Lexical Challenges in the Intersection of Applied Linguistics and ANLP
The investigation of natural language processing in the field of Applied Linguistics is pursued with both theoretical and practical aims, such as arriving at a clearer understanding of the nature of language knowledge, the rules that govern its use, how it is acquired, how unique it is to individual speakers, and how it can best be taught to learners. The purpose of this chapter is to draw attention to some of the prominent areas of overlap between Applied Linguistics and ANLP, highlighting the problems they face in relation to the characterization of lexical deployment, and focusing particularly on challenges related to the measurement of lexical diversity and the representation of the unique lexical signatures of individual samples of natural language use. The bulk of the chapter is devoted to describing preliminary solutions to these challenges.