater project on automated short answer grading. He has been active in Natural Language Processing for over 20 years, first in the UK, then as Associate Professor of Linguistics and Computer Science at The Ohio State University, where he co-directed the Speech and Language Technologies Laboratory, as well as the Computational Linguistics Program.

Detmar Meurers is Professor of Computational Linguistics and head of the Theoretical Computational Linguistics group at the University of Tübingen. He has a longstanding commitment to teaching Computational Linguistics and Linguistics in a way that combines current technology and research issues with the fundamentals of the field. His research emphasizes the role of linguistic insight and linguistic models in Computational Linguistics. His most recent research adds a focus on theory and applications related to second language acquisition.

From the Back Cover

The widening use of computers has powerfully influenced the way people communicate, search and store information. For the majority of individuals and situations, the primary vehicle for such information is natural language, and text and speech are crucial encoding formats for the information revolution.

This book introduces students to the fundamentals of how computers are used to represent, process, and organize textual and spoken information. It allows students to effectively understand how the computer works and where the problems arise with the involvement of natural language. Self-contained chapters cover the central analytical concepts and provide students with tips on how to effectively integrate this knowledge into their working practice.

The authors ground the concepts and analyses covered in the text in real-world examples familiar to students. Drawing on these examples, the authors teach students how to produce evidence-based analyses and arguments about language. The result is a book that teaches students to generate, justify and argue for valid conclusions about the design, capabilities and behavior of natural language systems.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1405183055
• ISBN 13: 9781405183055
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256