Natural Language Processing RELIES on Linguistics

Juri Opitz; Shira Wein; Nathan Schneider

doi:10.1162/coli_a_00560

Natural Language Processing RELIES on Linguistics

Juri Opitz, Shira Wein, Nathan Schneider

Correct Metadata for

Use this form to create a GitHub issue with structured data describing the correction. You will need a GitHub account. Once you create that issue, the correction will be reviewed by a staff member.

⚠️ Mobile Users: Submitting this form to create a new issue will only work with github.com, not the GitHub Mobile app.

Important: The Anthology treat PDFs as authoritative. Please use this form only to correct data that is out of line with the PDF. See our corrections guidelines if you need to change the PDF.

Title Adjust the title. Retain tags such as <fixed-case>.

Authors Adjust author names and order to match the PDF.

Abstract Correct abstract if needed. Retain XML formatting tags such as <tex-math>. You may use <b>...</b> for bold, <i>...</i> for italic, and <url>...</url> for URLs.

Verification against PDF Ensure that the new title/authors match the snapshot below. (If there is no snapshot or it is too small, consult the PDF.)

Authors concatenated from the text boxes above:

ALL author names match the snapshot above—including middle initials, hyphens, and accents.

Abstract

Large Language Models have become capable of generating highly fluent text in certain languages, without modules specially designed to capture grammar or semantic coherence. What does this mean for the future of linguistic expertise in NLP? We highlight several aspects in which NLP (still) relies on linguistics, or where linguistic thinking can illuminate new directions. We argue our case around the acronym RELIES, which encapsulates six major facets where linguistics contributes to NLP: Resources, Evaluation, Low-resource settings, Interpretability, Explanation, and the Study of language. This list is not exhaustive, nor is linguistics the main point of reference for every effort under these themes; but at a macro level, these facets highlight the enduring importance of studying machine systems vis-à-vis systems of human language.

Anthology ID:: 2025.cl-3.9
Volume:: Computational Linguistics, Volume 51, Issue 3 - September 2025
Month:: September
Year:: 2025
Address:: Cambridge, MA
Venue:: CL
SIG:
Publisher:: MIT Press
Note:
Pages:: 1009–1032
Language:
URL:: https://aclanthology.org/2025.cl-3.9/
DOI:: 10.1162/coli_a_00560
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):: Juri Opitz, Shira Wein, and Nathan Schneider. 2025. Natural Language Processing RELIES on Linguistics. Computational Linguistics, 51(3):1009–1032.
Cite (Informal):: Natural Language Processing RELIES on Linguistics (Opitz et al., CL 2025)
Copy Citation:
PDF:: https://aclanthology.org/2025.cl-3.9.pdf

PDF Cite Search Fix data

Export citation

BibTeX
MODS XML
Endnote
Preformatted

@article{opitz-etal-2025-natural,
    title = "Natural Language Processing {RELIES} on Linguistics",
    author = "Opitz, Juri  and
      Wein, Shira  and
      Schneider, Nathan",
    journal = "Computational Linguistics",
    volume = "51",
    number = "3",
    month = sep,
    year = "2025",
    address = "Cambridge, MA",
    publisher = "MIT Press",
    url = "https://aclanthology.org/2025.cl-3.9/",
    doi = "10.1162/coli_a_00560",
    pages = "1009--1032",
    abstract = "Large Language Models have become capable of generating highly fluent text in certain languages, without modules specially designed to capture grammar or semantic coherence. What does this mean for the future of linguistic expertise in NLP? We highlight several aspects in which NLP (still) relies on linguistics, or where linguistic thinking can illuminate new directions. We argue our case around the acronym RELIES, which encapsulates six major facets where linguistics contributes to NLP: Resources, Evaluation, Low-resource settings, Interpretability, Explanation, and the Study of language. This list is not exhaustive, nor is linguistics the main point of reference for every effort under these themes; but at a macro level, these facets highlight the enduring importance of studying machine systems vis-{\`a}-vis systems of human language."
}

