Natural Language Computing: An English Generative Grammar in Prolog/Book and Disk

Rating:
Summary: A must for anyone interested in natural language computing
Review: Written by a student of Noam Chomsky, this book introduces the classic approach to natural language processing using Prolog. Prolog is a programming language used for writing programs that model human logic and decision making. It is particalarly well suited for natural language processing. The book assumes very limited computer programming knowledge, and should be especially useful to linguists who want to introduce themselves to natural language computing.

The book begins with an indepth discussion of the old and the new theory of the computer intelligence and artificial intelligence machines. Then it goes on to discusses topics such as, different levels of human language structure, morphological parsers, recursion (affixes on the affixes), regular and irregular morphology, rule governed creativity, top down and bottom up parsing. Practically every linguistic phenomenon discussed is accompanied with an example Prolog program.

This book is a must-have for any student of linguistics wishing to learn how to use the AI features of Prolog to do natural language computing.