HomeData Science & AnalyticsIntroduction to Natural Language Processing

Introduction to Natural Language Processing

Do you know what natural language processing entails? Well, NLP’s long-term objective is to provide computers with the same linguistic skills we possess. Furthermore, NLP is the engine that powers AI-powered tools like speech recognition, virtual assistants, machine translation, etc. 

Not many people know, but the NLP industry’s global estimate for 2030 is a whopping $112.28 billion. Isn’t that unbelievable? It is because NLP, with AI’s help, helps make more informed business decisions.

In this article, we will have a look at NLP’s fundamentals and the way it works, besides diving into its applications and techniques, so read on!

upgrad referral

4 Applications of NLP

Let us examine some Natural language processing examples and see how they reduce our work and efficiently finish some tedious jobs. 

1. Filtering emails

Firstly, you do know how important emails are in our everyday life. The emails you receive can be job-related or purely promotional. Moreover, in such cases, NLP comes into play as it filters and identifies the incoming mails and flags them as “spam” and important.

2. Predictive text

Besides, web searches and predictive text go hand in hand. It is an integral part of your mobile typing experience. In addition, after you have typed a few words, the keyboard suggests the next word learning from your typings. NLP’s use allows the cellphones to suggest these suggestions based on your usage and texting patterns.

3. Chatbots

One of the Natural language processing examples includes chatbots, with everything has gone digital. You get accurate and rapid responses because of the chatbots and save time. Moreover, NLP equips the chatbots with conversational skills that permit them to provide nuanced responses to customers. 

4. Text Mining

Additionally, Text mining implies the extraction of useful information from a great deal of unstructured text. It is this automated technique that makes use of NLP. Text mining automates the text classification process by intent, topic, and sentiment. How does NLP do that? By further transforming the data into comprehensible information for machines. 

Natural Language Processing Examples and Techniques 

coding

Now that you know NLP’s various applications, let us dive into some of the popular NLP techniques. Moreover, some of these techniques are interdependent and can be completed as a part of a bigger task.

1. Stemming

Similarly, stemming is one of the NLP techniques, which is more of an efficiency and pre-processing strategy. Additionally, words can be broken or “stemmed down” to their root forms for multiple purposes. Also, are you thinking as to why we need this stem? Well, you need a stem as you will encounter a word’s different variations. For instance:

“She was taking a car ride.”

She was riding a car.

Since these 2 sentences mean the same thing, the word’s use is identical.

2. Text Segmentation

To emphasize, it is one of the NLP techniques which helps to break down sentences and individual words into more manageable chunks. Depending on the language, this whole separation process of text into individual words can be a challenging task, but NLP makes it effortless. 

Advantages and Disadvantages of NLP

Advantages Disadvantages
  • Firstly, NLP allows users to query any topic and receive direct answers in a fraction of a second.
  • Secondly, NLP provides precise solutions to queries
  • Thirdly, NLP does not provide data that is not needed or sought.
  • Lastly, With NLP’s use, people and computers can converse in any language. 
  • Firstly, NLP does not show context.
  • Secondly, NLP is quite unpredictable.
  • Thirdly, You require a lot of keystrokes with NLP.
  • Finally, NLP’s utility is restricted. 

Conclusion

In conclusion and by now, you must have understood that NLP’s reach has extended to nearly every industry. So what are you waiting for? Furthermore, assist in reducing your manual labor and maximize your productivity today!

FAQs

1. What are NLP’s 5 steps?

The 5 steps of NLP include:

  • Pragmatic analysis
  • Discourse Analysis
  • Semantic Analysis
  • Syntactic Analysis
  • Lexical Analysis

Talk to Experts!

2. Where is natural language processing used?

NLP is at every tool’s core. You use them every day in either search engines, spam filters, chatbots, or voice assistants.

3. What is NLP’s working principle?

NLP uses AI to take input from the real world and further process it. Later, it makes sense of that in such a way that computers can easily understand those inputs.

Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma
Rohit Sharma is the Program Director for the UpGrad-IIIT Bangalore, PG Diploma Data Analytics Program.
RELATED ARTICLES

Title image box

Add an Introductory Description to make your audience curious by simply setting an Excerpt on this section

Get Free Consultation

Most Popular