Programming for Linguists: Java Technology for Language Researchers [Paperback]

Michael Hammond (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 10, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0631230424 | ISBN-13: 978-0631230427 | Edition: 1

Programming for Linguists: Java (TM) Technology for Language Researchers is a practical introduction to programming using the Java Programming Language for linguists and related language professionals.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book is for people who want to get some computing done – particularly linguists, behavioral scientists, and scholars in the humanities. I plan to recommend it to my linguistics students who want to learn about computer programming." Michael A. Covington, Artificial Intelligence Center, University of Georgia

"Here finally is an introductory Java programming book that really enables anyone interested in working with language on a computer to learn how to do it. You don't have to be a ‘language researcher' to use this book – all you need is an interest in language and a willingness to learn the craft of object-oriented programming." D. Terence Langendoen, University of Arizona

"Surprisingly readable...should be on the bookshelf of any discourse analysist even thinking about tinkering with using computers to automate some portion of their data analysis... structured and written for maximum learning and understanding of the relevance of different programming features for a linguist." Discourse Studies

From the Back Cover

Simple programming expertise is an essential part of many forms of data collection and analysis for modern linguists and related language professionals. Programming for Linguists: JavaTM Technology for Language Researchers is a practical introduction to programming using the JavaTM programming language, a full-powered language with complete graphics capability that can be run on any computer.

Programming for Linguists includes over one hundred carefully constructed sample programs that introduce new concepts simply but also accomplish tasks necessary for anyone who works with language as data. Many of these programs can be used immediately, with minimal or no modification. The text is accompanied by exercises, and all of the programs are available at http://www.u.arizona.edu/~hammond.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 1 edition (June 10, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631230424
• ISBN-13: 978-0631230427
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,010,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Of course it's for beginners, February 21, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Programming for Linguists: Java Technology for Language Researchers (Paperback)

This book is indeed for beginners - it's Java programming for linguists, not linguistics for Java programmers! It is an introduction to Java programming for people who are mainly interested in corpus linguistics and text processing rather than, say, web applets or business programming. And I think it does a decent job. So does the companion volume for Perl. I only wish there were a Python edition in the series.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Simple, but just too simple., August 6, 2005

By 

Linguist Victor - See all my reviews

This review is from: Programming for Linguists: Java Technology for Language Researchers (Paperback)

As the title of the book says, "Programming for Linguistis". The author assumes that most linguists don't have any programming experience and may not have to write a complicate program, the content is therefore very simple. However, it is just somehow too simple. Sometimes we still have to use a complex function in a easy program, whose explanation is skipped. For example, the author never explains why "-1" in "line.indexOF(word) > -1" means a word in anywhere in a line . Examples like this make people confused and cause more and more problems as learners go deeper and deeper. I believe as a linguist, we may only have write a small program sometimes, but we don't have to be an expert of Java doesn't mean that we don't have to understand it clearly. I still suggest that if you are a linguist and want to learn Java, you have to choose other Java books which is written in a clear way and then find useful examples for linguists such as searching in a text in this book.

1.0 out of 5 stars Very low level., July 28, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Programming for Linguists: Java Technology for Language Researchers (Paperback)

I think this book is intended for people with no programming experience at all. As such it was not very useful to me. Being interested in linguistics and programming for linguist I had a hard time finding real information in this book. I strongly advise not to buy this book.
Being a non-native English speaker I apologise for the errors in my writing.