Case Study: Understanding Natural Language
Case Study: Understanding Natural Language
This chapter focuses on the sort of thinking required to make sense of expressions in a natural language, that is, a language like English or Italian or Swahili that is spoken naturally by people. Section 8.1 explains how language is usually studied in terms of syntax and semantics. Section 8.2 focuses on the noun phrases of English and how they can be used to refer to known individuals and objects. Section 8.3 examines how these noun phrases can be put to work in answering yes/no questions written in English and in adding to what is known using English declarative sentences. To do so, a new feature of Prolog is introduced: dynamic predicates. Section 8.4 briefly discusses how the utility of noun phrases is actually even more extensive.
Keywords: Prolog programming, syntax, semantics, noun phrases, English language, dynamic predicates
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