Introduction to Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Natural Language Processing

Abstract

Natural Language Processing (NLP) historically includes contributions from different research fields: linguistics, formal language theory, logics, and Machine Learning. Lately, however, the rise of Deep Learning and its application to Neural Networks added to NLP a new and powerful battery of models and approaches. Such models proved to be so effective that the accuracy of any NLP task improved like never before. Thus, nowadays, these techniques are an essential starting point for any modern introduction to NLP. This chapter is a brief and gentle introduction to Machine Learning, with a particular focus on Deep Learning and its application to NLP. The aim is not to provide a comprehensive guide to such techniques, but to give some basic elements and nomenclature, which can help the reader in understanding the rest of the book.