Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a branch of computer science. It enables machines to interpret and comprehend human language in order to do various tasks. Machine translation, summarization, ticket categorization, and spell check are a few examples. The input and output of NLP systems can use both written language and speech, i.e. human language in all forms.

Within the discourse on natural language processing, you may come across these terms from general linguistics. Here are their brief definitions.

• Phonology − the study of the systematic organization of sounds.
• Morphology − the study of the composition of words from meaningful units that cannot be divided.
• Morpheme − the smallest, primitive unit of meaning in a language.
• Syntax − word arrangement in an order that makes for grammatically correct sentences. It also defines the structural function of words in sentences and phrases.
• Semantics − the study of the significations of words and their combination into meaningful phrases.
• Pragmatics − the study of interpretations of sentences in different contexts.