Customer Reviews (2)

An excellent overview
Work on Natural Language processing has been going on for at least
thirty years.In the past most natural language processing (NLP)
applications where mainly in the research realm.The rapid
increase in computer processing power and disk storage capacity
have moved NLP from research into the area of applied science.
This gives NLP the feel of a new and vibrant area.Progress is
being made rapidly, but the research literature can be difficult
for someone who has no experience with NLP.Simply learning the
terminology can be time consuming.

This book by Jackson and Moulinier provides an excellent overview
of several sub-areas of NLP applied to natural language text.
Both Jackson and Moulinier have been involved in implementing
NLP applications in a commercial context, so there is a
some concentration on applying NLP in real applications, rather
than artificial contexts like the Message Understand Conference
data set.

I purchased this book for its coverage of Information Extraction.
Along with this book I read a number of papers from the research
literature.One paper I found particularly interesting was
a paper on the FASTUS NLP system developed by researchers at
SRI.I was very happy to see that FASTUS and finite automata
approaches were covered in more detail in this book.

For my purposes I would have liked a book that moved from
an overview of various NLP applications to more implementation
detail.For example, while I think that I understand
push down automata from working on parsers for compilers,
I don't fully understand them in the NLP context.This book
did not go into enough detail to make this clear.

I cannot really offer this lack of detail as a criticism
since I don't believe that it was the authors intention to
provide this level of detail.Their objective is to provide
a detailed overview and I think that they succeeded in doing
this.A book that provided this overview with
details on implementation would be much longer, perhaps the
size of Manning and Schutze's excellent book "Foundations of
Natural Language Processing" (Manning and Schutze provide
a great deal of detail, but they do not cover information
extraction).

Excellent
I recommend this very highly.The words "online applications" in the title suggest that this book is about NLP for websites, but it's much more general than that; certainly any of the technologies discussed in it could in fact be implemented on a website, but "online applications" should be interpreted as meaning something like "applications that are made possible or commercially viable by the availability of large bodies of documents over the Internet."

The focus of the book is on technologies with commercial applications, and that aspect of the topics discussed in the book is addressed clearly and well.However, there's also plenty in the book that will be of interest to a researcher, especially one looking for an overview of a topic.In fact, the book reads much like a series of well-written review articles.

The first chapter of the book discusses some of the general issues and challenges in natural language processing, on a level
that should be accessible to pretty much anyone.(Actually, one of the really outstanding features of this book is its overall readability.)Subsequent chapters focus on information retrieval, information extraction, and text categorization.The final chapter has shorter sections on other topics, including summarization and named entity recognition.

All chapters of the book are characterized by high readability, clear explanations of algorithms (and I say that as someone who struggles with ANY algorithm), and good explanations of the relevant evaluation metrics.

This book would be a good starting point for anyone; if you're not a beginner in natural language processing, you'll still find much that's useful in this book. ... Read more

Product Description
Beyond Methods introduces teachers to the research of second language acquisition as it applies to the classroom and offers a theoretical basis for making decisions about such things as methods, syllabus design and assessment. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Excellent Selection of Essays
This book covers a variety of ELL topics.Each chapter presents information which is research based and immediately applicable to the classroom.I have used it constantly since being introduced to it four years ago.
Topics include syntactic theory, pragmatics, reading research theory and assesment.It is edited by the outstanding researcher Bardovi-Harlig.
This is an excellent book for TESOL grad students, ESL/EFL teachers who wish to expand their knowledge and those interested in becoming familiar with the jargon of the profession. ... Read more

Product Description
JR is a language for concurrent programming. It is an imperative language that provides explicit mechanisms for concurrency, communication, and synchronization. JR is an extension of the Java programming language with additional concurrency mechanisms based on those in the SR (Synchronizing Resources) programming language. It is suitable for writing programs for both shared- and distributed-memory applications and machines. The JR implementation executes on UNIX-based systems (Linux, Mac OS X, and Solaris) and Windows-based systems. It is available free from the JR webpage.The JR Programming Language: Concurrent Programming in an Extended Java, an advanced-level text book, describes the JR programming language and illustrates how it can be used to write concurrent programs for a variety of applications. This text presents numerous small and large example programs. The source code for all programming examples and the given parts of all programming exercises are available on the JR webpage. Dr. Ronald A. Olsson and Dr. Aaron W. Keen, the authors of this text, are the designers and implementors of JR.The JR Programming Language: Concurrent Programming in an Extended Java is designed for upper-level undergraduate and graduate-level students in computer science. This book is also suitable for a professional audience, composed of researchers and practitioners in industry. ... Read more

