Memory-Based Language Processing (Studies in Natural Language Processing)

Memory-basedlanguageprocessing-amachinelearningandproblemsolvingmethodforlanguagetechnology-isbasedontheideathatthedirectreuseofexamplesusinganalogicalreasoningismoresuitedforsolvinglanguageprocessingproblemsthantheapplicationofrulesextractedfromthoseexamples.Thisbookdiscussesthetheoryandpracticeofmemory-basedlanguageprocessing,showingitscomparativestrengthsoveralternativemethodsoflanguagemodelling.Languageiscomplex,withfewgeneralizations,manysub-regularitiesandexceptions,andtheadvantageofmemory-basedlanguageprocessingisthatitdoesnotabstractawayfromthisvaluablelow-frequencyinformation.Byapplyingthemodeltoarangeofbenchmarkproblems,theauthorsshowthatforlinguisticareasrangingfromphonologytosemantics,itproducesexcellentresults.TheyalsodescribeTiMBL,asoftwarepackageformemory-basedlanguageprocessing.Thefirstcomprehensiveoverviewoftheapproach,thisbookwillbeinvaluableforcomputationallinguists,psycholinguistsandlanguageengineers.