RE: New checkpoint: identifying language

I think "natural language" is the proper term for what we want.

Here are three definitions

Gregg



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natural language
n.
A human written or spoken language as opposed to a computer language.


Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language,
Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.



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natural language n : a human written or spoken language used by a
community; opposed to e.g. a computer language [syn: tongue] [ant:
artificial language]


Source: WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997 Princeton University





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natural language

<application> A language spoken or written by humans, as opposed to a
language use to program or communicate with computers. Natural language
understanding is one of the hardest problems of artificial intelligence
due to the complexity, irregularity and diversity of human language and
the philosophical problems of meaning.

Source: The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2001 Denis Howe






-- ------------------------------
Gregg C Vanderheiden Ph.D.
Professor - Human Factors
Dept of Ind. Engr. - U of Wis.
Director - Trace R & D Center
Gv@trace.wisc.edu <mailto:Gv@trace.wisc.edu>, <http://trace.wisc.edu/>
FAX 608/262-8848 
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-----Original Message-----
From: w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org [mailto:w3c-wai-gl-request@w3.org] On
Behalf Of Anne Pemberton
Sent: Friday, August 03, 2001 3:19 PM
To: Wendy A Chisholm; w3c-wai-gl@w3.org
Subject: Re: New checkpoint: identifying language

Wendy and all,

         I prefer the term natural language as opposed to human
language.
It would be absurd to have to label any changes in web language within a

page. As to the wording, is it really necessary to specify both "text"
and
"text equivalents"? Would there be someone who would put a page in
English
and all alt tags in French, such that it would have to be specified?
And,
now that I'm thinking about this issue, should we ask that the language
in
audio and multimedia be specified as well as that in text? Also, once
the
author has specified the language in metadata, and any changes in "mark
up", how is this information presented to the user? When? Before they
enter
the site? On the opening screen? Or does it matter?

                                         Anne


At 01:23 PM 8/3/01 -0400, Wendy A Chisholm wrote:
>Hello,
>
>We discussed a language checkpoint based on Gregory original proposal
>[1].  This checkpoint was added to the 26 July 2001 draft as 1.4 with
the
>following text:
>1.4 Identify the primary natural language of text and text equivalents
and
>all changes in natural language.
>
>The only issue I have heard in regards to this checkpoint is the use of

>"natural language."  Joe Clark suggests we say, "1.4 Identify the
primary
>human language of text and text equivalents and all changes in human
>language. "
>
>Does anyone disagree with Joe's proposal?
>Is everyone happy with the premise of this checkpoint?
>
>--wendy
>
>[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/w3c-wai-gl/2001AprJun/0495.html
>--
>wendy a chisholm
>world wide web consortium
>web accessibility initiative
>seattle, wa usa
>/--

Anne Pemberton
apembert@erols.com

http://www.erols.com/stevepem
http://www.geocities.com/apembert45

Received on Friday, 3 August 2001 19:11:53 UTC