Product Description
The combined study of logic and language goes back at least as far as the Middle Ages. In the last twenty-five years it has gained momentum with the formulation of Montague semantics and Generative Syntax, and the subsequent diversification of research programs.The Handbook of Logic and Language is the first comprehensive survey of the field. The twenty chapters show both sides of the interaction between logic and language: how logical systems are designed and modified in response to linguistic needs, and how mathematical theory arises out of this process and affects subsequent linguistic theory.Contributors: N. Asher, D. Beaver, W. Buszkowski, D. de Jongh, J. E. Fenstad, J. Groenendijk, H. Hendriks, J. Higginbotham, J. Hintikka, T. M. V. Janssen, H. Kamp, E. J. Keenan, J. T. Lønning, E. Martin, M. J. Moortgat, L. S. Moss, R. Muskens, D. Osherson, B. H. Partee, F. J. Pelletier, W. C. Rounds, G. Sandu, J. Seligman, M. Steedman, M. Stokhof, R. H. Thomason, R. Turner, J. van Benthem, J. van Eijck, A. Visser, D. Westerståhl ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A must-have compendium
The title of this book might be slightly misleading, as it suggests the book covers topics both in linguistics and logic. This isn't so, as the introduction to the book explains. The title is a collection of introductory articles (~80 pages each) for a number of topics which are located on the linguistic/logical interface. Therefore, you will find here a selection of important topics from that area: an introduction to categorial type logics, Montague grammar, type theory as applied in linguistics, situation theory, game-theoretical semantics for languages and so on.

The book is a quite exhaustive compendium - no doubt, it is written from a specific viewpoint, so don't expect any articles on contextualism, but it does a really good job of sketching the field as it looked like 12 years ago. This doesn't mean the material is no longer current - on the contrary, most of the mentioned approaches are actively being developed and the Handbook still provides a worthwhile introduction.

A real advantage of this handbook is the choice of authors. Many of the authors are either the creators or very active developers of theories they write about, so their take on the described area is as representative as it can get. The editors did a really good job of putting together a team of authors that created over 1000 pages of quality material. While the Handbook carries a hefty price tag, the material is most certainly worth it. For any person working actively in the field or even for the more specialized graduate students, this is certainly a must-have. ... Read more

Product Description
This introduction to research methods is intended to help readers understand and critique research in language learning. It presents a balanced and objective view of a range of methods--including formal experiments, introspective methods (including diaries, logs, journals, and stimulated recall), interaction and transcript analysis, ethnography, and case studies. Other topics covered are elicitation techniques, program evaluation, and action research. The book is highly accessible and does not assume specialist or technical knowledge. Research Methods in Language Learning will be of interest to students of applied linguistics and educational researchers, in addition to classroom teachers and teachers in training. After reading the book and completing the tasks and exercises included in each chapter, readers should be able to understand and critique published studies in the field of language learning. They should also have acquired sufficient skills and knowledge to formulate research questions, collect relevant data relating to the questions, analyze and interpret the data, and report the results to others.Throughout the book, theoretical issues are drawn from published studies and reports. The book also emphasizes the professional and practical value to language teachers of reading published research, as well as initiating their own research. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A Student-friendly Book
A straight-forward book about research in the TESOL (and SLA) field. Not overwhelming at all.

Very useful for EFL / ESL teachers
A very useful book, with detailed information about materials design as a whole and lots of hints for those who aren't familiar with it. Highly recommended for EFL / ESL teachers.

A must have for any Applyed Linguistic
Great book! It's a great source for researchers! It's worth every penny! ... Read more

Product Description
This classic book combines landmark studies from key theorists with practical classroom examples in language development. Current and future teachers are given step-by-step guidance regarding the theories behind language development and inquiry techniques for understanding and investigating links between language and literacy in the classroom. Upon completing the book, readers will have the ability to test theories by observing and documenting language in their classrooms.Learning How to Research Language in Your Classroom; Historical Perspectives and Landmark Studies; Talk in Schools; Sociocultural and Personal Perspectives.For current and future teachers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A essential tool for teachers.
This is a book designed to take teachers into the domains of linguists and anthropologists. A series of essays, this volumeprovides a compilation ofinformation garnered by researchers in these fields. The realm of thisreader examines howlanguage is developed in children and changes overtime, and how we use itto communicate and learn. The text is organizedinto three parts: Historical Perspectives and Landmark Studies, Talk inSchools, and Sociocultural and Personal Perspectives. This book is amustfor teachers. ... Read more

Product Description
"An Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Early Indo-European Languages" is intended to supply the reader with what Oswald Szemerenyi has termed the "basic equipment" for any in-depth study of Indo-European: namely, some knowledge of Gothic, Latin, Ancient Greek, Old Church Slavic, Sanskrit, and Hittite. The first chapter provides an introduction to synchronic and diachronic terminology and method as well as a basic outline of reconstructed Proto-Indo-European phonology and morphology, along with some basic syntax, such as the function of cases, tenses, and moods. Completing this chapter are exercises on comparative method and reconstruction, with answers to the exercises provided in the Key to the chapter.

