Components of language

A machine that processes natural language must first be able to categorise, ‘understand’ and process the wide variety of language components. Some of the different level of language as distinguished by Russian analysts (Zvegintsev, 1976) are:

• discourse
• sentences
• phrases
• words
• morphemes
• syllables
• phonemes
• differentiating signs

These components (listed in order of decreasing size). The last several in this list (morphemes to phonemes) are most important for understanding and replicating speech, so this research will focus mainly on discourse, sentences, phrases and words.