FNLP: 11: Morphology

This folder introduces you to  morphology.   Morphology is the study of the structure of words.  Words are made up to stems (the dictionary bit) and affixes (morphemes that modify the meaning of the stem and/or change its grammatical category).  We will study different kinds of affixes, observe how different languages exhibit more, or less, complex and productive morphology, and we will observe some of the challenges one faces in tackling morphology in NLP applications.  We will explain how finite state transducers can be used to both parse and generate words.  This folder consists of:
  • three videos of short lectures. They cover:
    1. Introduction to Mophology
    2. A general introduction to Finite State Transducers
    3. Finite State Transducers applied to morphology.
  • some required reading from Jurafsky and Martin
  • a quiz that tests your understanding of the material presented here.
Please do the required reading, and attempt the quiz.  If there is anything you don't understand, then please ask questions in the lecture or on piazza.

Lecture 11 Slides: Whole!

11a: Introduction to Morphology


11b: Morphology: Introduction to Finite State Transducers


11c: Finite State Transducers applied to Morphology


Recommended Reading

J&M 2nd edition: 3.1--3.7.

NLTK 3.5--3.6.

NOTE: The abbreviation J&M refers to the textbook:

Dan Jurafsky and James H. Martin, Speech and Language Processing.

When we specify 2nd edition, we are referring to the version of the book that was published by Pearson International in 2008.

When we specify 3rd edition, then we will supply links to the drafts of the relevant parts of that book (since the third editiion isn't published yet, but the current draft is available here).

The abbreviation NLTK refers to the textbook:

Bird, S., E. Klein and E. Loper (2009), Natural Language Processing with Python, O'Reilly Media

An (early) online version of this book is here.

Quiz 11: Morphology

These questions are designed to test your understanding of the above course content; doing this quiz does not contribute to your overall grade.  Some questions require a text answer.  You can ask for formative feedback on these from your tutor or on piazza.  Other questions are multiple choice or they require a numeric answer: you will get immediate feedback for these. Please don't attempt this quiz until you have acquainted yourself with this lecture and the required reading.

You must be logged onto Learn to do this quiz.

License
All rights reserved The University of Edinburgh