The following seven chapters present the phonological and morphological history of the changes (in their chronological sequence) from Proto-Indo-European into the earliest attested languages in the major Indo-European families: Gothic from the Germanic family; Latin from the Italic and later Romance families; Ancient Greek; Old Irish from the Celtic family; Old Church Slavic from the Slavic family; Sanskrit from the Indo-Iranian family; and Hittite from the Anatolian family of Indo-European languages. In each of these chapters the phonological and morphological history of each language is followed by a glossed and grammatically exegeted text in the language. The text is in turn accompanied by exercises on the language, with all answers given.

The book presupposes minimal knowledge of linguistic theory, the bases of which are presented in the first chapter. The book is, however, intended for linguists as well as historians, anthropologists, and others who, while not conversant with the data, may yet be interested in pursuing Indo-European studies. An underlying premise of the book is the belief that Indo-European studies have for some time remained a closed book for many gifted scholars--linguistic and otherwise--who, with an introduction to the subject, might be able to make their own contribution to the field. The book is envisioned not only as an undergraduate- or graduate-level university text, but also as a reference work for those scholars already participating in the discipline. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A Scholarly Work
The book is not suitable for absolute beginners as blurbed.Thick and large,it seems more like a reference book for those already well established in both linguistic and Indo-European studies terms.In order to approach this scholarly work,three introductory textbooks may be recommended as a prerequisite,to be read preferably in the order as follows: 1) Understanding Phonology by C.Gussenhoven and H.Jacobs;2)Historical Linguistics by L.Campbell;and 3)Indo-European Language and Culture by B.W.Fortson.The Three books are reasonably easy for understanding at the abosolute beginners'level and may be covered in one semester or a little longer.To be a qulified Indo-Europeanist,you have to be a man or a woman of high intelligence plus hardworking to spanthe traditional discipline and the most modern linguistic ideas so that a breakthrough may be achieved,with,however,little money future.I give the book four stars for its scholarship,not for its approachability for beginners.Also,please note that the book is selective in content,not including the Lithuanian,Avestan,and Tocharian languages,for example. ... Read more

Product Description
A complete pocket dictionary of American Sign Language

Over 4,500 fully illustrated, up-to-date signs

From basic hand shapes to fully illustrated and described signs, Random House Webster’s Concise American Sign Language Dictionary offers a comprehensive and up-to-date treasury of signs. Whether you are a novice seeking “survival signs” for basic communication or an experienced user fluent in ASL and looking to enlarge your vocabulary, you cannot find a more complete, easy-to-use sign language dictionary.

This authoritative reference includes:

• Over 4,500 signs — more than other ASL pocket dictionaries
• Detailed full-torso illustrations
• Precise, easy-to-follow instructions for performing each sign
• Signs for new and technical terms
• Hints for remembering signs
• And much more ... Read more

Customer Reviews (24)

wonderful
i haven't any regrets, arrive on time thanks again amazon you are a life saver

Great but not complete
I got this gook to replace my hardbound oversize encyclopedia... It was a good swap.It has about 70% of the terms I want to look up so it is a fairly good book.Most of the words I can't find are obscure, or technical, so I end up looking them up online on one of the video dictionaries...

I like that the book is small as well..

Good for general use.
This dictionary has a good concise introduction and lots of general and slang terms used.However, it would be very hard for people to read with even slight visual problems since the print is so tiny.The words in bold and descriptions of terms are good, but some are a little difficult for people to understand without any background in sign language.I would recommend this book for those who just need a quick reference to most words in general use because it is light and therefore easy to carry around, but have another book with larger print for sight impaired people.

ASL dictionary
Good quick reference. I have several different dictionaries and I find something I like in each of them. This is more complete than some others.

ASL
This is an amazing book with great illustrations. I am learning so much from it my ASL vocabulary has tripled in the last couple of weeks. ... Read more

Product Description
In his Superior Person's Book of Words and its two sequels, the incorrigible Peter Bowler did his best to spread confusion throughout the English-speaking world by encouraging his trusting readers to use obscure, sometimes preposterous, words for no other purpose than to impress (or conveniently befuddle) their peers. But he recently experienced a "Road to Damascus" conversion. Confronted by the damage being inflicted on his beloved Mother Tongue by the pretentious, euphemistic, obfuscatory, and self-aggrandizing cant now running amok in our military, corporate, and academic arenas, he is mounting a one-man campaign to return us to sanity.

The Superior Person's Field Guide is a call for the return to simple, straightforward words that say what they mean and mean what they say. Most of us know that "downsizing" means that you're about to be fired, but have you ever heard its business-speak cousins "offshoreable" or "cash-flow episode"?

With his customary wit and clear-sightedness, Bowler cuts a swath through the thickets of popular jargon, casting daylight on such linguistic deformities as "interrogate with prejudice" (that is, torture) and "unforeseen geological event" (a mining disaster). Impatient with euphemism, he examines ugly specimens forced into bloom in the interests of political correctness "waitperson," "developmentally challenged" designed to help the squeamish avoid direct confrontation with the simple facts of sex and disability. Here are circumlocutions that make the disagreeable seem agreeable, the unacceptable acceptable, and here is Peter Bowler, as always, trying to set the record, and the English language, straight. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The Superior Person's Field Guide to Deceitful, Deceptive and Downright Dangerous Language
This should be required reading for anyone who writes or reads resumes, especiallt page 77. Management has many words and phrases that are not defined and not even concepts but rather they are the tinklings of Pavlov's bells.

