Mathematics and computability of language : language and information into the 21st century / edited by Bruce E. Nevin, Stephen B. Jonson.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Johnson, Stephen M.

Nevin, Bruce E.

Series:

Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science. Current issues in linguistic theory. Series IV,

Amsterdam studies in the theory and history of linguistic science, Series IV, Current issues in linguistic theory, 0304-0763 ; ; v. 229

Current issues in linguistic theory

The Legacy of Zellig Harris ; v.2

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Linguistics.

Harris, Zellig S. (Zellig Sabbettai), 1909-1992.

Harris, Zellig S.

Physical Description:

xviii, 312 p. : ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : J. Benjamins Pub. Co., c2002.

Summary:

Zellig Harris had a profound influence in formal systems and applied mathematics, in demonstrations of the computability of language, and in informatics. Volume 2 begins with a commentary by André Lentin on Harris's grounding in constructivist, intuitionist mathematics, drawing a parallel between Harris's central insights and those of Gödel and others which were of like import in the foundations of mathematics. An international array of scholars describe further developments and relate this work to that of others. Fernando Pereira argues that Harrisian 'linguistic information' can effect a reunion of linguistics with information theory that has not been considered possible since Chomsky's declaration of irrelevance in 1957. Chapters by Richard Oehrle and by Terence Langendoen develop two novel formal systems with intriguing properties. Chapters by Naomi Sager and Ngo Thanh Nhan, by Aravind Joshi, and by Stephen Johnson describe the history of work on the computability of language and project exciting prospects ahead. Karel van den Eynde and colleagues describe use of distributional methods, refined beyond those of Harris, to develop comprehensive computer dictionaries for several languages. The chapter by Benoît Habert and Pierre Zweigenbaum surveys the field of automatic acquisition of information categories, and that by Richard Kittredge surveys work on text generation. Richard Smaby shows how distributional analysis can even inform design of computer user interfaces.

Contents:

THE LEGACY OF ZELLIG HARRIS II

Editorial page

Title page

LCC data

Contents

Professor Zellig Harris (photo)

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Reflections on references to mathematics in the work of Zellig Harris

Part 1: Mathematics and formal systems

Chapter 1: Formal grammar and information theory: together again?

Chapter 2: Logics for intercalation

Chapter 3: Sequence structure

Part 2: Computability of language

Chapter 4: The computability of strings, transformations, and sublanguage

Chapter 5: Hierarchical structure and sentence description

Chapter 6: The computability of operator grammar

Part 3: Computer applications

Chapter 7: Distributional syntactic analysis and valency. Basic notions, procedures, and applications of the Pronominal Approach

Chapter 8: Contextual acquisition of information categories. What has been done and what can be done automatically?

Chapter 9: Text generation within sublanguages

Chapter 10: A distributional semantics applied to computer user interfaces

Zellig Sabbettai Harris A comprehensive bibliography of his writings, 1932-2002

Name index

Subject index

The Current Issues in Linguistic Theory (CILT) series.

Notes:

"Zellig Sabbettai Harris : a comprehensive bibliography of his writings, 1932-2002", p. [293]-304.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

ISBN:

9786612161599

9781282161597

1282161598

9789027297006

9027297002

OCLC:

70749482