Controlled natural language
- Controlled natural language
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Controlled natural languages (CNLs) are subsets of natural languages, obtained by restricting the grammar and vocabulary in order to reduce or eliminate ambiguity and complexity. Traditionally, controlled languages fall into two major types: those that improve readability for human readers (e.g. non-native speakers), and those that enable reliable automatic semantic analysis of the language.
The first type of languages (often called "simplified" or "technical" languages), for example ASD Simplified Technical English, Caterpillar Technical English, IBM's Easy English, are used in the industry to increase the quality of technical documentation, and possibly simplify the (semi-)automatic translation of the documentation. These languages restrict the writer by general rules such as "write short and grammatically simple sentences", "use nouns instead of pronouns", "use determiners", and "use active instead of passive".[1]
The second type of languages have a formal logical basis, i.e. they have a formal syntax and semantics, and can be mapped to an existing formal language, such as first-order logic. Thus, those languages can be used as knowledge-representation languages, and writing of those languages is supported by fully automatic consistency and redundancy checks, query answering, etc.
Contents
[edit] Languages
Existing logic-based controlled natural languages include[2]:
- Attempto Controlled English
- Common Logic Controlled English (CLCE)
- Metalog's Pseudo Natural Language (PNL)
- Ordnance Survey's Rabbit
- Processable ENGlish (PENG)
- Semantic parameterization
- Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules
- ClearTalk
Other existing controlled natural languages include:
- ASD Simplified Technical English (AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe, formerly AECMA)
- E-Prime
- Gellish
- Newspeak, the fictional language in the dystopia novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, is a controlled natural language as well as a semi-constructed language.
- Uwe Muegge's Controlled Language Optimized for Uniform Translation (CLOUT)
- Special English (Voice of America)
- Simplified Technical Russian
- EasyEnglish (Wycliffe Associates)
[edit] See also
- Constructed language
- Knowledge representation and reasoning
- Natural language processing
- Controlled vocabulary
- Postediting
- Controlled language in machine translation
[edit] References
- ^ Muegge, Uwe (2007). "Controlled language: the next big thing in translation?". ClientSide News Magazine (ClientSide Publications) 7 (7): 21–24. http://www.translationdirectory.com/articles/article1359.php.
- ^ Jonathan Pool Can Controlled Languages Scale to the Web? (2006)
[edit] Further reading
- Akis, Jennifer Wells, and William R. Sisson. (2002) Improving Translatability: A Case Study at Sun Microsystems, Inc.Globalization Insider (Localization Industry Standards Association's e-magazine).
- Kohl, John R. (2008) Language Quality-Assurance Software: Optimizing Your Documentation for a Global Audience.Intercom 55.5 (May), pp. 6–9.
- Kohl, John R. (2007) Assisted Writing and Editing at SAS. ClientSideNews Magazine 7.8 (August): 7-10.
[edit] External links
- acrolinx Information Quality Suite – Customizable controlled language checker for many authoring environments
- ASD Simplified Technical English
- Common Logic Controlled English (CLCE)
- Controlled Language Optimized for Uniform Translation (CLOUT)
- Controlled Natural Languages (Macquarie University)
- Metalog's Pseudo Natural Language (PNL)
- Ordnance Survey's Rabbit
- PERMIS Policy Editor uses controlled English in its user interface
- Processable ENGlish (PENG)
- Simplified Technical English training, software and consultancy
- Wycliffe Associates' EasyEnglish
Categories:- Constructed languages
- Natural language processing
- Language acquisition
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