Not meant solely to amuse the reader
Unlike the previous three books in this David R. Godine series, The Superior Person's Field Guide to Deceitful, Deceptive & Downright Dangerous Language is not meant solely to amuse the reader. In today's modern era when words are carefully chosen to soften the severity of what they represent, such as "extraordinary rendition" for flying prisoners to faraway countries where they can be tortured, or "transit pouch" to induce more complacency with regard to human casualties than "body bag" would, there is a greater need than ever to remain alert to insidious verbal trickery. In an era when "peace" means "war" (i.e. "pacify" means "invade and subjugate by force of arms") and "life" means "death" (as in "life insurance"), George Orwell's warnings against the misuse of language in his dystopian classic 1984 are perilously close to coming true. Of course, plenty of less deadly serious entries such as "squirrel" for psychiatrist (because they "feed off nuts") are also present for comedic relief. Perhaps the most eye-catching entry is the long list of deceptive terms used in real estate, with accompanying translations: "leafy neighborhood" means "forest fire area", "price slashed" means "was way overpriced to begin with", and "starter" or "investment" means "a normal person would not want to live here". Highly recommended.

A worthy companion to Fowler and Follett
The older Fowler, that is: not the new abomination bearing the name. Mr Bowler's 'Superior Person's' guides are delightful, and this one does not disappoint. Here we have an illuminating insight into the abuses and misuses of the language, most specially needed in this interminable election year. ... Read more

Product Description
Your complete guide to a higher score on the *AP English Language and Composition exam

Why CliffsAP Guides?

Go with the name you know and trust

Get the information you need--fast!

Written by test prep specialists

About the contents:

Part I: Introduction
* Review of the format and scoring of the recent exam


Part II: Analysis of Exam Areas
* Description of the multiple-choice section and effective test-taking techniques
* Overview of the essay section and strategies for success


Part III: Diagnostic Mini-Test

Part IV: Past AP English Language Essays

Part V: Glossary of Important Terms for the Exam

Part VI: 6 Practice Tests
* 6 full-length practice tests followed by answers and explanations


Part VII: Suggested Reading List

*AP is a registered trademark of the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product.

AP Test Prep Essentials from the Experts at CliffsNotes? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Awesome!
I had to buy this for my AP class and its a great help for my assignments!

Okay
It has a lot of good practice tests and prompts, but there's too little on effective strategies. If you like the saturation approach, this is good, but if you're looking to refine your skills and find advice on how to get top points, don't choose this book.

never received
i ordered this book in february, never received it, and would like a refund charged back to my credit card

Perfect!
This book has to be the most concise, straightforward review out there. I was a freshman when I took AP English online, and I know that without this book, I would not have gotten a 5 on the AP exam! The sample tests are realistic and great preparation for the actual exam. Simply put...the creators of this book have realized that AP review does not need to be lengthy or intimidating; it needs to be effective.

I strongly, strongly recommend CiffsAP for English Language and Composition! No other brand does it better!

A.P. English Language & Composition Practice Text
This reasonably priced text gives useful test-taking strategies, focused reviews of question types, and 6 full-length practice exams with sample responses and critique of those responses.I find it a very good supplement to regular classroom activities. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

atlas of mistakes
amazing amount of silly mistakes: improper translations of simple and unambigous words, sakhalin is called a peninsula just a few pages after a map which clearly shows that it is an island, etc.
frustrating

For gereral audiences, not for specialists
This is a "coffee-table" book, not a scholarly treatise, and it should be reviewed in that context. It does not include a tremendous amount of information about any one language or group of languages, but it does have entertaining snippets and sidebars that may whet the reader's appetite and encourage further reading of more advanced material. I agree that most of the illustrations are of little value, but the outline maps could be useful to readers who know little about the topic. Those who are looking for well-referenced, detailed accounts of the comparative features of many important languages should consult "The World's Chief Languages", edited by one of the authors of this book (Comrie). On the other hand, if you want to impress someone by using the word "ergative" in a sentence, this book will help you understand what that means, but you will need to look elsewhere to get more details. I understand that a revised edition is due out in April 2003, and hopefully some improvements have been made.

An Elementary School Reference Book
I was really looking forward to seeing this book (my sister ordered it for me for Christmas as I have no credit card), but I was very disappointed in the cheesy kiddie graphics of the maps and in the irrelevant space-filling color photos, most of which have little to do with any serious consideration of the topic at hand.The text is also filled with grammatical errors--very disappointing considering its theme.I guess I will have to keep on referring to my old black and white photocopied maps and articles from the Brittanica which, though sometimes dated, are the best resource I have out here in rural Korea.I am very disappointed in Mister Comrie who I know is a very reputable scholar of language universals and linguistic typology.

