Natural language
Categories: Linguistics | Computer science | Linguistics stubs
The term natural language is used to distinguish languages spoken and signed (by hand signals and facial expressions) by humans for general-purpose communication from constructs such as writing, computer-programming languages or the "languages" used in the study of formal logic, especially mathematical logic. In the philosophy of language, the term ordinary language is sometimes used as synonymous with natural (as opposed to mathematical or logical) language. Natural language is also considered a field of weak artificial intelligence. The term has been adopted to describe computer input terms and language modeled after or based on natural human languages rather than the artificial syntax and terms of computer languages, particularly in the areas of search engines or search functions.
A natural language is any language that is spoken and can be understood
Additionally, the indigenous signed languages of the world merit inclusion as natural languages owing to extensive linguistic analysis in the latter 20th century confirming their unique and consistent grammar, syntax, rules and visual logic dramatically unlike the spoken languages of the nations or geographic regions in which they arose. American, French, and British Sign Languages are the best documented examples in the literature.
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Constructed languages
Beside ethnic languages constructed languages such as Esperanto that have evolved to the point of having native speakers may also be considered natural languages. (There are estimated to be 200-2000 native speakers of Esperanto; the number of persons fluent in Esperanto is much larger.)
Written languages
Written languages are not considered natural languages because until very recently, most people could neither read nor write but were nonetheless fluent speakers of at least some spoken or signed language. Also, people pick up natural languages spontaneously as children, but have to be taught to read and write.
Computer science
Natural languages are deemed to be unsuitable for programming languages simply because they have a vast vocabulary that can be deemed infinite, complex grammatical rules and a sense of ambiguity surrounding them. Take English and French, for example. It takes many years to completely master a language, and this would have been a waste of time when dealing with computing - learning a simple yet efficient embedded language is deemed much easier.
See also
br:Yezh naturelde:Natürliche Sprache es:Lenguaje natural eo:Natura lingvo fr:Langue naturelle ko:자연어 he:שפה טבעית sw:Lugha asilia hu:Természetes nyelv ja:自然言語 pt:Linguagem natural th:ภาษาธรรมชาติ zh:自然语言