Natural language processing, which has much to do with the field of computational linguistics, is usually considered to be a sub-field of artificial intelligence.
NLP, as it is usually called, deals with the interactions between computers and human natural languages. In order to achive this, natural language generation systems are involved, which convert into readable human language, the information stored in computer databases. This system, involves at the same time, text and speech. However, for several reasons, the work carried out in the field of speech processing, belongs now to a separate field.
Strange as it may seem, different companies are paying out big sums of money for the purpose of developing this technology. Take for instance, that the “Redmond-based Natural Language Processing Group” (microsoft), is trying to design a software that analyzes, understands and generates languages that humans use naturally, so that eventually we can address computer as if we were addressing a person.
References:
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Natural language processing. (2009, March 23). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12:07, April 4, 2009, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Natural_language_processing&oldid=279119029
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Natural language processing. Microsoft research site. Retrieved 4th April, 2009 14.40 from http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/groups/nlp/
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Giovanni Battista Varile, Ronald Cole and Antonio Zampolli (1997). “Survey of the State of the Art in Human Language Technology” Published by Cambridge University Press (ISBN 0521592771 9780521592772). Retrieved 2nd March, 2009 from http://books.google.es/books?id=WlHD141lKw4C&printsec=frontcover