Full Of Mistakes
At first sight, »The Atlas Of Languages« seems like a very interesting and highly educating book. But as soon as I started to read it, I encountered mistake after mistake. Not only are the maps inaccurate and rather badly done, there are also lots of factual errors.

In other words, this book is yet another of way too many sad examples of... compromises between layout and `popular science'.

The only reason I keep this book in my bookcase is for reference purposes. And even those, I would always have to doubt about their credibilty!

Nice maps, some factual errors, useless pictures
Although this book makes interesting reading for almost anyone interested in languages and their interrelationships, I was upset by some errors I noticed.In the section devoted to South America one reads that countriesof that part of the world are not linguistic homogeneous.Since more than99.5 % of the inhabitants of Brazil (the most populous country of theregion) have Portuguese as their native language, and more than 99 % ofArgentineans (the second most populous country) speak Spanish, thatstatement is simply not true.It seems the authors simply looked at someSouth American countries and then generalized the findings to all others.In the section devoted to Africa one finds a picture that should portrait aclassroom at a fundamental school in a French speaking country.Thesentences on the blackboard are written in Portuguese!I could findthese errors easily since I am Brazilian and speak Portuguese.I wonderhow many more I simply accepted as truths. By the way, that picture couldsimply have been omitted since, like most of the other pictures of thisbook, it is non-informative and superfluous. ... Read more

Product Description
Planned as a companion volume to Writing Latin by Richard Ashdowne and James Morwood, this brand new guide to writing Greek will be useful both in the upper forms of schools and for those starting Greek prose composition at university. Part 1 deals with the constituent elements of the simple sentence, and in Part 2 all major constructions are covered, each with thorough explanations and clear examples. Each chapter has either two or three exercises of practice sentences, further supplemented throughout Part 2 by passages for continuous composition. 100 important irregular verbs with their principal parts are listed at the back of the book, and there is a complete vocabulary for all the exercises, a useful learning and revision resource in itself. ... Read more

Product Description
Comprehensive information on a career in foreign languages will provide readers with everything they need to make an informed career choice

They’ll find out what life is like on the job, what to expect in terms of compensation, training requirements and places to go for more information.

Highly focused content allows readers an in-depth introduction to this specialized field. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

I expected more...
Nothing important was written. I do not recommend this book. You can find a better one.

Fantastico!
I used this book for a paper on foreign language careers and it provided me with absolutely everything I needed to know.The explanations about what you need to be in that field of study and what kind of things you have to put up with were helpful.I would recommend this book for people who want to learn all the pro's and con's about a career in foreign language.It is a straight forward and factful resource. ... Read more

Product Description
According to the American Sign Language Institute, American Sign Language is the fourth most used language in the United States.Since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, a new era of communication between hearing and deaf communities has formed, and education systems from grade schools through university level have offered classes on signing.This comprehensive guide to using and understanding American Sign Languageintended for both the hearing impaired, their friends and families, and the millions who have always wanted to know how to do itincludes simple instruction on the alphabet, the hand symbols, what to do in cases of miscommunication, and listings of institutes and courses, as well as clear line drawings throughout. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Learning Sign Language
I bought this book for my daughter, who is eager to learn sign language. It's a good book and is very informational. It's easy to read, and anyone who picks it up will be able to learn something. It has the alphabet first, then phrases. This book is a good tool, and would probably be a complimentary book to another sign language book.

Not As Bad As Reported
I have read the reviews on this book and they are all very low...too low.I am a teacher of ASL, have taught Deaf children for 10 years, have a Deaf foster son, have my masters in Deaf Education, etc.Needless to say I am in the Deaf community.I have found this book very helpful for my students and was looking to buy it for my sister when I saw the poor reviews.

I find the information on Deaf culture, history, etc. easy to read and right on.Having said that, the pictures are not very good.I find that ASL dictionaries are often wrong due to regional variations, ASL changes across time (like all languages do...think about it, 20 years ago no one knew what the word Internet would mean, but now...), and it is VERY hard to make something that is 3D understandable on something that is 2D.Therefore I would tell all people who are trying to buy an ASL dictionary to really think twice.DVDs, VHS and online dictionaries where you can see the movement of the sign are a MUCH better way to go.Dictionaries make for good reminders and if you are using this book to remind you how to sign something, it does a good job with the limited vocabulary it includes.

This book, however is not trying to con you into believing it is a dictionary.You know this but how much writing it has compared to pictures.As a textbook I find it great!I really love it.The only reason I gave it 4 stars is because it does have a lot of line drawings that are not the best.I gave it a 4 for all of those poor people who are thinking they can do the impossible by learning to sign by reading a book.ASL just doesn't work that way.

complete disappointment
I found the history of sign language and culture to be ok but beyond that the book was terrible. As a parent of a deaf child and trying to learn ASL I found nothing useful at all to help me learn to sign and speak the language which will become my child's. I was sorely disappointed that only a few paragraphs were available on the actual grammar of ASL.

