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Histoire de l'automatisation des sciences du langage

Histoire de l'automatisation des sciences du langage


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History of the computerization of the language sciences

The book, dedicated to the history of the mathematization computerization of the language sciences, is in the area of the history and epistemology of the language sciences. It pertains to history of present time. Two steps can be distinguished : machine translation in the 1950s and large computerized corpora in the 1990s with the unprecedented development of computers. Early Machine Translation was devised as a war technology originating in war sciences, and was intended to provide mass translations for the strategic purposes of the cold war. Linguistics, which did not belong to war sciences, did not play any role at the beginning of Machine Translation. The book attempts to show, in a comparative approach, how the languages sciences have integrated that technology to engage in the process of the second mathematization of language which can be called the computational mathematization of language. This integration takes various forms in different cultural and linguistic traditions (USA, ex-USSR, Great Britain and France). On the opposite, large corpora are a continuation of familiar topics in the language sciences, including the study of spoken and written texts and lexis.