14 December 2022
Multilingual NLP: What is it?
Natural language processing, otherwise known by the acronym NLP, is a type of blend of linguistics and technology, which examines how computers can interact with human language. It is especially interested in the production and analysis of natural human language, and is frequently used for speech recognition and digital assistant tools.
While technologies linked to NLP have continued to develop over the years, it is still far from perfect, and faces extra challenges when having to deal with a variety of languages. Let’s take a look at a couple of issues that multilingual natural language processing has yet to overcome.
Try as we might to avoid it, ambiguity lies at the heart of almost all languages. Texting is perhaps the place where this ambiguity is the most obvious in our daily lives. Think about those times when we receive a message from someone, only to feel that they might be feeling a little irritated with us. In face to face communication, we can use gestures and facial expressions to help us understand each other’s emotions, but with that context removed, it’s a lot harder to understand the true implications of a message. Natural language processing applications will often only have this textual context to rely on, which means it’s easy for things to get a little confused.
New slang is developed all the time – much faster than any program can keep up with. In fact, the whole purpose of slang is to create an insider-only language that breaks free from regular language norms and is difficult for outsiders to understand.
Monolingual natural language processing applications also face the same issues, but they are only compounded when these tools begin to be used in multilingual contexts. It’s for that reason that natural language processing tools should be used in conjunction with human oversight in order to improve the user experience.
Take a look at Alpha CRC’s insights page for more information on how technology can interact with human workforces in the linguistics industry.
