Chapter-10-Language-and-Computer

1、Chapter 10 Language and ComputerWhat is computational linguistics?Computational linguistics is a branch of applied linguistics, dealing with computer processing of human language.(1)It includes the analysis of language data so as to establish the order in which learners acquire various grammatical r

2、ules or the frequency of occurrence of some particular item.(2)It includes electronic production of artificial speech and the automatic recognition of human speech.(3)It includes research on automatic translation between natural languages.(4)It also includes text processing and communication between

3、 people and computers.10.1Computer-assisted language learning (CALL)10.1.1CAL / CAI vs. CALLCAI (Computer-assisted instruction) means the use of a computer in a teaching program. CAL (Computer-assisted learning) refers to the use of a computer in teaching and learning and in order to help achieve ed

4、ucational objectives. CAI aims at seeing educational problems on the part of the teacher, whereas CAL emphasizes the use of a computer in both teaching and learning. CALL (Computer-assisted language learning) means the use of a computer in the teaching or learning of a second or foreign language. If

5、 CAI or CAL deals with teaching and learning problems in general, CALL deals with language teaching and learning in particular.10.1.2Phases of CALL development (4 periods)1.During this period, computers were large mainframe machines kept in research institutions.2.Small computers appeared and cost c

6、heaper than before, which made a generation of programs possible.3.The learning was not so much supplied by the language of the text itself as by the cognitive problem-solving techniques and the interaction between students in the group.4.Instead of writing specific programs for language teaching, w

7、ord-processing has adapted to language teaching by enabling students to compose and try our their writings in a non-permanent form.10.1.3Technology1.Customizing, template, and authoring programs.2.Computer networks.3.Compact disk technology4.Digitized sound.10.2Machine translation (MT)10.2.1History

8、of development1.The independent work by MT researchers2.Towards good quality output3.The development of translate tools10.2.2Research methods1.Linguistic approach2.The practical approaches(1)The transfer approach(2)The inter-lingual approach(3)Knowledge-based approach10.2.3MT Quality10.2.4MT and the

9、 Internet10.2.5Spoken language translation10.2.6MT and human translationAt the beginning of the new century, it is apparent that MT and human translation can and will co-exist in relative harmony. Those skills which the human translators can contribute will always be in demand.(1) When translation h

10、as to be of “publishable” quality, both human translation and MT have their roles. MT plays an important part in large scale and rapid translation of boring technical documentation, highly repetitive software localization manuals, and many other situations where the costs of human translation are mu

11、ch higher than the ones of MT. By contrast, the human translators are and will remain unrivalled for non-repetitive linguistically sophisticated texts (e.g. in literature and law), and even for one-off texts in specific highly-specialized technical subjects.(2) For the translation of texts where the

12、 quality of output is much less important, MT is often an ideal solution.(3) For the one-to-one interchange of information, there will probably always be a role for the human translators. But for the translation of personal letters, MT systems are likely to be increasingly used; and, for electronic

13、mail and for the extraction of information from web pages and computer-based information services, MT is the only feasible solution.(4) As for spoken translation, there must surely always be a market for the human translators. But MT systems are opening up new areas where human translation has never

14、 featured: the production of draft versions for authors writing in a foreign language, who need assistance in the translation of information from databases; and no doubt, more such new applications will appear in the future as the global communication networks expand and as the realistic usuality of

15、 MT becomes familiar to a wider public.10.3Corpus linguistics10.3.1Definition1.Corpus (pl. corpora): A collection of linguistic data, either compiled as written texts or as a transcription of recorded speech. The main purpose of a corpus is to verify a hypothesis about language for example, to deter

16、mine how the usage of a particular sound, word, or syntactic construction varies.2.Corpus linguistics: Corpus linguistics deals with the principles and practice of using corpora in language study. A computer corpus is a large body of machine-readable texts.10.3.2Criticisms and the revival of corpus

17、linguistics10.3.3Concordance10.3.4Text encoding and annotation1.It should be possible to remove the annotation from an annotated corpus in order to revert to the raw corpus.2.It should be possible to extract the annotation by themselves from the text.3.The annotation scheme should be based on guidel

18、ines which are available to the end user.4.It should be made clear how and by whom the annotation was carried out.5.The end user should be made aware that the corpus annotation is not infallible, but simply a potentially useful tool.6.Annotation schemes should be based as far as possible on widely agreed and theory-neutral principles.7.No annotation scheme has a priori right to be considered as a standard.10.3.5The roles of corpus data1.Speech re