[plt-scheme] Natural Language parsing in CS1

On 2 Jun 2009, at 13:51, Shriram Krishnamurthi wrote:
>> I think Todd's exercise is a decent introduction to parsing, and an
>> understanding of this is vital to see why strict symbolic
>> grammar-and-parser approaches do not scale.
>
> ...if that is the point to the exercise.  Otherwise you will have
> another generation of students thinking this is how NL is parsed, and
> will be in no position whatsoever to appreciate how something like
> Babelfish works.  (YC's message, where he effectively says he has read
> multiple AI books that mentioned NLP and yet they all left him
> unprepared to understand Eli's message, is telling.)

Granted. I clearly missed something stating that this was for an intro  
to programming course, and wouldn't advocate teaching the "NL as  
formal language" approach as anything other than a precursor to a more  
detailed study of parsing.

Cheers,
D