Can computers detect sarcasm? Predict betrayal? Spot a drunk text?

Yes, all that and then some. A recent conference gave computational linguists a chance to show how sharp the cutting edge of language technology really is.

Linguist Daniel Midgley reads the articles so you don’t have to, for this episode of Talk the Talk.


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216: The Cutting Edge

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Promo

Promo with Jane Hebiton, 2015-09-08: ACL 2015

Show notes

Coding in the classroom: Python overtakes French as most popular ‘language’ in primary schools
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/coding-uk-classroom-python-overtakes-french-most-popular-language-primary-schools-1517491

WaPo: Inside the surprisingly high-stakes quest to design a computer program that ‘gets’ sarcasm online
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/08/18/inside-the-surprisingly-high-stakes-quest-to-design-a-computer-program-that-gets-sarcasm-online/

The Sarcasm Detector
http://www.thesarcasmdetector.com

The paper: Harnessing Context Incongruity for Sarcasm Detection (PDF)
http://www.aclweb.org/anthology/P/P15/P15-2124.pdf

ScienceNews: A few key signs betray betrayal
https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/culture-beaker/few-key-signs-betray-betrayal

Cornell Uni: Language analysis predicts a coming betrayal
http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/2015/08/language-analysis-predicts-coming-betrayal

STUDY: Changes in language, tone could reveal impending betrayal
http://www.diamondbackonline.com/news/study-changes-in-language-tone-could-reveal-impending-betrayal/article_a4da0a7c-50f4-11e5-80d6-030e2fec745c.html

The paper: Linguistic Harbingers of Betrayal: A Case Study on an Online Strategy Game (PDF)
http://www.aclweb.org/anthology/P/P15/P15-1159.pdf

IIT-Bombay team creates program to detect drunk text message writers http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/iit-bombay-team-creates-program-to-detect-drunk-text-message-writers/

The paper: A Computational Approach to Automatic Prediction of Drunk-Texting (PDF)
http://www.aclweb.org/anthology/P/P15/P15-2100.pdf

Paper: Modeling Argument Strength in Student Essays (PDF)
http://www.aclweb.org/anthology/P/P15/P15-1053.pdf

Paper: Automatic disambiguation of English puns (PDF)
http://www.aclweb.org/anthology/P/P15/P15-1070.pdf

Paper: Automatic Discrimination between Cognates and Borrowings (PDF)
http://www.aclweb.org/anthology/P/P15/P15-2071.pdf

All the ACL2015 papers!
http://www.aclweb.org/anthology/P/P15/

The Gayby Project
http://thegaybyproject.com/the-gayby-project/

Gayby Baby: NSW Government’s ban on screening same-sex parenting documentary sends ‘negative message’ to young people
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-08-27/gayby-baby-film-ban-sends-negative-message-to-young-people/6728098

Why banning Gayby Baby is damaging for gay families
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/why-banning-gayby-baby-is-damaging-for-gay-families/story-fnq2o7dd-1227502867783

Oh Hey There: Trisyllabic Lax
http://tristn.tumblr.com/post/81899169/english-phonology-trisyllabic-laxing

:Trisyllabic Laxing:
http://blogjam.name/sid/?page_id=3814

GLoWbE: The Corpus of Global Web-Based English
http://corpus.byu.edu/glowbe/


Image credit: http://www.aclweb.org/website_images/wRobot.png


Transcript

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