Review Lecture - The algorithmic description of natural language

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Abstract
Human language is a uniquely rewarding subject of psychological investigation because of the richness of its structure and its wide expressive power; and the ability to communicate in language is a skill which is possessed by almost all adult human beings. But the scientific study of language calls for appropriate modes of description; and the concept of an algorithm enables one to relate the phenomena of language to those of behaviour in general. A useful paradigm is to be found in computing science, where algorithms are expressed as programs written in specially designed languages. Like computer languages, natural languages have both a syntactic and a semantic aspect; and human utterances can be viewed as programs to be implemented by the hearer. This idea has been used for the development of computer programs with which one can converse in simple English.

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