Introduction to Natural Language Processing

This lecture introduces the course on Natural Language Processing (NLP), covering the course overview, the definition of NLP, the worth of the course, applications, constraints, natural vs. formal languages, natural language functions, reasons why NLP is difficult, linguistic processing levels, and the history of NLP approaches. It delves into the evolution from traditional to modern NLP approaches, including statistical and machine learning, neural networks, and pre-trained large-scale language models. The lecture also discusses the importance of studying traditional NLP methods alongside modern ones, emphasizing the reuse of technology-independent methods. It concludes with an exploration of the challenges in NLP, such as power laws, resource constraints, and the multi-level nature of NLP processing.