The Autoling System

Abstract

The AUTOLING system represents an attempt to replace the human linguist with a machine in the process of linguistic fieldwork with an informant. To the extent that the attempt succeeds, the analytic and heuristic methodology of live linguists can be considered formalized. The current system consists of three as yet unjained components: a morphological analyzer, a program for learning context-free phrase structure grammar, and a program for learning monolingual and bilingual transformations. All programs are written in ALGOL and operational on the Burroughs B-5500 computer. The capabilities of the system are illustrated with examples of its treatment of selected problems in English, Latin, Roglai, Indonesian, Thai, Chinese and German.