As a beginner to ASL it was discouraging. I finished the book with less enthusiasm about learning it then when I had started and I am now unsure whether I would even want my child to be involved in the deaf culture and community since the main feeling I got was that deaf people are unaccepting to anyone who is not deaf. I got the impression that even trying to learn ASL was a stupid idea and I would never be good at it becuase I am hearing.

Only good for the small bits on Deaf Culture.
The illustrations are poorly drawn, and often don't even match the descriptions (when it says to use an "s" shape, it shows an "a" shaped hand).

Page 185 shows the sign for "Day" over the word and description for "Second" and "Second" where "Day" should be. On page 202 the illustration for "white" (Which doesn't look like the sign "White" at all even if it was in the right place) is over both the words "white" and "brown".

Some of the alphabet is wrong. The sign for "P" for example, has the tip of the thumb touching the tip of the middle finger (similar to what you would see in the sign for "tea"). It is ironic considering a few of the author's short rants on the mistakes of others (her husband signing "hamburger" instead of "wife", once, or a common mistake between the signs "work" and, well, as the author puts it "making out"), and using words like "clumsiness" to describe their signing. If they were meant to be jokes, they were poorly written. They came off as put downs.

This book be discouraging to a new signer, who needs the confidence to go out there and use what he's learned, not to feel the need to constantly apologize for not being fluent. It's intimidating enough as it is.

Complete Idiot, indeed
Well, the book's not all bad . . .For example, the attempt to describe Deaf culture is successful on a very basic level, and the illustrations are attractive, if not particularly useful.That, however, is the mainproblem- the uselessness of the illustrations.It's as if a textbook onFrench wrote "gkhukyf" instead of "bonjour"!There'salso relatively little on grammar, other than an acknowledgement that thereis such a thing as ASL grammar (which is a good first step but by no meansthe last.Try A Basic Course in American Sign Language by Humphries,Padden, and O'Rourke.And definitely practice with native signers! ... Read more

Product Description

Steven Roger Fischer charts the history of language from the time of Homo erectus to the nineteenth century, analyzing the emergence of linguistics as a science and the development of language as a written form. He also investigates the rise of pidgin, jargon, slang, and dialectology, as well as literature and literacy’s relationship to language. Finally, he demonstrates the effects of the media on language today.

Customer Reviews (3)

History of Language - a populist linguist's view
I rank Fischer with Pinkner and Crystal as one of those gifted writers whicn can make an onerous topic understandable by anyone.

I was particularly interested in the 2nd chapter, on the development of language into humans and its comparison with the communication abilities of other animals and in particular our close cousins the apes.

The rest of the book gives a clear, succinct and comprehensible overview of the field of linguistics.

A great read for anyone with a general interest in linguistics!

Room for improvement, but still a good read
The history of language is a fascinating thing.It's a tough thing to trace in some cultures where writing wasn't developed, and where writing was developed we can only guess what it sounded like before audio recording equipment was developed.This book give a good history of all we know about language starting from first principles of where language developed and how it works in lower animals.

The evolution of European languages is what I was most interested in, and I'm pleased with the depth that Fischer goes into.Prose is a difficult medium to use to get across the spread of languages though, and I think that better use of diagrams and maps would have been in order.(Ideally, an animation would be the only way to truly explain it.)

The only other problem I had with this book was the chapter about the history of the study of linguistics, which I didn't find terribly interesting, and I skipped to the end of that part.

Still a good read though.

Bought it for my wife - ended up reading it myself!
This book gives a clear, concise, and riveting explanation of the development of language and evolution of languages. Fischer manages to write a treatise that is both scholarly and popular at the same time. The only thing I miss is a chapter on popoualtion movement and languages that exist on the fringes - like the Tierra del Fuego languages. ... Read more

Product Description
This book explains how to build Natural Language Generation (NLG) systems--computer software systems that automatically generate understandable texts in English or other human languages.NLG systems use knowledge about language and the application domain to automatically produce documents, reports, explanations, help messages, and other kinds of texts. The book covers the algorithms and representations needed to perform the core tasks of document planning, microplanning, and surface realization, using a case study to show how these components fit together. It is essential reading for researchers interested in NLP, AI, and HCI; and for developers interested in advanced document-creation technology. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A worthy introduction to NLG (natural language generation)
Summary: Reiter and Dale provide a useful introduction to NLG.

Review: This book is probably the first of its kind. Although there has been considerable work in natural language summarization, research in producingnatural language is in its infancy. The authors draw upon actual NLGsystems to illustrate the techinical issues involved. They are careful topoint out that NLG may not be the best solution for the reader's practicalproblems. For instance, human writers might produce better text, ormail-merge programs might do the job (albeit with lower quality) at asignificantly lower price. A shortcoming -- perhaps a necessary one -- isthat the authors hesitate to describe research and development trends forthe past decade. The reason does not appear to be a shortage of the qualityand quantity of NLG R&D, because the authors do analyze trends for the1970's and the 1980's. Are the authors hesitant to criticize theircontemporary colleagues? A blunt trends analysis would have been helpful,particularly for readers new to the field. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (11)

Very Useful Resource
I used this book throughout a Natural Language Processing course and it helped immensely. I particularly liked having the hard copy instead of the digital version especially while working on lengthy projects and trying to understand several topics.

