Finite-state methods and models in natural language processing

Abstract

For the past two decades, specialised events on finite-state methods have been successful in presenting interesting studies on natural language processing to the public through journals and collections. The FSMNLP workshops have become well-known among researchers and are now the main forum of the Association for Computational Linguistics' (ACL) Special Interest Group on Finite-State Methods (SIGFSM). The current issue on finite-state methods and models in natural language processing was planned in 2008 in this context as a response to a call for special issue proposals. In 2010, the issue received a total of sixteen submissions, some of which were extended and updated versions of workshop papers, and others which were completely new. The final selection, consisting of only seven papers that could fit into one issue, is not fully representative, but complements the prior special issues in a nice way. The selected papers showcase a few areas where finite-state methods have less than obvious and sometimes even groundbreaking relevance to natural language processing (NLP) applications.