Arabic Computational Linguistics: Potential, Pitfalls and Challenges

Abstract

Arabic computational linguistics though still relatively new is gaining pace rapidly. While the development of tools for computational linguistics in many languages has come a very long way, and progress has been achieved in creating tools for Arabic, Arabic computational linguistics are in need of much attention. It is not obvious that tools developed for, let us say, English will only need minor modifications before they can be applied to Arabic. Computational tools developed for English rely heavily on enormous work achieved in English linguistics in general, and corpus linguistics more particularly. If Arabic computational linguistics is to achieve its potential, it needs to mirror the hard work done in other languages. Researchers in Arabic computational linguistics should also fully understand the nature of the data they are working with. The present article is not a review of the field, but rather a discussion on the potential, pitfalls, and challenges of Arabic computational linguistics. We will discuss the potential of what research in this field can contribute to linguistic and pedagogical research on Arabic, we will also discuss issues related to defining what ‘Arabic (language)’ is from a linguistic point of view, the nature of the Arabic script, transcription and transliteration, and finally corpus building.