Computational Linguistics is at the intersection of linguistics and computer science; the field focuses on how computers and algorithms can be used to model the sounds, grammar, and meaning of human language. Professionals and researchers in computational linguistics apply computational and statistical techniques to linguistic data – in order to answer challenging questions in linguistics research and to build useful computer software and websites that intelligently process information in the form of human language.

 

With the growth of the Internet and electronic creation and storage of information, there is now a wealth of information available electronically that is in the form of texts, videos, and audio recordings of human language. However, the way in which humans represent and communicate information in the form of language is non-­‐trivial for computers to process. Because of the overload of information, the key challenge is finding ways to harness this resource – for research in linguistics or for the creation of useful computer/web applications.

Find out more at the Computational Linguistics M.A. program page.