What is Natural Language?

Natural Language refers to the language that people use in everyday communication. The languages we use daily, such as Korean, English, Chinese, and Spanish, are all considered natural languages. Unlike artificially created languages, natural languages have evolved and changed naturally over thousands of years. This article will explore the definition, characteristics, and Natural Language Processing (NLP) of natural languages.

Definition of Natural Language

Natural language is the language used by humans for communication. It follows specific rules and grammar, enabling communication between people. Natural language can be broadly categorized into spoken language (spoken language) and written language (written language).

Characteristics of Natural Language

Complexity: Natural language has a complex and multi-layered structure. The same word can have different meanings depending on the context, and sentence structures are very diverse.

Ambiguity: Natural language often involves ambiguity. This means that a single sentence or word can have multiple interpretations. For example, the sentence "I went to the bank" could mean "I went to the bank to withdraw money" or "I went to the bank by the river."

Flexibility: Natural language has the flexibility to constantly add and change new words and expressions. New terms and slang emerge with technological advancement or social change.

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Natural Language Processing is a field of technology that enables computers to understand and process human natural language. As a branch of Artificial Intelligence (AI), it encompasses various tasks such as language understanding, generation, and translation. Key applications of NLP include the following:

Language Translation: Translation services such as Google Translate and Papago utilize NLP technology to provide translation between various languages.

Speech Recognition: Speech recognition systems like Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa use NLP to understand user voice input and provide appropriate responses.

Chatbots: Chatbots designed for customer service or information provision use NLP to comprehend user queries and provide answers.

Sentiment Analysis: This technology analyzes text from social media or review sites to identify sentiment. It enables analysis of consumer opinions or trends.

Conclusion

Natural language is a complex and flexible language used by humans for communication. Natural Language Processing technology allows computers to understand and process this natural language, enabling its application in various areas. The advancement of NLP technology will make communication between humans and computers more natural and efficient.

This article aims to enhance your understanding of natural language and natural language processing. The complexity and allure of natural language are fascinating areas that require continuous research and development.

Constructed Language and Machine Language?

Unlike natural language, constructed language and machine language are languages artificially created for specific purposes.

Constructed Language

A constructed language is a language intentionally created for a specific purpose. It is designed and structured through human intervention, differing from natural languages. Constructed languages come in various types depending on their intended purposes.

Machine Language

Machine language is the language that computers can directly understand and execute. Unlike languages humans comprehend, it consists of binary code (0s and 1s). Machine language is very basic and used to control the operation of computer hardware.