What Is Natural Language Processing? - Machine Learning Mastery

Large data and fast computers mean that new and different things can be discovered from large datasets of text by writing and running software. In the 1990s, statistical methods and statistical machine learning began to and eventually replaced the classical top-down rule-based approaches to language, primarily because of their better results, speed, and robustness. The statistical approach to studying natural language now dominates the field; it may define the field. Data-Drive methods for natural language processing have now become so popular that they must be considered mainstream approaches to computational linguistics.