Before learning about what is NLP, it is important to understand the fundamentals of human language. The human ability to use language is an impressive display of cognitive skill, enabling us to convey thoughts, feelings, and lived experiences. Language consists of various interconnected elements, such as the structure governing the arrangement of words and phrases, encompassing grammar, syntax, and morphology. It also involves the meaning of words and their combination to convey meaning in sentences, known as semantics.
Additionally, the study of how language is used in context, considering social norms, cultural background, and speaker intent, falls under the field of pragmatics. We have made significant strides in making computers understand and process human language, but it remains a challenging task due to several key factors.
These factors are ambiguity, context and dialects (or accents). Natural language processing, or NLP, helps us address these factors and develop systems that process natural language effectively. Let us learn more.
What is NLP?
Natural language processing is abbreviated as NLP. This field of artificial intelligence is dedicated to the interaction between computers and human (natural) languages. Its primary objective is to assist computers in comprehending, analysing, and producing human language.
The Birth of NLP (A Historical Overview)
The origins of natural language processing can be traced back to the early days of artificial intelligence, where the focus was primarily on machine translation. For instance, the Georgetown-IBM experiment in the 1950s aimed to translate Russian sentences into English. However, it faced limitations due to insufficient computational power and a lack of understanding of language complexity.
The field progressed during the 1960s and 1970s with rule-based systems utilising hand-crafted rules to analyse and generate language. While effective for specific tasks, these systems struggled to cope with the variability and ambiguity of natural language.
A significant change occurred in the 1990s with the emergence of statistical methods in NLP. These statistical models employed probabilistic techniques to learn patterns from large text datasets, resulting in more resilient and adaptable systems. This shift paved the way for advancements in machine translation, text classification, and information retrieval.
In recent years, NLP has been revolutionised by deep learning techniques. Neural networks, particularly recurrent neural networks (RNNs) and transformers, have achieved remarkable success in machine translation, text summarisation, and question-answering. These models can learn intricate language patterns from extensive data, enabling them to perform tasks previously believed to be beyond the capabilities of machines.
Here are some key milestones for NLP:
- Turing Test (1950): Alan Turing proposed a test to determine if a machine could exhibit intelligent behaviour indistinguishable from a human. Although not specifically focused on NLP, it set the stage for research in natural language understanding.
- ELIsA (1966): Joseph Weisenbaum created ELIsA, a program capable of simulating human conversation using pattern matching and substitution. It served as a pioneering example of natural language interaction, albeit with limitations in understanding meaning.
- Statistical Machine Translation (1990s): The development of statistical machine translation models, which employed probabilistic techniques to learn translation patterns from large datasets, marked a significant breakthrough in the field.
- Deep Learning Revolution (2010s): The application of deep learning techniques, such as RNNs and transformers, to NLP tasks led to substantial improvements in performance, particularly in areas like machine translation and text generation.
Core Concepts of NLP
Now that we have covered what is natural language processing, let us learn about the components of NLP.
Tokenisation
In NLP, tokenisation involves dividing a text into individual units known as tokens, which can include words, punctuation marks, or other linguistic elements. This process is crucial as it creates a structured representation of the text for further analysis.
Part-of-Speech Tagging
Part-of-speech tagging assigns grammatical categories, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, to each word in a sentence, providing essential information for understanding the text's syntactic structure and meaning.
Named Entity Recognition
Named entity recognition (NER) identifies named entities in text, such as people, organisations, locations, and dates. This information is valuable for information extraction, question answering, and knowledge graph construction.
Sentiment Analysis
Sentiment analysis involves determining the expressed sentiment in a text, whether it is positive, negative, or neutral. This analysis can be beneficial for understanding public opinion, market trends, and customer feedback.
Machine Translation
Machine translation is translating text from one language to another, presenting a challenging problem due to the complexity of natural language and variations between languages. While recent progress in deep learning has improved machine translation quality, it remains a challenging area of research.
