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I want to translate the word language in the term NLP to the Arabic language. so
I wonder, In Natural Language Processing, if the word language is countable or uncountable? whether it is plural or singular?
After searching the web, one of the main ideas to consider is of https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/language. the meaning #6 where language is countable. but I couldn't settle on a final answer.
I need some help.

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  • How does this and the comments answer below relate to Arabic? Are you presuming that words are non-count in human language iff they are non-count in English?
    – user6726
    Commented Nov 8, 2020 at 0:49
  • It means the processing of (any given) natural language, not a mass noun.
    – Luke Sawczak
    Commented Nov 8, 2020 at 18:38

1 Answer 1

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Natural Language in NLP refers to the linguistic material naturally occurring in a text, whether that is words, phrases, sentences, etc. Since NLP is not specific to a given language and not bound to one particular unit of language, I would go with it being uncountable. The Language in NLP is likely closest to definition 8 in the link you provided.

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  • thank you, but if what you have said is true, I think we would have never used natural languages to refer to multiple natural languages, right?
    – user31017
    Commented Nov 7, 2020 at 21:30
  • That's a fair point. The NLP tradition I come from certainly treats language as a bag of language units, but I may not be covering everyone's definition of Natural Language. I am unfamiliar with much of the particulars of Arabic. Since English forces most noun modifiers to be singular, there's no way to tell if underlying the meaning of NLP is a plural idea of natural languages. If Arabic has a readily available translation of Natural Languages, and one can modify the noun Processing with plural noun phrases, then that will probably suit your goal as well.
    – Rurik
    Commented Nov 7, 2020 at 21:38
  • What do you think more appropriate, Natural language texts or Natural languages texts?
    – user31017
    Commented Nov 7, 2020 at 21:55
  • The first is more appropriate, I am certain.
    – Rurik
    Commented Nov 7, 2020 at 21:58
  • In this example language is uncountable, right? taking into account that the example refer to the digital form of a natural language text
    – user31017
    Commented Nov 7, 2020 at 22:01

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