Re: Why is NLP such a hard topic?

Rod Davison wrote:

> On Thu, 06 Nov 2003 09:24:17 +0100, Niki Estner wrote:
> 
> Question:  Why is NLP a hard topic?
> Answer: Because natural language is a a rules based system where users
> don't follow the rules.
> 
> Seems odd, but you have to understand that language is a social phenomena.

well, no, according to my rules, it's a social phenomenON. But as you so 
rightly point out, users don't follow the rules :-D

actually, I think that's quite a good example: I could understand what you 
meant no problem at all of course, but a machine programmed with strict 
plural morphology rules would have problems.

-- 
Matthew Purver - matt at purver dot org