Download as File

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<modsCollection xmlns="http://www.loc.gov/mods/v3">
<mods ID="opitz-etal-2025-natural">
    <titleInfo>
        <title>Natural Language Processing RELIES on Linguistics</title>
    </titleInfo>
    <name type="personal">
        <namePart type="given">Juri</namePart>
        <namePart type="family">Opitz</namePart>
        <role>
            <roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">author</roleTerm>
        </role>
    </name>
    <name type="personal">
        <namePart type="given">Shira</namePart>
        <namePart type="family">Wein</namePart>
        <role>
            <roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">author</roleTerm>
        </role>
    </name>
    <name type="personal">
        <namePart type="given">Nathan</namePart>
        <namePart type="family">Schneider</namePart>
        <role>
            <roleTerm authority="marcrelator" type="text">author</roleTerm>
        </role>
    </name>
    <originInfo>
        <dateIssued>2025-09</dateIssued>
    </originInfo>
    <typeOfResource>text</typeOfResource>
    <genre authority="bibutilsgt">journal article</genre>
    <relatedItem type="host">
        <titleInfo>
            <title>Computational Linguistics</title>
        </titleInfo>
        <originInfo>
            <issuance>continuing</issuance>
            <publisher>MIT Press</publisher>
            <place>
                <placeTerm type="text">Cambridge, MA</placeTerm>
            </place>
        </originInfo>
        <genre authority="marcgt">periodical</genre>
        <genre authority="bibutilsgt">academic journal</genre>
    </relatedItem>
    <abstract>Large Language Models have become capable of generating highly fluent text in certain languages, without modules specially designed to capture grammar or semantic coherence. What does this mean for the future of linguistic expertise in NLP? We highlight several aspects in which NLP (still) relies on linguistics, or where linguistic thinking can illuminate new directions. We argue our case around the acronym RELIES, which encapsulates six major facets where linguistics contributes to NLP: Resources, Evaluation, Low-resource settings, Interpretability, Explanation, and the Study of language. This list is not exhaustive, nor is linguistics the main point of reference for every effort under these themes; but at a macro level, these facets highlight the enduring importance of studying machine systems vis-à-vis systems of human language.</abstract>
    <identifier type="citekey">opitz-etal-2025-natural</identifier>
    <identifier type="doi">10.1162/coli_a_00560</identifier>
    <location>
        <url>https://aclanthology.org/2025.cl-3.9/</url>
    </location>
    <part>
        <date>2025-09</date>
        <detail type="volume"><number>51</number></detail>
        <detail type="issue"><number>3</number></detail>
        <extent unit="page">
            <start>1009</start>
            <end>1032</end>
        </extent>
    </part>
</mods>
</modsCollection>

Download as File

%0 Journal Article
%T Natural Language Processing RELIES on Linguistics
%A Opitz, Juri
%A Wein, Shira
%A Schneider, Nathan
%J Computational Linguistics
%D 2025
%8 September
%V 51
%N 3
%I MIT Press
%C Cambridge, MA
%F opitz-etal-2025-natural
%X Large Language Models have become capable of generating highly fluent text in certain languages, without modules specially designed to capture grammar or semantic coherence. What does this mean for the future of linguistic expertise in NLP? We highlight several aspects in which NLP (still) relies on linguistics, or where linguistic thinking can illuminate new directions. We argue our case around the acronym RELIES, which encapsulates six major facets where linguistics contributes to NLP: Resources, Evaluation, Low-resource settings, Interpretability, Explanation, and the Study of language. This list is not exhaustive, nor is linguistics the main point of reference for every effort under these themes; but at a macro level, these facets highlight the enduring importance of studying machine systems vis-à-vis systems of human language.
%R 10.1162/coli_a_00560
%U https://aclanthology.org/2025.cl-3.9/
%U https://doi.org/10.1162/coli_a_00560
%P 1009-1032

Download as File

Markdown (Informal)

[Natural Language Processing RELIES on Linguistics](https://aclanthology.org/2025.cl-3.9/) (Opitz et al., CL 2025)

Natural Language Processing RELIES on Linguistics (Opitz et al., CL 2025)

ACL

Juri Opitz, Shira Wein, and Nathan Schneider. 2025. Natural Language Processing RELIES on Linguistics. Computational Linguistics, 51(3):1009–1032.