22 The Linguist Vol/61 No/5
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In their mother tongue, they know that an
emphasis on a certain phrase indicates not
horror, as may appear at first, but surprise. So
having only computing specialists on the team
is not sufficient; it is vital to utilise professionals
who operate in multiple languages and
have a developed understanding of cross-
cultural communication.
Conversational technologies
Any device or product that uses conversational
technology requires experts with an
understanding of the human conversations
that the AI is trying to replicate. Machine
learning has not yet been able to fully grasp
lexical or conversational ambiguity in natural
language input, but professionals with a
background in theoretical linguistics can
apply their knowledge of theories to help the
computers deal with this.
Consider Grice's cooperative principle,
which states that we can achieve mutual
conversational ends by abiding by the maxims
of quantity (provide just enough information),
quality (provide only true information),
relation (provide relevant information) and
manner (organise the information in a clear
and orderly way).
3
This principle can tell the
AI how it should analyse written or spoken
language input from humans, improving its
ability to process user queries and derive the
exact problem to be solved.
Knowing that these are the rules that
humans expect from conversations makes it
easier to program natural-sounding, logical
responses. This is the job of conversational
designers, who produce a workflow for
products such as chatbots and voice
assistants, considering both the needs of the
user and the limitations of the technology.
People who work in multiple languages
have a rare ability to understand conversations
on a technical level. They already play a
crucial role in AI, for both ASR and
conversational technologies. The field of
computational linguistics is rapidly growing,
and is now offered as an undergraduate and
a postgraduate degree at some universities.
The opportunities for professional linguists
are increasing. If you're looking to diversify,
engagement with the industry is a good
place to start. Not every role demands
technical programming knowledge, but for
those looking to gain these skills, websites
such as Udemy and Coursera provide
beginner courses (search for 'natural
language processing', 'computational
linguistics' or 'conversational AI').
You can also read newsletters such as
Medium's 'Conversational AI',
4
complete
courses such as Women in Voice's 'Career
Accelerator' (which is open to anyone), and
network at conferences like VOICE
(voicesummit.ai). The novelty of the field
means there is not yet a standard UK
qualification. But as AI technologies become
ever more present in our lives, it is time for
linguists to grasp the opportunities available
in this exciting field.
Notes
1 Albudoor, N and Peña, E D (2022) 'Identifying
Language Disorder in Bilingual Children
Using Automatic Speech Recognition'. In Journal
of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 65,7
2 Saito, K et al (2022) 'Automated Assessment
of Second Language Comprehensibility: Review,
training, validation, and generalization studies'.
In Studies in Second Language Acquisition,
March 2022, 1-30
3 Grice, P (1975) 'Logic and conversation'. In
Cole, P and Morgan, J Syntax and semantics,
New York: Academic Press, 3, 41-58
4 tinyurl.com/MediumNews
EXCITING OPPORTUNITIES
Working with speech recognition software
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