Abstract
In this paper we describe two quite different philosophies used in developing controlled languages (CLs): A "naturalist" approach, in which CL interpretation is treated as a simpler form of full natural language processing; and a "formalist" approach, in which the CL interpretation is “deterministic” (context insensitive) and the CL is viewed more as an English-like formal specification language. Despite the philosophical and practical differences, we suggest that a synthesis can be made in which a deterministic core is embedded in a naturalist CL, and illustrate this with our own controlled language CPL.
In the second part of this paper we present a fictitious debate between an ardent “naturalist” and an ardent “formalist”, each arguing their respective positions, to illustrate the benefits and tradeoffs of these different philosophies in an accessible way.
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Clark, P., Murray, W.R., Harrison, P., Thompson, J. (2010). Naturalness vs. Predictability: A Key Debate in Controlled Languages. In: Fuchs, N.E. (eds) Controlled Natural Language. CNL 2009. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 5972. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14418-9_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-14418-9_5
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