Frequently asked questions about natural language processing courses

Michael A. Covington

Institute for Artificial Intelligence
The University of Georgia

This web page answers frequently asked questions about LING 6570 and LING 8570.

When are the courses offered?
See the syllabi (click on the links above).
LING 6570 is offered once every 2 years, mainly as an elective for linguistics students.
NOTE: Future plans for LING 6570 are unclear.
If you're wanting a beginner's course in text processing, please look at Humanities Computing and Corpus Linguistics courses in the English and Linguistics programs respectively.
LING 8570 is offered every spring as part of the M.S. degree program in Artificial Intelligence.
Which one should I take?
If you know how to program a computer in Prolog, you should take 8570.
If you have never taken a linguistics course, you may need to take LING 2100 either with, or prior to, LING 8570.
If you have not mastered programming in Prolog, you cannot take LING 8570.
Few people will need to take both 6570 and 8570. They do not form a sequence; there is considerable overlap in their content. If you want to take both, take 6570 first.
But I'm good at learning programming languages on my own. Can't I just pick up Prolog along the way during the 8570 course?
I have never seen anyone do this successfully. Prolog is a radically different programming language than any of the others you may know. It is not merely a new notation for the same old ideas; it is a very different way of describing computations.

I can't get the textbook for 8570.
Natural Language Processing for Prolog Programmers, by Covington, is being "printed on demand" by Prentice Hall. It is supplied to the University Bookstore when ordered in sufficient quantities. It may or may not be available from other booksellers.

What computers will we be using?
Your own PC (with appropriate software) and/or the PCs in the Institute for Artificial Intelligence. The Prolog system (SWI Prolog) is freeware and is also available for UNIX.

How good does my English have to be?
Quite good. This is linguistics, not mathematics. Both courses assume native or near-native mastery of English, including the ability to distinguish grammatical from ungrammatical sentences.
This is not like a mathematics or programming course in which imperfect English would not be much of a handicap.

Are the courses hard?
If you have to ask, the answer has to be "yes." :)