Abstract

Santos 2001

Santos, Diana. "Introdução ao processamento de linguagem natural através das aplicações". In Elisabete Ranchhod (ed.), Tratamento das Línguas por Computador. Uma introdução à linguística computacional e suas aplicações, Lisboa: Caminho, 2001, pp.229-259.

Translation of the title: Introduction to NLP through applications

This is a chapter on applications in a book intended for a wide audience, probably without much knowledge of what NLP is at all about.

I start by claiming that applications are actually the core of NLP, and that considering "applications" as a subcategory of it, along with morphology, parsing or semantics, simply misses the point. NLP would gain in being structured by application domains, like: grammar checking, computer-assisted translation, spoken interfaces, etc.

After dismissing some alternative ways of structuring this overview (e.g., processing of speech vs. written languages; or commercial vs. research systems), I provide a classification of kinds of applications, and then discuss briefly some examples of each, trying to provide illustrative pointers.

The main section (section 4) of this chapter is thus subdivided in:

  1. Text production
  2. Reading and browsing
  3. Translation
  4. Learning and teaching
  5. Informative systems
  6. Interactive systems
  7. Indexing
  8. Data input
  9. Security
  10. Others
I end the paper suggesting that language resources should not be evaluated independently, but with regard to a given application.
Other documents related to Linguateca
Other publications by Diana Santos