Natural Language Relies on Grammar and Meaning
Definition
Natural Language
The language humans use to communicate, such as English, Spanish, or Mandarin.
- It is complex and ambiguous, making it challenging for computers to understand.
- To process natural language, computers need to break it down into smaller components and analyze its structure and meaning.
- Key Terms:
- Noun: A word that represents a person, place, thing, or idea (e.g., "dog," "city," "happiness").
- Verb: A word that describes an action or state (e.g., "run," "is," "think").
- Syntax: The rules that govern the structure of sentences (e.g., word order, punctuation).
- Semantics: The meaning of words and sentences.
Key Structures of Natural Language
- Parts of speech are categories of words that perform specific functions in a sentence.
- The main parts of speech include:
- Nouns: Represent people, places, things, or ideas.
- Verbs: Describe actions or states.
- Adjectives: Modify nouns (e.g., "red," "happy").
- Adverbs: Modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs (e.g., "quickly," "very").
- Pronouns: Replace nouns (e.g., "he," "she," "it").
- Prepositions: Show relationships between nouns (e.g., "in," "on," "under").
- Conjunctions: Connect words or phrases (e.g., "and," "but," "or").
- Interjections: Express emotions (e.g., "wow," "ouch").
- The main parts of speech include:
- "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog."
- Nouns: fox, dog
- Adjectives: quick, brown, lazy
- Verb: jumps
- Preposition: over
- Article: the (a type of determiner)
