computer science

LanguageWare

LanguageWare is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand LanguageWare rather than just read about it. In short: LanguageWare is a natural language processing (NLP) technology developed by IBM, which allows applications to process natural language text. It comprises a set of Java libraries that provide a range of NLP functions: language identification, text segmentation/tokenization, normalization, entity and relationship extraction, and semantic analysis and disambiguation.

Key takeaways

LanguageWare belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect LanguageWare to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of LanguageWare from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

LanguageWare is a natural language processing (NLP) technology developed by IBM, which allows applications to process natural language text. It comprises a set of Java libraries that provide a range of NLP functions: language identification, text segmentation/tokenization, normalization, entity and relationship extraction, and semantic analysis and disambiguation. The analysis engine uses a finite-state machine approach at multiple levels, which aids its performance characteristics while maintaining a reasonably small footprint. The behaviour of the system is driven by a set of configurable lexico-semantic resources which describe the characteristics and domain of the processed language. A default set of resources comes as part of LanguageWare and these describe the native language characteristics, such as morphology, and the basic vocabulary for the language. Supplemental resources have been created that capture additional vocabularies, terminologies, rules and grammars, which may be generic to the language or specific to one or more domains. A set of Eclipse-based customization tooling, LanguageWare Resource Workbench, is available on IBM's alphaWorks site, and allows domain knowledge to be compiled into these resources and thereby incorporated into the analysis process. LanguageWare can be deployed as a set of UIMA-compliant annotators, Eclipse plug-ins or Web Services.

See also Data Discovery and Query Builder Formal language IBM Omnifind Linguistics Semantic Web Semantics Service-oriented architecture Web services UIMA

References

External links IBM LanguageWare Resource Workbench on alphaWorks IBM LanguageWare Miner for Multidimensional Socio-Semantic Networks on alphaWorks JumpStart Infocenter for IBM LanguageWare on IBM.com UIMA Homepage at the Apache Software Foundation UIMA Framework on SourceForge IBM OmniFind Yahoo! Edition (FREE enterprise search engine) Archived 2007-02-17 at the Wayback Machine Semantic Information Systems and Language Engineering Group SemanticDesktop.org

Related Papers Branimir K. Boguraev Annotation-Based Finite State Processing in a Large-Scale NLP Architecture, IBM Research Report, 2004 Alexander Troussov, Mikhail Sogrin, "IBM LanguageWare Ontological Network Miner" Sheila Kinsella, Andreas Harth, Alexander Troussov, Mikhail Sogrin, John Judge, Conor Hayes, John G. Breslin, "Navigating and Annotating Semantically-Enabled Networks of People and Associated Objects" Mikhail Kotelnikov, Alexander Polonsky, Malte Kiesel, Max Völkel, Heiko Haller, Mikhail Sogrin, Pär Lannerö, Brian Davis, "Interactive Semantic Wikis" Sebastian Trüg, Jos van den Oever, Stéphane Laurière, "The Social Semantic Desktop: Nepomuk" Séamus Lawless, Vincent Wade, "Dynamic Content Discovery, Harvesting and Delivery" R. Mack, S. Mukherjea, A. Soffer, N. Uramoto, E. Brown, A. Coden, J. Cooper, A. Inokuchi, B. Iyer, Y. Mass, H. Matsuzawa, and L. V. Subramaniam, "Text analytics for life science using the Unstructured Information Management Architecture" Alex Nevidomsky, "UIMA Framework and Knowledge Discovery at IBM", 4th Text Mining Symposium, Fraunhofer SCAI, 2006

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with LanguageWare

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what LanguageWare claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to LanguageWare before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about LanguageWare ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of LanguageWare

In research: LanguageWare appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses LanguageWare in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: LanguageWare is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Data mining and machine learning software, Java (programming language) libraries, Java development tools, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for LanguageWare outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study LanguageWare in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what LanguageWare means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain LanguageWare out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is LanguageWare in simple terms?

Why does LanguageWare matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study LanguageWare?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on LanguageWare.