NLP Techniques and Algorithms
We have covered the main concepts of NLP, let us now learn about NLP algorithms and techniques.
Rule-Based Systems
Using rule-based systems was one of the earliest approaches to NLP, relying on manually crafted rules for language analysis and generation. These rules, typically based on linguistic knowledge, can be effective for specific tasks but may need to be more efficient with the variability and ambiguity of natural language.
Statistical Methods
Statistical methods have become fundamental in modern NLP, employing probabilistic techniques to learn patterns from extensive text datasets. Some common statistical methods include:
- N-gram models, which predict the next word in a sequence based on the preceding n words, are straightforward yet effective for tasks like language modelling and speech recognition.
- Hidden Markov models (HMMs), probabilistic models often used for part-of-speech tagging and named entity recognition. These models assume that the underlying state sequence is hidden but can be inferred from the observed sequence.
Machine Learning and Deep Learning
Machine learning and deep learning have had a massive impact on NLP, enabling computers to learn intricate language patterns from large datasets without relying on explicit rules.
- Recurrent neural networks (RNNs): A neural network capable of processing sequential data like text, well-suited for tasks such as machine translation, text summarisation, and question answering.
- Long short-term memory (LSTM) networks: A special type of RNN, can capture long-term dependencies in sequential data and are particularly effective for tasks requiring an understanding of sentence or document context.
- Transformers: A type of neural network architecture, have demonstrated high effectiveness for various NLP tasks, including machine translation, text summarisation, and question answering, and can capture long-range dependencies in text more efficiently than RNNs.
Applications of Natural Language Processing in the Real World
We have covered everything you needed to know about what is NLP in the previous sections, so let us now explore some real-world uses of natural language processing.
Search Engines
Search engines rely on NLP to comprehend user queries and retrieve relevant results. NLP techniques are used for:
- Natural language understanding: Breaking down user queries into their parts and determining the primary intent or subject.
- Semantic search: Comprehending the inherent meaning of the query and aligning it with pertinent documents.
- Information retrieval: Sorting search results according to their relevance to the query and additional considerations.
Chatbots and Virtual Assistants
NLP has made it possible to develop conversational agents like chatbots and virtual assistants that can engage with humans using natural language. These agents are utilised for customer service, information retrieval, and entertainment.
Sentiment Analysis in Social Media
NLP methods can analyse the sentiment expressed in social media posts, offering valuable insights into public opinion on various topics, which can benefit businesses, governments, and researchers.
Machine Translation for Global Communication
NLP has dramatically improved machine translation, facilitating global communication and collaboration by overcoming language barriers, thus promoting international trade and cultural exchange.
Text Summarisation and Information Extraction
By utilising NLP, large amounts of text can be automatically summarised, making it easier to consume information. NLP techniques can also extract key text information, including named entities, relationships, and facts.
Wrapping Up
If you wish to become a data scientist, enrol in Imarticus Learning’s Postgraduate Program in Data Science and Analytics. This data science and data analytics course will teach you essential techniques such as NLP and natural language generation, which will take your career forward in this domain.
This course also offers 100% placement assistance as well as many other benefits such as hands-on projects. Become an expert in data science with this data science course.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is NLP?
Natural Language Processing, or NLP, is a branch of artificial intelligence that concentrates on the communication between computers and human languages. NLP aids computers in comprehending, analysing, and producing human language.
What is the difference between NLP and NLU?
What sets NLP (Natural Language Processing) apart from NLU (Natural Language Understanding) is that NLP encompasses both understanding and generating human language, while NLU specifically focuses on understanding the meaning and intent behind human language.
What are some common applications of NLP?
NLP finds applications in various areas such as chatbots, virtual assistants, machine translation, sentiment analysis, and information retrieval.
What are the challenges in NLP?
Challenges in NLP include ambiguity, understanding context, dialect variations, and the inherent complexity of natural language.
