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Linguistics 6: Computers and Language

Dr. Will Styler - Spring 2022

Today’s Plan

Introductions

Dr. Will Styler

Instructor, Linguist, Gigantic Nerd

Ben Lang

Graduate IA, Linguist

Hagyeong Shin

Graduate IA, Linguist

Yuri Bukhradze

Undergraduate IA, Linguist

Who are you?

Syllabus and Schedule

http://savethevowels.org/6

Syllabus Stuff which bears repeating

Syllabus Stuff which bears repeating

We’re going to be posting lecture videos on Podcast.ucsd.edu

We’re back in meatspace!

Classroom safety requirements

Pro-Tip: Sincere effort is incredibly important to me

Any questions?

Computers don’t speak our language natively

What is a computer?

Basic Computer Hardware Anatomy

Awkward Metaphor!

Basic Computer Anatomy

These are not always discrete items

iPhone 11

iPhone 11

We’re going to take a broad view of “computer” in this class

How does a computer work?

Every single thing your computer does is math

All of this is done in a very low level type of code

### C++
``` #include using namespace std;
int main() { cout << “Hello, LIGN 6!”; return 0; } ```

Some assembly code

# addition
mov ax, 5   # load number in ax
mov bx, 2   # load number in bx
add ax, bx  # accumulate sum in ax

# subtraction
mov cx, 10
mov dx, 3
sub cx, dx  # accumulate difference in cx

# multiplication - 8 bit source

mov al, 5
mov bl, 10
mul bl # result in ax

# divison - 8 bit source
mov al, 23
mov bl, 4
div bl # quotient in al, remainder in ah

Here’s a detailed look at this in action

Ben Eater’s ‘Comparing C to Machine Language’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOyaJXpAYZQ

So, Computers don’t speak English?

None of this is human language

Human Language is very different

Most human sentences cannot be “translated” for a computer without substantial loss

Computers don’t understand speech

Computers don’t understand the world

There is a vast gulf between computers and human language

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

The field dedicated to the computational processing, analysis, and interaction with human language

Course Plan

What will we cover?

We’re going to focus on interactions with language technology

We’ll look at most fields within natural language processing

We’re going to ask the same four questions each time

We’re going to talk about some problems at a more technical level

We’ll also discuss some basic linguistics

… and we’re gonna try and do that in a single quarter

What won’t we cover?

We’re going to focus on English in this class

We’re going to focus on spoken languages

We’re going to have to stay close to the surface

We’re not going to teach you to code

You won’t leave this class being able to write the next Alexa

Instead, I hope you’ll leave the class with three main understandings

Current NLP Tools suck

“Hey Lowe it’s canary center med tech support just calling to see how your camp experiences calling if you need thing just let me know my phone number or my extension here is 94 it. Is sorry excuse me 49447 again that’s 49447 have a good weekend bye.”

From T.S Eliot’s The Wasteland

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

From T.S Eliot’s The Wasteland

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

“Alexa, what’s my name?”

“Alexa, who am I?”

“Alexa, what do people call me?”

“Alexa, what do my friends call me?”

“Alexa, I’d like to make a purchase”

“Alexa, I’d like to engage in a transaction.”

“Alexa, I’d like to give you currency in exchange for a product.”

Current Virtual Assistants are also amazing

“Alexa, play Rapper’s Delight”

“Alexa, what’s my wife’s name?”

“Alexa, what’s my cat’s name?”

“Hey Siri, how long to work?”

This quarter will focus on that duality: These systems are awful, and amazing

For next time…

Thank you!