The ability to talk is one of mankind's most important characteristics. One of mankind's most important inventions is writing. Communication, the ability to express thoughts and feelings, is the key to our technical advances. The more technology develops the more our need of communication increases.
Language is sometimes described as grammatical system of vocabulary and rules for how words are combined into sentences. But if we think about how we use language and how often we misunderstand one another then we begin to understand how complex language really is. We do not make interpretations and conclusions from what is said alone, but through shared knowledge, gestures, tone of voice, and context.
Computers are programmed to do work fast and effectively. They are powerful and have a large storing capacity. But can they understand language? The grammar system that we use and which appears quite simple to us is nearly impossible for a computer to process. How is it possible to understand one another at all? Can computers also learn this? Is it possible to put all our knowledge into a computer? Within the field of linguistics called Computational Linguistics, researchers are studying how language is constructed and how computers should be programmed to be able to process language quickly and effectively.
Translation is an important area of language technology. The languages of the world do not have a 1-1 relationship. This means that one word does not always have a corresponding word in another language. Furthermore, words are combined in different ways.
One solution to the problem would be if we all spoke the same language, but this is an absurd idea. The European Union decided that all documents would be translated to all of the languages in the union.
The adaptation and translation of programs and manuals is another area where language technology is useful. It is also becoming common to translate e-mail in order to simplify communication between people. Sometimes a person wants to get information from a database, which is stored in a certain language, although the person speaks another language.
Writing assistance is another area in language technology. When we use a word processor we want to be able to look a word up in a dictionary and see what it means, or look up a synonym, or find out what the word is in another language. We also want to have a spelling check. Words that sound alike can be spelled in different ways, for example "there", "their", "they're". We want the computer not only to check that the word is correctly spelled, but that we have used the right word in the context. Grammar and style controls are other tools of language technology.
Another area where language technology is used is in Speech Technology. Sometimes it is necessary to control a computer using the voice. This requires that the computer understand what the speaker is saying. When the computer "talks" stress, tone, and quality of the voice must be taken into consideration.
Speech technology is used in other areas such as account information at banks, or schedule information at a travel agent. Even within these areas, people are working with translation. Can you imagine speaking Swedish in your telephone and the person at the other end of the line hears Japanese?
Language technology is important when it comes to disabled people. It would enable them to command and control a computer with their voice. The computer could also read texts.
We deal with a large amount of documents. This includes everything from e-mail to manuals and technical documents. To get a quick idea what the document is about we want to have a summary of the text. Sometimes we want to find a certain document that is about a certain subject, and other times we want to find certain facts in a text. In either case, language technology has an important role. One word might not always lead to the right result. Sometimes there is a need to know more details about what the content of the text. As humans, we have quite a bit of knowledge and context dependent interpretations to keep in mind.
Computer assisted education is also an area within language technology. A good way to learn a language is to do exercises with a computer that reacts to errors. This is called Computer Assisted Language Learning.
The interaction between people and computers: computer programs must be adapted to people and user friendly to make it easier to find information and navigate through a program.
This applies to how the program looks on the computer screen and how the documents are structured within the program. Besides having an understanding of computers, a person must have a basic knowledge of how language is structured and how it works to be able to do these things.
Therefore, language must be formalized to a mathematical preciseness, for example, with the help of logic.
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