Natural Language Processing with Python

Envoi...

Linguists are sometimes asked how many languages they speak, and have to explain that this field actually concerns the study of abstract structures that are shared by languages, a study which is more profound and elusive than learning to speak as many languages as possible. Similarly, computer scientists are sometimes asked how many programming languages they know, and have to explain that computer science actually concerns the study of data structures and algorithms that can be implemented in any programming language, a study which is more profound and elusive than striving for fluency in as many programming languages as possible.

This book has covered many topics in the field of Natural Language Processing. Most of the examples have used Python and English. However, it would be unfortunate if readers concluded that NLP is about how to write Python programs to manipulate English text, or more broadly, about how to write programs (in any programming language) to manipulate text (in any natural language). Our selection of Python and English was expedient, nothing more. Even our focus on programming itself was only a means to an end: as a way to understand data structures and algorithms for representing and manipulating collections of linguistically annotated text, as a way to build new language technologies to better serve the needs of the information society, and ultimately as a pathway into deeper understanding of the vast riches of human language.

But for the present: happy ...