The sections of this book are well-defined and easy to navigate due to the bolded terminology. Great code examples are given frequently, so it is easy to follow along and grasp new concepts.

One thing you may want to know is that this book is available as a digital copy from the Python website currently. Although I prefer having a hard copy, the digital copy may be right for you.

too scattershot to be really useful
If you already know what's in this book, it's probably a great book.But if you don't, it's not.

I've been programming in C and C++ for around 15 years.I taught computer science at Stanford.I write crosswords for the New York Times.Neither programming nor language is new to me.But I found it very difficult (nigh on impossible) to learn anything from this book.I couldn't learn about NLTK effectively, and I couldn't learn about Python, either.I bought the book to learn both; imagine my disappointment!

In both cases, the reason is that the book is organized from a "let's do this, let's do that" perspective.If you want to do exactly what the authors did, that's great.But if you want to do something different, it's terrible.As a representative example, exercise 2.8.13 mentions, "You can get all noun synsets using wn.all_synsets('n')."

That's great to know.But why is the only indication of a piece of useful functionality sitting inside an exercise?There needs to be a well thought-out layout: "Here are all the pieces of NLTK.Here is what each piece does.Here is what the submethods are and how they work."As it stands, if I want to do something new, I have to either write it myself or just guess as to whether it's functionality that NLTK provides.

The treatment of python is sadly similar.Python depends heavily on something called a "list comprehension".List comprehensions are used throughout the book.But their syntax, from a programming perspective, is never defined.Having read (and reread) much of this book, I can say with confidence that I still don't understand how they work.Given my programming background, I would think I would have a much better understanding having spent so much time trying to figure it out.

Again, there needs to be structure."This is what's in Python.This is what it all means, one piece at a time."

You can find this book online for free; I read it that way the first time, got confused, and figured buying a paper copy would help.Sadly, it didn't.

A great book for the practice and experiment of NLP and Text Mining
This book is ideal for people who are familiar with NLP and Text Mining and looking for a tool that can help implementing their ideas and doing experiments. Especially, it is a perfect fit for students and faculties doing research in this area. Some may complain what if I don't want to use Python. To my best knowledge and my years of experience in NLP and text mining, NLTK is by far the most complete toolkit for this task. Considering the short learning curve of Pytyon, even if you want to implement something in a different language eventually, it always be good to take a quick look at the data using the NLTK toolkit. Thanks a lot for the great contributions from the authors. I wish I had this book 6 years ago.

A great resource for computational linguistics and NLP
If you already know how to program in Python and are doing NLP projects, this book is very helpful. If you are looking to learn Python so that you can do NLP projects, you will need to first learn Python elsewhere before this resource will become useful. Example code is abundant and is well explained.

Tardy but good
The book I ordered took quite a long time to arrive, but it was in great shape when it did come. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The use of tense and narrative to realizing different curricular objectives.
College-level students of postsecondary language and teaching will find REMAPPING THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE CURRICULUM: AN APPROACH THROUGH MULTIPLE LITERACIES provides an important, in-depth coverage studying multiple genres from popular to elite to understand different frameworks for communication. Swaffar and Arens propose using template-generated exercises to lead students from basic grammar patterns to different languages' meaning and cultural usage, providing exercises which smoothly transition students from the use of tense and narrative to realizing different curricular objectives.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch ... Read more

Product Description
Undeciphered scripts have long tantalized the public, whether it’s the possibility of hearing the voices of ancient peoples or the puzzle solver’s taste for the challenges posed by breaking codes. Here, Andrew Robinson investigates the most famous examples, beginning with the stories of three great decipherments: Egyptian hieroglyphs, Maya glyphs, and the Minoan Linear B clay tablets. He then covers the important scripts that have yet to be cracked, such as the Etruscan alphabet and Rongorongo from Easter Island. 350+ color illustrations ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Makes decipherment fascinating
A great survey of attempts in modern times -- some successful, some not so much -- to decipher ancient scripts. In an entertaining and articulate way, Robinson helps the reader understand the complexities of decipherment and the methodologies that are used.

Particularly interesting is his account of Michael Ventris's decipherment of Linear B. Significant points are that Ventris was not a professional philologist -- he was an architect. But his architectural training and practices were useful to the effort -- and, rather than shutting out other investigators, Ventris was a collaborator.

Another takeaway is that in decipherment, it's important to be careful about falling in love with your early hypotheses. Robinson's book includes examples of researchers who wasted years, decades, even whole careers, chasing down red herrings.

Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World's Undeciphered Scripts

Don't try this at home!
If you are ever tempted to have a crack at deciphering an unknown ancient language, read this book and be talked out of it. The main message of this detached overview is that successfully extracting meaning from a forgotten script is a long, long, long, feat of endurance and hard work involving multiple people with a wide range of skills and a bit of luck.

Some successful decipherments such as the ancient Egyptian heiroglyphics, Linear B (perhaps the most famous) and Mayan glyphs (perhaps the most glamorous) are studied and analysed to pick out the successful strategies, after which the prospects for the main extant hidden languages (linear A, Etruscan and Rongorongo among them) are reviewed, mostly pessimistically.

The author has a mix of eye-rolling bemusement and disdain for the legions of amateur (and professional but misguided) would-be decipherers who clearly cause him much pain by invading his professional space, including a barbed plink at 'arrogant' Richard Feynman for his over-hyped claim to have deciphered Mayan glyphs unaided - when in fact as the author points out he simply deciphered the number system, which is usually the simplest part and a convenient entry into a lost script.

Fascinating book, I was a bit let down that he mentioned two of my faves - Nordic runes and the Voynich manuscript - only to say that is not going to mention them; but a good read for a certain geeky type of person, of which I am obviously one. And no I won't be rushing to announce my own decoding of Linear A any time soon

A vivid blend of scholarly analysis and history
Any collection strong in language development and linguistic history needs LOST LANGUAGES. It begins with the stories of three great decipherments - Egyptian hieroglyphs, Minoan Linear B and Mayan glyphs - and considers the remaining enigmatic scripts of the world. The latest scholarship in decipherment as well as the competition for success receives a vivid blend of scholarly analysis and history.

The Urge To Decipher
May 1953 was a newsworthy month: Francis Crick and James Watson announced their discovery of the "double helix" structure of DNA; Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first men to scale Mount Everest; and Michael Ventris's decipherment of Minoan Linear Script B, a writing system dating from the 2nd millennium BC, was proved to be correct.

As Andrew Robinson notes in his introduction, we all might have different opinions about which of the above accomplishments was the most challenging or significant, but there is no doubt that Ventris's decipherment was in the rarest class of achievement. Great feats of scientific discovery and exploration have been far more common than decipherments of lost languages.

//Lost Languages// is no dry academic exercise designed only to impress or bewilder; it is an invitation to participate in the discovery of how we have communicated to one another down through the last five millennia. He describes a discipline that bridges the sciences and the humanities. It requires the ability to see the underlying structure in what others see only as a mystery, and an appreciation, perhaps even a passion, for the history and culture of the people who created the language. I think anyone who reads this book will appreciate what Robinson has done.

Reviewed by Paul Mullinger

The challenge of a Lifetime, in a very rich edition
Deciphering ancient dead languages is one of the most fascinating challenges a man/woman can face in his/her lifetime, and the moreobstacles faced by the challenger the better. In this regard, the Frenchman mathematician Jean-François Champollion, the decipherer of the Egyptian hieroglyphs in the Rosetta Stone (the name Rosetta derives from the place Rashid in the North of Africa), the most well known block of stone in the world. Alongside with him is the British amateur archeologist and linguist Michael Ventris, who in 1953 broke the code of the so-called Minoan Linear B tablets.COntrary with what happened in the case of the Rosetta Stone, where alongside with the text to be deciphered (in demotic Egyptian and in hieroglyphics), there was not a base text (in Greek) to be confuted with. It is so not surprising that the great majority of decipherers attained its goas before reaching 30 years of age.

The feats of these two men, who depended upon the previous work of many others who trod the same paths before them, is detailed narrated in this very good book, richly illustrated with many ellucidative diagrams, graphs, drawings and pictures of alphabets, sillabarys and hieroglyphs, Egyptian inclusive. Andrew Robinson, the author of this excelent book, is in this regard extremely well equiped to present difficult subjects in a very easy manner to the lay reader like myself, who is only looking for the big picture and do not care about the multitude of details present in this type of work. The chapter on the deciphering of the Maya script by a Russian scholar is also a very informative one, in fact overflowing the reader with a lot of pertinent graphic information.

The scripts still waiting to be broken (Linear A among others and the scripts of the Easter isle) are very fascinating chapters of the book and one almost feels the urge to quit everything immediately and jump right away into the arena of deciphering dead languages.
In my opinion, this book is as good as it could be on the important subject of the decoding of the dead languages of humanity.

This edition of the book is indeed a very rich one and this is the kind of book one feels pretty much comfortable to give as a gift to friends and relatives. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
________________________________________________________________________ ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (1)

Pretty OK
This book covers only the vowels and consonants that tend to be most problematic for ESL students. It employs a well-rounded approach to pronunciation by including word stress, rhythm and intonation exercises inevery lesson. I don't use it as my primary text, however, it is a good textto use as a supplement with other, more comprehensive materials. Can beused easily without the cassette tape. ... Read more