Comp. Ling/NLP intro readings?

[NoontimeDreamer]

Hi All,

 

So I'm a sociophonetics student starting to branch out and dabble in other subfields a bit. I was wondering what suggestions of solid intro/overview texts in comp. ling/NLP you might be able to suggest as additions to my summer reading list?

 

Right now I'm working through a tutorial using python and the ntlk corpus/module/package for text processing things. And next on the list is Speech and Language processing (Jurafsky, 2009). What others texts/resources should I make sure not to miss as I'm getting the basics?

 

Cheers and Thanks!

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

Are you just trying to read about comp ling or actually break into the field? I'm starting a comp ling MS at UW this fall. If you're serious about it, I'd suggest learning about formal language theory, automata, calculas-based probability and statistics, discrete math (combinatorials). You use a lot of this knowledge in comp ling. It's probably not necessary to know if you just want to read an intro book on comp ling, but it's definitely necessary to know if you actually want to do comp ling. The Jufarsky book, I've heard, is like the bible of comp ling, so good call on that one. If you're interested in learning more Python and how it applies to comp ling, I'd recommend Natural Language Processing with Python by Bird, Klein and Loper. I'll actually be working on that book over the summer. I'm a C/C++ guy but UW programs mostly in Python so I need to brush up on my skills. And I'd suggest getting familiar with Unix if you aren't already. 

[hoviariel]

Is fluency in Python mandatory in comp ling software? I'm a Java man myself.

I talked to my advisor about this a while back, and what I gathered was that my department preferred was that I would just brush up on linguistic theory and have pre-existing math/comp sci background so that the department would help me fuse them together. Granted my department is more comp for ling research than NLP like Gnome's UW

[Guest Gnome Chomsky]

Is fluency in Python mandatory in comp ling software? I'm a Java man myself.

I talked to my advisor about this a while back, and what I gathered was that my department preferred was that I would just brush up on linguistic theory and have pre-existing math/comp sci background so that the department would help me fuse them together. Granted my department is more comp for ling research than NLP like Gnome's UW

 

I think it's pretty big in comp ling. There are a lot of books out there on Python for NLP. I haven't seen any C for NLP. And it looks like I'll need to be making the transition. UW is a 4-quarter program. The 1st quarter, they let you code with any approved language of your choice, but the 2nd to 4th quarters are all done in Python. I already know a little but I still need a lot of work. I think I'm gonna convert my C codes to Python just to gain some fluency. I'm also gonna read that book I mentioned. 

[NoontimeDreamer]

@Gnome, thanks for the suggestions! There's a good deal of flexibility in the MA program I'm starting in the fall, so I'm just testing the waters now and if I really enjoy it I might try and break into the field. I've got working knowledge of UNIX and Python now, but I'll definitely be spending the next few months improving!

[JD - (0)]

Thank you very much guys. This was very helpful. Though I am not fully comp ling, this will help me in corpus building.