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Is there a good course for standalone Natural Language Processing? I came across MIT OCW’s Advanced NLP - https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-an

Is there a good course for standalone Natural Language Processing? I came across MIT OCW’s Advanced NLP - https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-864-advanced-natural-language-processing-fall-2005/ https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-compu... , but does someone has a similar or a better standalone NLP course in mind? From MIT OCW, Stanford , Coursera, Udacity, et al? I am very much interested. Could be free or paid. Even PDF’s of lecture notes could do. Edit - Found one standalone NLP course by CMU, looks good - http://demo.clab.cs.cmu.edu/NLP/ http://demo.clab.cs.cmu.edu/NLP/

amy12xx 8y ago
Stanford NLP course by Manning and Jurafsky is a go-to for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dt_yh1mf_U&list=PLQiyVNMpDLKnZYBTUOlSI9mi9wAErFtFm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dt_yh1mf_U&list=PLQiyVNMpDL...
- godelmachine 8y ago
  Thanks for this :)
alok-g 8y ago
The following is also good: https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs224u/ https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs224u/ While you asked for a course, checkout my introductory presentation on the subject here (PDF slides available for download): https://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/Session/2014/introduction-to-natural-language-processing-nlp https://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/Session/2014/introduc... An attendee, claiming to have read 1.5 books on NLP, called it the broadest coverage of NLP he had ever seen. Some of the attendees told me that I had inspired them to turn their careers to NLP.
- godelmachine 8y ago
  Hi Alok, Thanks for taking interest in my question and responding :) Your paper sounds very exciting and promising, and I am going to finish reading it over the coming weekend.
- godelmachine 8y ago
  I skimmed through your PDF. It's very exhaustive and all-encompassing. But what really got me excited was that you had included 2 of Steven Pinker's books in your "Suggested References". Few weeks ago, I was going over the Wikipedia entry this book by Steven Pinker - "A Sense of Style", and wondering if it has any implications on linguistics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sense_of_Style https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sense_of_Style So, my question to you is, does "The Sense of Style" bears any NLP-relevant context in it? Thanks for such an awesome PDF :) Can't wait for my day to end!
  - alok-g 8y ago
    Glad that you like it so far. :-) I wish I had recorded the session I gave. It was several times more interesting and engaging than what the slides read on their own. I haven't read this book, but have read a blog by Pinker on the same lines. I just also skimmed through the Wikipedia link you mentioned. The book would not be a recommendation from NLP algorithms perspective. I am sure though that it would be a good book as Pinker is a mind-opening writer. I'll nevertheless give you some deep food for thought relating to languages: Check out slide 14 in my talk, especially the remark on its right side. It is a powerful thought. There is an equilibrium process involved in the shaping of the language over the time, though language must by definition have at least some standardization for it to work, which means it would resist change. What Pinker is saying at the high level is that the official rules of grammar sometimes deviate away from the equilibrium point. For example, technical jargon and acronyms are often easier for the speaker than the listener. A poor handwriting is likely less tiring for the writer than easier for the reader. There would also be deviations which make it harder for both the speaker and the listener. Yet, in both of the cases above, the language would resist change. As writing came into being (keep in mind that we have been talking for a few million years, and writing only for a few thousand, so no comparison!), written material stands for much longer than vibrations in air molecules, or our memories, do. That further slows down language velocity as standardization now sits across time too. We now stand where language is standardizing across the world, and getting frozen in the Internet, there's further velocity reduction involved. (Albeit, newer concepts are adding increasingly faster to the languages...) How do you, in such cases, make the above deviations from the optimum go away? There are some rules of language, grammar, that shouldn't be. They are like legacy code. Pinker is educating us about such rules. He's trying to make style come back to that optimal. Let's take a simple example. Did you know, comma classically sits inside quotes? Here's an example I picked from [1]: "Good morning, Frank," said Hal. Note that the comma after Frank is inside the quotes! Why should it be that way? No wonder putting comma outside is gaining acceptance. :-) There are even weird rules for what happens when multiple paragraphs are to be included inside a single quote. (Hints: Number of opening and closing quotes is not equal in some English dialects under this scenario. Weird, hmmm.) These rules should just go away. It's better to choose the optimals for the language and make those cultural, style, shifts happen in our language. Take care. Good discussion. Feel free to reach out again. And please feel free to refer others to my slides page as you see fit. :-) [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_marks_in_English https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_marks_in_English

amy12xx 8y ago

Stanford NLP course by Manning and Jurafsky is a go-to for me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dt_yh1mf_U&list=PLQiyVNMpDLKnZYBTUOlSI9mi9wAErFtFm https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dt_yh1mf_U&list=PLQiyVNMpDL...

