This course opens with a short review of work done within the field of Natural Language Processing. It proceeds to establish a foundational framework, grounded in theories of knowledge representation and models of computation, through which the computer modeling of language and linguistic processes can be carefully, methodically, examined.
Emphasis is placed on symbolic systems, rather than connectionist systems.
Networks for the representation and processing of language at various levels are discussed in detail. For example, semantic network representations of lexicons and augmented transition network representations of language syntax are presented. Modern grammars are defined. Parsing techniques grounded in these grammars are explained and explored. The interpretation of single phrases and sentences is discussed in the context of the various knowledge representations.