Title: Information retrieval systems as integration platforms for language technologies
Abstract: At one time it might have been possible to think of natural language processing, speech processing and information retrieval as separate fields, but an increasing degree of interdependence is now clearly evident. This tutorial will explore those connections from the perspective of information retrieval system design. An overarching framework for interactive retrieval will be introduced, and then specialized to describe Web search, cross-language retrieval, and retrieval from spoken word collections. These applications will then be used to illustrate the critical dependence on component technologies such as computational morphology, acquisition of translation knowledge from corpora, speaker identification, automatic speech recognition, and summarization. Information retrieval systems can offer a useful environment for extrinsic evaluation of new component capabilities, so the tutorial will conclude with a review of evaluation techniques that can help to reveal the contribution of specific components. Attendees will receive a copy of the presentation slides and recommendations for further reading on each of the major topics of the tutorial.This tutorial is designed for participants that bring expertise in one or more human language technologies. No prior exposure to information retrieval research methods is assumed.