godelmachine 8y ago
Thanks for this :)

alok-g 8y ago

The following is also good: https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs224u/ https://web.stanford.edu/class/cs224u/ While you asked for a course, checkout my introductory presentation on the subject here (PDF slides available for download): https://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/Session/2014/introduction-to-natural-language-processing-nlp https://www.siliconvalley-codecamp.com/Session/2014/introduc... An attendee, claiming to have read 1.5 books on NLP, called it the broadest coverage of NLP he had ever seen. Some of the attendees told me that I had inspired them to turn their careers to NLP.

godelmachine 8y ago
Hi Alok, Thanks for taking interest in my question and responding :) Your paper sounds very exciting and promising, and I am going to finish reading it over the coming weekend.
godelmachine 8y ago
I skimmed through your PDF. It's very exhaustive and all-encompassing. But what really got me excited was that you had included 2 of Steven Pinker's books in your "Suggested References". Few weeks ago, I was going over the Wikipedia entry this book by Steven Pinker - "A Sense of Style", and wondering if it has any implications on linguistics. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sense_of_Style https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sense_of_Style So, my question to you is, does "The Sense of Style" bears any NLP-relevant context in it? Thanks for such an awesome PDF :) Can't wait for my day to end!
- alok-g 8y ago
  Glad that you like it so far. :-) I wish I had recorded the session I gave. It was several times more interesting and engaging than what the slides read on their own. I haven't read this book, but have read a blog by Pinker on the same lines. I just also skimmed through the Wikipedia link you mentioned. The book would not be a recommendation from NLP algorithms perspective. I am sure though that it would be a good book as Pinker is a mind-opening writer. I'll nevertheless give you some deep food for thought relating to languages: Check out slide 14 in my talk, especially the remark on its right side. It is a powerful thought. There is an equilibrium process involved in the shaping of the language over the time, though language must by definition have at least some standardization for it to work, which means it would resist change. What Pinker is saying at the high level is that the official rules of grammar sometimes deviate away from the equilibrium point. For example, technical jargon and acronyms are often easier for the speaker than the listener. A poor handwriting is likely less tiring for the writer than easier for the reader. There would also be deviations which make it harder for both the speaker and the listener. Yet, in both of the cases above, the language would resist change. As writing came into being (keep in mind that we have been talking for a few million years, and writing only for a few thousand, so no comparison!), written material stands for much longer than vibrations in air molecules, or our memories, do. That further slows down language velocity as standardization now sits across time too. We now stand where language is standardizing across the world, and getting frozen in the Internet, there's further velocity reduction involved. (Albeit, newer concepts are adding increasingly faster to the languages...) How do you, in such cases, make the above deviations from the optimum go away? There are some rules of language, grammar, that shouldn't be. They are like legacy code. Pinker is educating us about such rules. He's trying to make style come back to that optimal. Let's take a simple example. Did you know, comma classically sits inside quotes? Here's an example I picked from [1]: "Good morning, Frank," said Hal. Note that the comma after Frank is inside the quotes! Why should it be that way? No wonder putting comma outside is gaining acceptance. :-) There are even weird rules for what happens when multiple paragraphs are to be included inside a single quote. (Hints: Number of opening and closing quotes is not equal in some English dialects under this scenario. Weird, hmmm.) These rules should just go away. It's better to choose the optimals for the language and make those cultural, style, shifts happen in our language. Take care. Good discussion. Feel free to reach out again. And please feel free to refer others to my slides page as you see fit. :-) [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_marks_in_English https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quotation_marks_in_English