I think nltk in combination with another reference is a great way to learn. You can start out with a small project, have it functional off the ground, then dig

I think nltk in combination with another reference is a great way to learn. You can start out with a small project, have it functional off the ground, then dig deeper. http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-864-advanced-natural-language-processing-fall-2005/lecture-notes/ http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-comput... is excellent as is http://metaoptimize.com/qa/a http://metaoptimize.com/qa/a stackoverflow style site which is active albeit specialized.