The 2005 Milner Lecture
Design of a computational linguistics platform
Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique
(INRIA)
5.15pm Tuesday, 26 April 2005
Reid Concert Hall, Bristo Square, Edinburgh
Linguistics modelling by computer is a tough challenge. Several complex
structures interact, for phonology,
morphology, syntax and ultimately semantics. Relevant tools from
automata theory, lambda calculus and
denotational semantics as well as constraint satisfaction algorithms
give a logical handle on the design of
these interfaces, but statistical methods must be used to curb
overgeneration. The trade-off between
linguistic assistants using the expertise of a human and fully
automated corpus analysers is similar to the one
between proof assistants and automated theorem provers. The lecture will
present recent work on the
design of a computational linguistics platform for the Sanskrit
language based on functional programming
to illustrate these issues.
